Matthew 23:1-3

24 From their subsequent course (Act_23:8), it is evident that the Sadducees were not convinced. Their difficulty was deeper. It was in the heart. Though they could not answer, they could refuse to believe.

35 The Pharisees had failed in fixing a political crime on Him. Now they try to involve Him in a theological heresy, which, to the Jews, was even worse. That He claimed to be the Messiah was bad, but not so blasphemous as calling Himself the Son of God. The expounder of the law hoped to get Him to convict Himself by quoting the first of the ten commandments, especially, “You shall have no other gods above My face” (Exo_20:3). Or, at least the great rubric, “Hear, O Israel: Jehovah, our God, is one Jehovah!” (Deu_6:4). He does not ask for the second greatest. The Lord significantly omits this and gives him the following precept: “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might” (Deu_6:5). They were prepared to do this in their own way by hating and killing Him. But He forestalls their deduction by quoting another passage which utterly frustrated their argument.

37-40 Compare Mar_12:29-34; Deu_6:5.

39 See Lev_19:18.

41-46 Compare Mar_12:35-37; Luk_20:39-44.

42 He now confutes the fanatical element in their monotheism by showing them that they did not even know Whose Son Christ is! Had they known, they would not have accused Him of blasphemy when He claimed to be the Son of God. David, whose son the Messiah was to be, knew better than they, for he called Him his Adon, or Lord. If Christ was merely David's son, he assuredly would not call Him by such a title. Who could there be who was so far above David, yet seated at Jehovah's right hand? They had no room for Him in their theology. But He was in their Scriptures. The Pharisees, also, are muzzled. They did not even know that the God of their Scriptures was not the invisible Deity, but His Image (Col_1:15), not the One Whose voice is inaudible to human ears, but His Word (Joh_1:1), or Expression. Their Messiah was the Elohim Whom they feared, the Jehovah Whom they reverenced, the Adonai Whom they claimed to serve.

44 Compare Psa_110:1.

1 Though the Sadducees were probably included in the term scribes, the Pharisees are especially singled out for this final denunciation. For a hundred and fifty years they had enjoyed the highest respect of the populace because of their zeal and rigid observance of the law of Moses. The Sadducees were comparatively few and lacking in influence. It is highly significant that our Lord seldom spoke harshly of the common people. He did not blame the sheep, but the shepherds. In so far as the Pharisees followed the teaching of Moses our Lord did not censure them, but rather because they did not burden themselves with the observance of the law, but shifted it to the shoulders of others. Their whole religion consisted in self-adulation. It is highly important that we should recognize the fact, that our Lord's woes were not directed against the vice and immorality and crime in the lower levels of the social scale. He did not denounce the corruption in politics, and the oppression and rapacity of rulers. The worst offenders, in His anointed eyes, were the acknowledged religious leaders, those who made the strongest protestations of serving God. It is ever thus. The most heinous criminals are not those who make no pretense of serving Him, but those who make a great profession.

2 See Neh_8:4-8; Mal_2:7.

4 See Luk_11:46.

4 Bad as the doctrine of the Pharisees was, their deportment was worse. The Lord now turns from their precepts to warn against their practices.

5-14 Compare Mar_12:38-40; Luk_20:45-47.

5 See Deu_6:6-8; Deu_22:12; Num_15:37-41.

6 See Luk_11:43.

11 See Mat_20:25-28.

11 The constant aim of the Pharisees was to receive from men the recognition to which they considered themselves entitled.

13 See Luk_11:52

13 Our Lord commenced His ministry with a nine-fold benediction on the poor, the mourners, the meek, those who are hungering and thirsting for righteousness, the merciful, the cleanhearted, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted on account of righteousness, and those reproached falsely on His account (Mat_5:3-11). Where is there the slightest feature of the Pharisees in these beatitudes? They were as unlike all this as they could be. Hence He closes His ministry with seven maledictions on the hypocrites who hinder others from entering the kingdom, who proselyte for their own party, who elevate that which is hallowed above that which hallows, who distort the proportions of God's precepts, who cleanse the outside but leave the inside full of filth, who outwardly appear just, but are lawless within, who feign themselves more righteous than their progenitors, yet excel them in iniquity.

13 The kingdom of the heavens was locked at that time, not to be opened until Peter uses the keys entrusted to him, on the day of Pentecost. Then once more the Pharisees and scribes lock the kingdom by refusing the testimony of the apostles. It is locked now. It will not be opened until Christ comes again in glory.