Matthew 23:1-39
23:1 Jesus has a message for the disciples and for the multitudes of people who loved to gather and learn from Him. We, of course, can learn from and apply to our own lives what Jesus is about to teach.
After the Sadducees, Pharisees and scribes are continually shut down by Jesus -- He really means business and He has a strong message against them. He's had enough of their games against Him but more than that, He's angered and tired of their games against the children of God. He's going to expose them, in this 23rd chapter, as the greedy and deceptive leaders they are.
23:2 The scribes and the Pharisees are sitting in the societal, higher-authority place where Moses used to sit. They took over the position so that they could have power and control but they did not took over the message of God Moses taught. People were confused and corrupted by this. It happens today as well: In many countries and churches, people who are teachers of multitudes, teach neglectful and sometimes corrupted messages. However, because these people have positions of authority, their followers often trust what they are saying and are therefore led astray from what God wants them to know. You must be aware and vigilant for people who abuse their power or their stage.
23:3 Jesus is saying that while we do have to participate in our society (often to stay in it and survive), we should not adopt the behavior of corrupt presidents or church officials.
23:4 Jesus is warning that many people with authority will command you to be fair, honest and kind even they themselves are not honest, fair or kind. Many people in positions of authority use their power to deceive and create unjust governments. They are hypocrites and Jesus does not want you to be victims of their hypocrisy.
23:5 These people in authority know how to play their game in tricking people -- they make their tools fancy, their clothes elegant and awe-inspiring. They want to trick you into believing that they are special, extraordinarily holy -- but you should know that God loves and favors the humble. The grand gestures of corrupt authoritarians are strategic, meant to convince you to listen to them, to fear them, to revere them. You revere only God --who protects you and leads you away from these awful people.
23:6 Jesus is teaching you to be observant. These messages are powerful, important and instructive to you if you become observant. Notice that, observe that, people in positions of power (both in government and in church) are surrounded by grand architecture, wardrobe, technology, vehicles... everything around them is an expression of their wealth instead of an expression of God's word.
This is where you can go deeper with your observations: How did Jesus teach? How did Jesus exemplify leadership and authority? (Which as the Son of God He surely has.) Jesus was humble. Jesus taught in open-air, among people and nature. His word did not require ornate buildings or even any money at all.
When a person or entity or public figure has your best interest at heart, they won't use fancy words, they won't drive fancy cars -- they will be simple, succinct and humble. However, so many get trapped within the hierarchy of churches and governments and because of that, they become entrapped by wealth, power and control.
Jesus did not need to convince people with anything but the TRUTH, the PROTECTION and WISDOM from God. He retreated into natural settings when He wanted to pray; Jesus found comfort in God's creations not man's.
23:7 These people even give themselves titles. They require that they are called by official names which speak of their position in authority. Their desire is to be powerful not be helpful. You must be able to discern the difference between the humble and the proud.
23:8 Jesus wants you to remember that your Teacher is God. If you are ever needing advice or guidance, you should ask God. God will help you -- He will help you selflessly and comprehensively. God has unique ways of reaching people and with Him, our ability to remain courageous is strengthened. Through God we are better able to distinguish the true from the false.
23:9 Jesus means to tell you not to worship another as a father. It's okay to call your parent your father, because though you deeply love your parent, you do not worship them as the creator of ALL life and universe. Some churches which have hierarchical systems, require that its students call certain persons "Father" and this is wrong. Your leader, your God is your true Father and no church official should try to adopt His name.
23:10 Likewise, do not consider any other person or thing your holy Teacher. Jesus is your teacher through God and you should only revere His teachings. It's a blessing, of course, for us to have other types of teachers... but your holy Teacher must remain God. All wisdom comes from God and therefore all teachers get their knowledge from the Holy Teacher, the one you should revere. Why should you revere your Holy Teacher? Because He loves you, created this world for you, guides you...
23:11 Jesus is reminding us that the people who have the power over us on Earth, the people who abuse our rights and spend our money on themselves will be leveled by God. God loves those of us who are meek and humble, those of us who do not need fancy things and do not crave power and control (especially at others' expense!). People who walk over the righteous will be sprinkled into the ground as ash. God eliminates the greedy and heartless. They have no power over us in God's house. The lose everything and we gain everything. The dynamic switches, is balanced by God, where the deserving are fed and housed and loved.
23:12 The humble will be rewarded, highlighted by God. The proud will be diminished.
23:13 Woe to the people who block innocent people from the true message of God. It's true that many of us require teachers and the people who became terrible, selfish teachers will be diminished by God. Jesus is so angry because a bad ruler is a bad example to the people living under his rule. Many people are not given the opportunity or wisdom to be good, honest and fair because they have never seen goodness, honesty or justice. The people who BLOCK God's wisdom are in trouble because their actions work to bring so many innocents along with them.
23:14 There is a metaphor here: the widow is the child of God who is not aware of their union with God. So, Jesus is saying: Woe to the people who destroy the children's chance to live in His house. (Keep in mind that all innocent people are loved and forgiven by God -- but people need God when they are on Earth because life can be very difficult. It is a blessing to be a member of God's house while we are here on Earth and Jesus is so infuriated by people who take away that chance for others.)
Jesus points out that not only do these people confuse the children -- they work really elaborately to do so with long, fancy prayers that trick the students into believing they know what they're talking about. Do not be awed by people who have great wealth or eloquence of speech. God does not care about wealth, He doesn't need it and with Him, neither do you. God does not admire people who can trick people with their deceptive eloquence... you must be aware of the MESSAGE a person is teaching you. You must observe if the person teaching the message is also following the message. Beware of hypocrites.
23:15 First, let's define the word "Proselyte"
Proselyte: A person who has converted from one opinion, religion, or party to another, especially recently.
The message in this verse is against people who travel the world "converting" people to their religion in horrible ways and for horrible reasons. In the past, thousands and thousands of people have been forced into conversion so that they converters could rule over them. In their mission, the converters have hurt, lied to, killed and corrupted the people who they have come into contact with. By doing this, their actions spoke terrible messages to the people they were controlling. God is angry with people who use His message to create a corrupt religion for their own benefit - to obtain wealth and power.
Their actions were never good-natured. They always intended to claim a people rather them teach them of patience, peace and courage. They corrupted people, people who were good and made them very bad. God is aware of this... nothing slips by Him.
This particular circumstance still happens today -- people try to convert people to their way of life not because they care but because they crave a following to rule over. It makes me think about colonialism, which irreparably ruined much of the world, but also of individuals controlling other individuals just because they are arrogant and power-hunger. Do not get caught in another's corrupted rule. Likewise, do not control anyone. If someone seeks your help, be kind and honest and SELFLESS in helping them.
23:16 This verse, essentially, wants you to be careful so that nobody talks you into giving them your money. Did Jesus ask anyone for money? No, of course not. So a church that requires and commands you to give them your money in order to be a member is a fake church.
Do not allow a church to guilt-trip you into contributing. Also, if a church does not appear to spending the money effectively (on helping others) do not waste your money on that establishment. You do not need a fancy church. Jesus taught outside. Wisdom and true are not better received in expensive pews -- in fact, money often corrupts the message.
If you find a good church, and you want to contribute to it because you see that it is honest and fair and truthful, let it be your decision to contribute and not anyone else's.
23:17-19 Jesus does not want you to worship a building, gold, an altar... or anything else that is not God. All of those things are from and because of God. Without Him, there is nothing.
23:20 Jesus reminds you to worship God and to be appreciative of the things God has created, if they are used to teach His true word, but not to worship them or anything except Him. God knows that no person, thing or entity could ever love you as much as He loves you -- and He wants you to stay with Him because nobody will protect you better than He will. He's not selfish; God is selfLESS, everything He wants is for YOUR benefit.
23:21-22 Pledge yourself to God by working in places where you have opportunity to teach and lead people through God's word. If you pledge yourself to God's word, you pledge yourself to God. You appreciate the church because of Who it in service for.
23:23 God is saying -- you are in trouble if you are pretending to be a good person by doing a few okay-ish things among thousands of bad things. God weighs our works and do you know what weighs heaviest? He tells us: Justice. Mercy. Faith. If you are not bringing justice, mercy and faith to the world... you really should reconsider what you are bringing, because it might not be good or purposeful.
Practice being fair; try to give forgiveness to those who ask and deserve it and stick with your God who loves you.
23:24 Do not punish and judge people for the small things they might be doing wrong, because by being so unkind and unfair, you are doing much, much worse than them.
23:25 Be careful for people who put on a good show. Some people make their appearance impressive but their interior selves are bad. Listen to what people are teaching, look into their eyes, observe their actions and look for humility in them. Do not judge a person on how they look outside because their inside could chew you up and swallow you. Do not judge a person on how they look for YOUR benefit as well as for theirs.
23:26 If you are clean (kind and honest) inside, it will reflect your outward appearance because people will see the kindness of your heart through your eyes, actions and humility.
23:27 A double meaning here in this verse: Evil people might look powerful and beautiful on the outside but inside, their souls, are sentenced to be eliminated. Only evil dies and these are the dead bones Jesus is referring to.
23:28 Jesus is spending a lot of time on this message because of its level of importance. This is not ancient. We must apply this advice to our lives. People are out there corrupting and controlling others and God does not want you to be a victim or a contributor of injustice. Be observant.
23:29 These evil people, who claim to be kind and are not, are responsible for killing the good prophets and righteous people sent by God.
23:30 These evil people lie and pretend that they would be good people, helpers of prophets if they got the chance. They lie to appear good to fool you.
23:31 There are many hypocrites in the world who say one thing and do the opposite. There are many ways to harm God's children -- but none of them will admit to it. Rather, they pretend they are pure and fair because they do not want to be punished for stepping on people to secure their wealth and power. But they cannot hide from God and they will have to account for what they've done... God will make them vanish.
23:32 The lowercase use of "father" in this sentence lets us know that Jesus considers evil people not to be children of God's but instead of a different, corrupt father -- greed, evil, selfishness.
23:33 Here you get a sense of Jesus' anger. He does not like to see kind people harmed or taken advantage of. He's telling them -- dream all you want, there is no way for an evil person to escape God.
23:34 Jesus reminds them and tells them that God sends and has sent many of His children to Earth as workers of His word. Those workers have been harmed and killed and continue to be by evil people. He knows exactly who is responsible... God knows everyone and He knows everything about everyone. We are all unique and recognized by Him -- there is no escaping Him. You should find comfort in this if anyone has done anything evil to you. God knows you, loves you. God will extract them from your life forever.
23:35 Every sin will be accounted for. Likewise, all the GOOD that YOU do will also be acknowledged by God.
23:36 Jesus locks it in. Jesus has foretold the truth, and it will happen. God takes care of business and stands by His word.
23:37 Jesus is anguished here. God wants to love and welcome everyone. God does love and welcome everyone. He wishes so deeply, more than we can ever fathom, to protect us all under His wing but the sad truth is that some people refuse Him. He wants everyone in His safe house but so many people willingly walk out.
God forgives every person who sincerely asks Him to. God forgives every thing so that a person can feel happy and worthy of His house. Good is so good and true and impartial... anyone who is willing and excited to be kind to others is welcome (even if they arrive late!)
23:38 Jesus warns the evil that their life will be empty and difficult without Him -- why? Because God teaches the way to live a loving, productive life. By rejecting God, you reject the wisdom to create a beautiful life.
So many people think of God the wrong way -- they believe that God is vengeful or that He makes the road difficult... but people make the road difficult for themselves and God is not vengeful but merciful and forgiving. He does not punish us, neither while we are on Earth nor when we die. We punish ourselves when we make bad decisions -- we bring bad repercussions into our lives when we are unjust and mean. And when an evil person meets God in Heaven... He does not torture them (He is a God of LIFE and LOVE) He eliminates evil from the picture -- wastes no time on anything or person who chooses bows to evil, greed and selfishness after being presented the alternative (humility, selflessness, goodness).
23:39 Jesus warns -- if you want to live with Him, eternally, you must accept God's way.
Be kind in your life. Have patience with people. Support people, do not break them down.
