Matthew 23:10

These words open the last long public teaching Jesus gives in Matthew’s Gospel. He is in Jerusalem, most likely in the temple courts, days before his crucifixion, and he has just come through a series of confrontations (Matthew 21–22). The chief priests and elders questioned his authority, the Pharisees tried to trap him over tribute to Caesar, and the Sadducees challenged him about the resurrection. He answered and silenced each of them. Tóte, “then”, is a time word: once the questions are over, Jesus speaks about the questioners. What begins here runs on through the woes of Matthew 23 and ends with his lament over Jerusalem (Matthew 23:37–39).

“Spake” is laléō, the ordinary verb for talking or uttering words. The weight of what follows comes from the one who speaks. He has two audiences. The “multitude”, óchlos, is a throng of ordinary people, many of them pilgrims gathered for the Passover alongside the people of the city, and many had seen his miracles and heard him teach. The “disciples”, mathētḗs, are learners or pupils, those who had committed themselves to learning from Jesus and following his way.

The crowd held the scribes and Pharisees in honour for their strict keeping of the Law and its traditions, so Jesus warns them in public against following blind guides. His disciples, who would carry on his work, learn at the same time what leadership among God’s people looks like. He had warned before against false prophets (Matthew 7:15), had told his disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees (Luke 12:1), and had set the commandment of God against their tradition (Matthew 15:1–9). Here the warning is gathered into one discourse.

The scribes, grammateús, take their name from gramma, a letter or writing. They were trained men who copied and interpreted the Law of Moses, the legal experts of their day, and they often served as advisers and judges. The Pharisees, Pharisaîos, a name of Hebrew origin meaning “a separatist”, were a sect known for their zeal for the written Law and for the oral traditions they held to be equally binding, and they had great influence with the common people.

They “sit”, kathízō, a verb meaning to sit down or to seat, and also to appoint or to settle in a place. To sit in a seat is to hold the office that goes with it. “Moses’ seat” is the place of authority to read and expound the Law, a line of teaching reaching back to the lawgiver. Stone seats have been found in some synagogues of the Roman and Byzantine periods, at Chorazin and at Delos, and the phrase may name such a chair. Either way it stands for the teaching office. God had given Israel priests and judges to decide hard cases under the Law (Deuteronomy 17:8–13), and Jesus acknowledges that these men hold a real place of teaching before he says a word about their conduct.

That order matters for everything that follows. Jesus separates the office from the people who hold it. The office is real, and the people in it are answerable for how they live.

Above every teacher in Moses’ seat stands the one Moses himself promised, a prophet like him whom God would raise up (Deuteronomy 18:15). When Jesus finished the teaching of Matthew 5–7, the crowds were astonished that he taught with authority, unlike their scribes (Matthew 7:28–29).

“All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do” follows from the seat: because they teach the Law of Moses, what they bid from it is to be kept. “Bid” is épō, to speak or say, by word or in writing, so it is their spoken instruction that Jesus has in view. “Observe” is tēréō, from a word for a watch, meaning to guard something by keeping an eye on it, and so to keep a command carefully. “Observe and do” joins hearing to obedience.

“But do not ye after their works” turns to their conduct. “Works” is érgon, toil or an act, their deeds and way of life. “After”, katá, means “according to”, so their lives are to be no pattern for anyone. The reason closes the verse: “for they say, and do not.” That is the charge at the centre of the whole chapter. They speak God’s commands and leave them undone, and their words and deeds have come apart.

Verse 4 shows what “they say, and do not” looks like in practice. “Bind” is desmeúō, to tie on a load, the way a pack is fastened onto an animal, and also to put a prisoner in chains. The burdens are “heavy”, barýs, weighty and hard to bear. “Burdens”, phortíon, is a small form of the word for freight, a load, and figuratively a task. “Grievous to be borne” is dysbástaktos, built from a prefix meaning hard and a word meaning to carry, so the load is hard to carry. The leaders “lay them on men’s shoulders”, where a heavy load is carried, so the whole weight falls on ordinary people trying to live rightly.

Then comes the sting: “they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.” The verb is thélō, to will or wish, with ou, “not”, and kinéō, to stir or move. They are unwilling to stir the load at all. A finger, dáktylos, is the least effort a person could make, and they hold back even that. They exempt themselves from what they impose, and they give no help to those who carry it.

The burdens are the great body of oral tradition and interpretation the scribes and Pharisees had built up, sometimes called a “fence around the Law” (in Jewish usage, Halakha), meant to keep people from breaking the commandments. Over time the rules multiplied until they reached into every part of life, from the Sabbath to tithing and ritual purity, and human tradition was raised above the intent of God’s commands. The Law itself is good. Paul calls it holy, just and good (Romans 7:12), and Jesus sums it up as love for God and love for one’s neighbour (Matthew 22:37–40).

Luke records the same charge against the lawyers (Luke 11:46). At the council in Jerusalem, Peter spoke of a yoke that neither the fathers nor his own generation had been able to bear (Acts 15:10), and Paul tells believers to stand fast in the liberty with which Christ has made them free (Galatians 5:1). Against the heavy loads of this verse stands Jesus’ own invitation: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28–30).

“But all their works they do for to be seen of men.” “Works” is érgon again, the same word as in verse 3, and here it covers their whole religious life, their prayers, their giving and their keeping of ritual. “Seen” is theáomai, to look closely at or behold. Their deeds are done in order to be watched, and their real audience is the people around them.

Jesus gives two examples. “Phylacteries”, phylaktḗrion, comes from a verb meaning to guard or keep, and it names a guard-case holding slips of Scripture. These were small leather boxes, tefillin, holding passages of the Law and worn on the forehead and the arm during prayer, a way of keeping the commands that God’s words be a sign on the hand and between the eyes (Exodus 13:9, Exodus 13:16, Deuteronomy 6:8, Deuteronomy 11:18). The Greek word was also used of an amulet or charm. The “borders of their garments” are the tassels, tzitzit, that God commanded on the corners of Israel’s clothing, with a thread of blue, to remind his people to keep his commandments and be holy (Numbers 15:38–39, Deuteronomy 22:12). The leaders made the boxes broad and the tassels long, so that what God gave as a reminder of his law became a display of their own devotion.

Jesus had already taught that giving, prayer and fasting are to be done in secret, before the Father who sees in secret (Matthew 6:1–18). He asked how people can believe who receive honour from one another and seek no honour from God (John 5:44). He told the Pharisees, “Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts” (Luke 16:15), and he applied to them Isaiah’s word about a people who honour God with their lips while their heart is far from him (Matthew 15:8). Paul asked whether he was seeking to please men or God (Galatians 1:10). The LORD told Samuel that man looks on the outward appearance and the LORD looks on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).

Verses 6 and 7 move from what the leaders do to what they “love”. The verb is philéō, the word for personal attachment and fondness. Their affection is set on honour.

The “uppermost rooms at feasts” are the prōtoklisía, literally the first reclining place at the dinner couch. Guests at a banquet reclined on couches around the table, and the most honoured places were kept for the host and his chief guests, so where a man lay showed his rank. The “chief seats in the synagogues” are the prōtokathedría, the sitting first, in the front row, a word also used for preeminence in a council. These seats were at the front, facing the congregation, near the ark where the scrolls of the Law were kept, and they were the most visible places in the room. Jesus told a parable about guests who chose the chief rooms at a wedding and were moved down, and he told his hearers to take the lowest place (Luke 14:7–11).

Verse 7 follows that love of honour out into the street. “Greetings”, aspasmós, from a verb meaning to embrace or salute, were the bows and words of respect a scribe or Pharisee received in public. “Markets” is agorá, the town square, a place of public resort, a market or thoroughfare. It was the busy heart of a city, where trade, social life and legal business went on, so a greeting there was given before everyone.

They loved to be “called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.” Rhabbí comes from Hebrew and means “my master” or “my great one”, from rav, “great one”. It was a title of high honour for a teacher of the Law, carrying learning, spiritual authority and moral leadership. The KJV gives the title twice, and the repeated word catches the eagerness with which they welcomed it. When the disciples asked who was greatest in the kingdom, Jesus set a little child among them and said that whoever humbles himself as this child is the greatest (Matthew 18:1–4).

At verse 8 Jesus turns from the leaders to his own followers: “But be not ye called Rabbi.” The disciples are to refuse the title the Pharisees loved. The reason follows at once: “for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.”

“Master” here is kathēgētḗs, a guide or teacher, built from a word meaning to lead. It is a general word, and this passage applies it to Christ as the one Master of his people. “Brethren” is adelphós, brother. Since Christ is the one Master, everyone under him stands on the same ground before him, as members of one family. Paul writes that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female, “for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28), and he calls the church to keep the unity of one body under “One God and Father of all” (Ephesians 4:1–6). Every believer has access to the one Master, and the leaders in the church are servants among brothers.

“But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.” “But” is dé, a connective that here marks the contrast with the honour-seeking of the verses before. “Greatest” is meízōn, the comparative of the word for large or mighty, meaning “greater”, whether in size or in rank. “Servant” is diákonos, an attendant, someone who waits at table or does menial work. Strong’s links it, probably, to an old verb meaning to run errands, though the origin of the word is uncertain, and the English “deacon” comes from it. “Shall be” sets the rule of Christ’s kingdom: whoever stands highest among his people is the one who serves them.

The disciples had argued on the road about which of them was the greatest, and Jesus told them that anyone who wanted to be first must be last of all and servant of all (Mark 9:33–35). When James and John asked for the chief places, he told the others that whoever would be great among them must be their minister, “Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:25–28). On his last night he washed his disciples’ feet, the task of the lowest servant, and told them that since he, their Master and Lord, had done it, they should do as he had done (John 13:1–17).

“And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.” “Exalt” is hypsóō, to raise high or lift up. “Himself” is heautoû, the ordinary reflexive pronoun. “Abased” and “humble” are the same verb, tapeinóō, to bring low or make humble. The proud man lifts himself up and is brought low, and the humble man brings himself low and is lifted up.

The two outcomes are spoken in the passive, “shall be abased” and “shall be exalted”, and God is the one who does both. He brings down those who raise themselves, and he lifts up those who take the low place, in his own time and in the honour of his kingdom, whatever people see now. Peter quotes the same truth: “God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble,” and so he tells believers to humble themselves under God’s mighty hand, that he may exalt them in due time (1 Peter 5:5–6). James says the same (James 4:10).

Jesus spoke this saying more than once. He gave it at the end of his teaching about choosing places at a feast (Luke 14:11), and after the parable of the Pharisee and the publican, where the publican who prayed for mercy went home justified (Luke 18:14). It belongs with his word that the last shall be first and the first last (Matthew 20:16). Here it closes the opening part of Matthew 23, and it passes sentence on everything in verses 5 to 7.

Everything Jesus asks in these verses he did himself. He came to fulfil the Law and the prophets (Matthew 5:17), and he told his disciples that their righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 5:20). He sought his Father’s glory and his own glory he left to the Father (John 8:50). He is the good shepherd who gives his life for the sheep (John 10:11), where the leaders of verse 4 would lift no finger for theirs.

Paul traces the path of verse 12 in Christ himself. He “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men”, and humbled himself to death on a cross (Philippians 2:5–8). “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:9–11). He endured the cross and despised its shame for the joy set before him (Hebrews 12:2). He became a curse for us to redeem us from the curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13), and he is a High Priest who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities (Hebrews 4:15). The leaders laid burdens on others, and Christ carried the heaviest burden of all for his people.

This passage shows us a Lord who sees the heart. Every work done for the eyes of others is plain to him, and so is every quiet service done for his sake. It shows us a Father in heaven who is Father to all his people alike, and a Master who leads by washing feet and giving his life. Under him no believer is a lesser member of the family, and no leader is more than a brother who serves.

The passage also gives us a promise. God himself brings down the proud and lifts up the humble, so the low place taken for Christ’s sake is safe in his hands. And in place of the heavy burdens of verse 4, Jesus offers his own yoke, which is easy, and his own burden, which is light, to everyone who comes to him.