Matthew 23:1-4–Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation

Posted by Seth on Apr 19, 2010 in Bible Study, Daily Devotions |

Matthew 23:1-4–Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation

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Welcome to today’s Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation covering Matthew 23:1-4 wherein we are brought back to the need for right preaching and practicing.

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so practice and observe whatever they tell you—but not what they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.

It’s pretty easy to preach true things. I don’t necessarily mean that sermons are easy to deliver, but that most of us tend to excel at speaking, even getting worked up and passionate about certain issues, far more than actually putting those things into practice. Part of the reason that this is easy to do in the church is that we have an authority to point to that people accept as good and right: the Bible. We get good feelings inside over knowing and saying things that line up with it, and well we should. Jesus indeed said to practice and observe the teaching (or preaching) that they received from even the the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees because the Scripture contained wonderful truth to hold on to. So ultimately, the Word of God itself does not lose an ounce of authority no matter what type of person upholds it before others. We need to remember that because the finest of men in church leadership may let us down through choices that they make.

With all of that said however, Jesus did not let the teachers of His day off the hook; these verses were actually only the beginning of an all-out verbal slaughter that He would soon bring to their ears. The scribes and Pharisees knew the Scriptures well in terms of being able to teach them to others, but they didn’t know them much at all when it came to living out what they had studied. O how Christian leaders (and ultimately anyone who has Christian influence, namely, all believers) need to hear this message from our Lord! The religious leaders had developed some sort of philosophy that they, because of the honorable position that they were in, had the right both to be exempt from activities of obedience and to act as deliverers of extra burdens to the congregation. It was not enough for them to simply regurgitate the Word of God, for they wanted to be sure to beat down any potential threat that could arise from those under their counsel. I would imagine that sometimes this was done subtly and with a manufactured air of wisdom and kindness, but Jesus wasn’t fooled. He knew that such actions actually served to shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces (V. 13). This is the great difference between working to preserve ritual and personal position verses doing everything that is possible to open up the door for people to feast on the glories of the Lord. But be careful with this, for many are running with such an idea while leaving the truth behind. This is a grave error that happens both in the arenas of legalism and liberalism. We must observe form and positions of authority in the church because the written Truth instructs us in such. Let us get into and daily meditate on what God has so graciously given to us; let us continually introduce the burden-freeing Jesus to others with hands engaged in works of blessing, beginning today.

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