Matthew 23

  23:1-4.  Cf. this passage to 11:28-30,  “…My yoke is easy, and My load is light.”

     23:8-12.  It is not the purpose here to teach that since we are all brothers and have an equality before God (v.8), that therefore we need not give honor to human authority structures.  Rather, the purpose is to show that all authority comes from the triune God.  His teaching is to be obeyed by all, for the One Teacher is the Holy Spirit (John 14:26).  We are to honor the Father in heaven above all to whom honor is due on earth.  And, we are to obey and follow Christ, our one true Leader and King (because he is the Son of God).  V.12 is a key verse.  God resists the proud, but exalts the humble.  Those proud ones in the church who have exalted themselves with names such as “Holy Father”, often affect a false humility that merely looks weak and effeminate.  At the same time, they demand obedience for their teachings, even exalting their traditions over God’s word.

     23:23.  The scribes and Pharisees tried to make visible the mostly invisible attitudes of the heart demanded by the first table of the Law.  They did this with meticulous observance of outward ceremonial forms.  But our true righteousness is usually made known by how we treat others, which is why Jesus usually only quotes from the second table of the Law when asked what good deeds achieve righteousness (e.g. Mt.19:18-19).  Thus here in v.23, Jesus is again saying that our real morality is exposed by how we treat others:  justice and mercy and faithfulness.  That is why Calvin says that the word faithfulness in this case means “truthfulness toward men” (Inst. 2:8:52).

     23:33.  As the margin shows, the word hell is the Gr. word Gehenna.  This was a valley outside the wall of Jerusalem where the refuse dump was, and where “the fire never goes out and the worm never dies.”  In the O.T. it was the scene of child sacrifice to Molech.  See Jer.32:35, where this same evil place is called “the valley of Ben-hinnom”.  Thus the name was used as the place of eternal torment.  See note at Mt.16:18 to cf. the word Hades; also Appendix III.

     23:34-39.  Read Ezk.18:23, 33;  33:11;  Jer.22:5.  Here in Mt.23:37, Jesus makes plain his sorrow over Jerusalem’s destruction.  But he lays out the justice and certainty of it, just as Paul does in 1 Thess.2:15-16.  In v.37, Jesus is not talking about his current earthly ministry to them, but rather that it was he all along throughout the O.T. who kept reaching out to them through all the prophets.  And they abused them all.

     23:35.  “Zechariah, mentioned here is generally thought to be the son of Jehoiada (2 Chr.24:20-22).  As 2 Chronicles was the last book in the Hebrew canon, Able (Gn.4:8) was the first martyr and Zechariah the last.  Zechariah the son of Barachiah was the prophet (Zech.1:1).  There is no tradition that he was murdered.  It seems likely that the two have been confused at some stage.”  The New Bible Commentary:  Revised.  Matthew Henry says much the same thing.  Apparently it is either a copyist’s error (which seems most likely), or as Henry suggests, the two names for the father are another of the frequent cases where an Israelite went by two names, and he says both these names have similar meanings.  But 2 Chr.24 and Zech.1 definitely refer to two different men.

     23:36.  “This generation” means this generation, not “this race” as some are forced to argue in order to defend their elaborate end times constructions.  It is a reference to the utter destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in A.D.70 (cf. Mt.24:2).  The Lord himself is sovereign over this, of course, as v.39 reminds them.  But v.39 also speaks of the Last Great Day, when every knee shall bow before him.  Do it with joy now, or do it in humiliation later.  Cf. 21:9 and 22:44.  Greet him as Deliverer, or meet him as Avenger, but you will bring glory to him one way or the other.