Tuesday in the Second Week of Lent, March 15, 2022

Matthew 23:1-12

Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. All their works are performed to be seen. They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues, greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation ‘Rabbi.’ As for you, do not be called ‘Rabbi.’ You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers. Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven. Do not be called ‘Master’; you have but one master, the Christ. The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

According to St. Matthew’s order of events, the Lord Jesus speaks the words in the Gospel reading for today’s Mass the day after his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  On that day, he returned to the City from Bethany, where he spent the night, and cast out the money changers and merchants from the Temple, and then challenged the authority of the chief priests and the Pharisees.  In the present reading, he is speaking to the crowds and his disciples about them.

“The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example.”  The Lord points out that the scribes and Pharisees “have taken” the seat on the chair of Moses.  It was not given them by Almighty God or by an established earthly authority.  By “the chair of Moses” he means the position of lawgiver for the people.  Because they have taken this position the people are to observe the Law as they instruct them, but because “they preach but they do not practice”, they are not to follow their example.  The Lord means that they should act according to the moral teachings of the scribes and Pharisees, but not to follow their moral example, for they do not act according to the Law they teach.  A modern equivalent would be a scientist who leaves his lab at the end of the day and goes home to practice witchcraft.  

“They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders.”  Their purity requirements, some of which are listed in Mark 7, 3, meant, among other things, constant arduous trips to the village well.  This was based on their belief that the laws that described the purity necessary for the Temple priests were to be obeyed in private homes as well so that those eating dinner in their own house had to prepare as though they were priests conducting a sacrifice.  Their other teachings added to the burden they laid on the people’s shoulders.  The Lord charges that the scribes and Pharisees exempted themselves from the practice of many of these restrictions.  It would be interesting to know if the people were already aware of this or if it was news to them that their leaders behaved in this way.

“All their works are performed to be seen.”  That is, their works are performed only to be seen: they are not performed out of love for God.  The Lord indicts the scribes and Pharisees of irreligion with their vanity.  They array themselves with their false acts and strutted around in their fancy attire as though they thought themselves gods come down from the sky.  “As for you, do not be called ‘Rabbi.’ You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers. Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven.”  The Greek word translated here as “call” would be better translated as “name”, as, Do not be named ‘Rabbi’ . . . Name no one on earth your father.  Among the ancient Jews, a person’s name had meaning in the Hebrew language, as “Jesus” means “God saves”, and that name described and defined that person.  By naming a man “rabbi” rather than indicating him by his given name, town, profession, or genealogy, people effectively changed the man’s name.  He became “teacher”, or, “the teacher”, as opposed to, say, “the man who teaches”.  Jesus reveals that “the teacher” could only apply to “one teacher”, who is God.  The same is true for naming someone “father”.  And here the Son reveals God the Father’s name as “The Father”.  He is the Father.  Human fathers participate in his Fatherhood, but they are not fathers as the Father is Father.  “You have but one master, the Christ.”  The Greek word translated here as “master” really means something more like “leader” or “guide”.  The Christ leads us on the road to heaven through the narrow gates of his commandments which are not meant as obstacles but as assistance.

“The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”  We can think of “be exalted” as “be lifted up”, that is, into heaven.  The one who humbles himself is as one who throws out all that encumbers him from virtue so that he becomes light enough to be raised up into the clouds.

The Lord, in making his charges against the Jewish leaders of the time, frees the people from a scrupulosity that held them back from the true practice of the Law, fulfilled by the Lord Jesus.  He also prepares the people to give up the version of the Messiah preached so confidently by these leaders, and which thoroughly misrepresented who he would be when he came.