The danger of usurping the role of God in the lives of people

Matthew 23 / June 2025 / Rick McNally

This chapter is largely a phrase-by-phrase commentary of Matthew 23, where Jesus describes the qualities of the scribes and Pharisees of his day.  Spoiler alert: he is not complimentary.  Before we can discuss what church leaders are supposed to look like, it will be helpful to examine the negative image and address those issues first.  

This passage is a powerful exposition of Jesus’ opinions of the leaders of his day.  It does not simply describe Jesus’ negative review but his positive leadership, teaching, and commands, which should never be lightly dismissed.

Jesus’ Negative Example of Leadership

The scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat.

While the leaders Jesus is talking about have a given authority through tradition, that authority was instituted by God.  This does not mean they are going about it the right way.  They have a position that ought to have vastly more substance in their actual lives, but they do have a position.  Jesus is going to split the baby, in a Solomon-like way, in two here.  Yes, they have a position of authority.  But there is a catch: you should not just look at them and do likewise.  They are not your proper examples — as they should be — but a negative example.  They are such bad examples that Jesus judges them harsher than any other group.

C.S.Lewis said it this way in “Reflections on the Psalms;”

If the divine call does not make us better, it will make us very much worse. Of all bad men, religious bad men are the worst.

There is no man alive who sits on Moses’ seat who has the authority to tell you what you can and cannot do. Such authority is found only in God, in his Christ and in his Word. When any of us speak the word to each other, we find God’s authority in it, but it is a mutual thing as we learn to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. If someone demands your obedience in the church (and that thing that they require is not a clear scriptural command), that is a red flag, and that flag should not be ignored. I will speak more of this as Jesus gets to those ideas in a few paragraphs.

…So do and observe what they tell you.

The words they speak about the Law are right, good, and correct.  When they say the Word of God, that word is binding on your life.  God’s word has authority whenever it is spoken.  Even bad leaders speaking God’s word are authoritative because God’s word is authoritative.  But this extends only to the Word, the Law.

When they speak of the truths of the law, listen to them.  

But there is a problem.  And it is not little.

…But not the works they do.  For they preach, but do not practice.

The scribes and Pharisees that Jesus is speaking of are not people who live what they preach about.  They are hypocrites.  They speak of righteousness and live quite worldly.  Thus, they are not examples to follow.

The scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ time were the religious leaders, the ones with authority in their communities.  They were the scholars and pastors of his day.  These religious leaders were Jesus’ opponents in the New Testament.  A quick search of the book of Matthew gives us an indication that they were mentioned by Jesus or in encounters with Jesus in 84 specific verses, so they were on the scene often.

These people preach the message of the Old Testament and are passionate about it.  But inside, in their real hearts and minds, they do not actually practice it.  If the OT says not to lie, they tell and preach others not to lie, but they themselves are liars.  If the OT says to care for the sojourner, they preach about it but lift no finger to make it a part of their lives.

Their words and actions do not agree with each other.  They are hypocrites.  They are going through their lives as actors on stage, to be seen and adored, but not to be troubled with actually living as God would have them.  They are in it for the acclaim of men, not for the pleasure of God.

These are the legalists; people way more interested in looking religious than actually living the actual deep commands and attitudes of Scripture.  They would rather have the right clothes than the right attitudes.  They would rather you walk only so far on a given day, but don’t mind if they walk all over those under them.

The rest of the passage is an expansion of this theme.

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.

The burden of the Law tied on the back of followers is tedious and disheartening.  It crushes the soul and keeps the religious leaders in power.  Jesus, however, lessened people’s burdens and promised that his “yoke is easy and his burden is light” (Matthew 11:30).

These leaders push burdens on others — and it is obvious from the text that they had no intentions of doing the things they told others to do.  We have seen this politically when our elected leaders use their power to put into place laws they have no intention of keeping themselves.  This is maddening.

We should be about carrying one another’s burdens, not burdening others.  To push others around in this way is an abuse of authority.  Jesus thought so.

They do all their deeds to be seen by others. 

There are two realms, internal and external.  When all we consider is the external, and even that only what is seen by others, we find our faith to be very artificial.  Jesus tells us plainly to “beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them” (Matthew 6:1), or not to pray with many words in the synagogues (Matthew 6:5), for there is no real value in it — our reward is simply found in the eyes of people.  Let’s all make long faces when we fast.  How shallow.  Our reward is a little bit of people looking at us.  Big deal.

God would have us lay up his words in our “hearts” and in our “souls.”  True faith is found not in fancy clothes, fancy titles, or any of that external claptrap.  It is deep and found in honest Godward devotion, it is found in the kind love for others, and in honest and transparent confession.

Good deeds are for God to see, and for him to one day reward.  They are meant not to be for the benefit of the doer but as a means of worship to our Lord.  Love is about selfless acts that cost us dearly.  Service is about serving the ones who cannot repay.

For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long.

They put scripture in a box and wore it; these were phylacteries.  An interesting idea. It was, I would guess, initially a reminder of the Word, but it became a talisman.  Their traditional dress had fringes; this too had a purpose.  They were meant to remind them to obey God’s laws.  Even this good idea turns twisted over time.  Even God’s good gifts turn to a means of abuse.  

Jesus states that they “make” these things “broad” and “long.”  In other words, let’s make sure people can better see and notice their obedience.  Modern Christians don’t have these kinds of things exactly; we have different things. You can take a few minutes and brainstorm some things that you have seen used in the same way.

Beware.

And they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.

The title is so important.  People love their titles.  These are ego expanders.  They make us feel “better than.”  There is no true “better than.”  When we have weddings, we have exalted seats, for this is the couple’s big day.  In life, in church, there should be no exultation.  

It is and can be tempting to love the title more than the Lord, and more than the actual practice of Jesus’ words.

This will continue next time with the positive examples of leadership.