Sermon Tone Analysis

Matthew 23:29-36

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©March 5, 2006 Rev. Bruce Goettsche SERIES: Learning from the Mistakes of Others

Moments after a baby is born a debate begins.

“Whom does the baby look like?”

Some say the baby looks just like dad.

Others say the baby looks just like mom.

Some wise guy will always chime in that the baby looks a great deal like the postman.

As our children get older the family resemblance comes out in ways we often would rather not celebrate.

We cringe when we watch our children strike out in anger just like we do.

We are saddened when we observe our child avoiding problems as we do.

We are embarrassed when others tease our child because of some physical oddity they inherited from us.

Like it or not, there are some things we are bound to inherit from our relatives.

In the last of the woes of Jesus to the Scribes and the Pharisees, Jesus talks about the family resemblance that these leaders had to their relatives.

29 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!

You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.

30 And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’

31 So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.

32 Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!

                               

THEIR PROFESSION

 

Jesus announced that the Pharisees were hypocrites because they built tombs for the prophets and decorated those tombs even though they were descended from the very people who had killed those prophets.

On first read this seems like an irrelevant and perhaps unfair criticism.

God declared that a son should not be put to death for the sins of their father.

For example, just because I come from German descent that does not mean I should be held responsible for the acts of Adolf Hitler.

Just because someone is of Japanese descent doesn’t mean we should blame them for Pearl Harbor.

And, just because someone is from the Middle East, doesn’t make them a terrorist.

So it would seem that just because someone was a relative of one who was involved in killing the prophets, shouldn’t mean that they should be condemned.

The Pharisees and Scribes recognized that what their forefathers did was wrong.

They were quick to say: “We would not have ever taken part in such activities.”

However, Jesus is not condemning these men because of the actions of their fathers.

He is condemning them because they have learned nothing from the sin of their fathers.

They talk a good game but they are really just a “chip off the old block”.

THEIR HEART

 

We see this when Jesus says, “Fill up then the measure of the sin of your forefathers!”

Remember, that Jesus was speaking these words probably during the last week of His life.

At the very moment Jesus was talking, they were planning ways to kill Him!

These men who said they would never have killed the prophets were plotting to kill the supreme prophet and King!

In a matter of days these men would be conspiring with Herod and Pilate to have Jesus executed.

They would overlook their own safeguards about proper legal procedure, convene a kangaroo court, bring in witnesses who were bribed and couldn’t agree on their story, and choose the release of a terrorist over Jesus; all so they could silence Christ.

And then, the irony in the story of the trial is found in John 18:28:  “Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor.

By now it was early morning, and /to avoid ceremonial uncleanness/ the Jews did not enter the palace; they wanted to be able to eat the Passover.”

Do you get this?

They were breaking all kinds of laws to get Jesus executed while at the same time being careful they didn’t become “unclean” which would disqualify them from the Passover celebration!

Because of this callousness, Jesus says,

“You snakes!

You brood of vipers!

How will you escape being condemned to hell? 34 Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers.

Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.

35 And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

36 I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.

Jesus told these men that He was going to send prophets, wise men, and teachers and they would try to kill them all also.

Of course, we know that this is exactly what happened.

The Jewish leaders sought to kill the members of the early church.

They went from town to town seeking to put them to death.

One of those people who traveled from town to town was Paul.

Because of the hostility created by these men, every disciple except possibly for John was martyred.

Jesus told these leaders that God had had enough.

He was going to avenge the deaths of Abel (the first martyr in the Old Testament) through Zechariah, son of Berekiah (the last prophetic martyr in the Old Testament) and he was going to do it in the lifetime of these leaders.

Putting to death the Son of God would be the last straw.

History tells us that in less than 40 years from this date, Jerusalem was flattened.

The temple was gone (and it has not been rebuilt since) and the people we scattered everywhere.

The Pharisees and the Scribes stood in a position where they claimed to represent God but actually, they were opposing Him.

CONCLUSIONS

 

So, what should be our response to this diagnosis of the heart of these religious leaders that we have been studying?

First, there are some wrong responses.

The first is indifference.

We could simply shake our heads and say, “My what horrible people these were”.

We could walk away having added information to our notebooks but be unaffected in our hearts.

We can dismiss these words as irrelevant to our lives.

The Second wrong response is to come up with a list of more rules.

In our zeal to do a better job of following Christ, we will enact “legislation” to help us accomplish our goal.

We decide what is appropriate worship, what is the correct form of evangelism, what is the right way of governing the church, and even what pleasures we can and cannot enjoy.

Even though these “rules” are well-meaning, they are missing the point.

These rules starting being our focus.

Before we know it, we are just like the Pharisees: we will be acting religious but our hearts will be far from God.

We can never find forgiveness and eternal life by keeping rules.

Even on our best days we fall far short of God’s requirements.

Even if we got to Heaven and God said, “Look, I’ll let you throw out your three (or even three hundred) worst days” (which He won’t do), we would be in desperate straits.

God not only measures our actions but also our hearts and our intentions.

Our challenge is not to work harder, but to trust more fully.

We can’t be saved by our “doing”.

We find new life through an undeserved forgiveness and a radical transformation that only come from Jesus Christ.

The third wrong response is to beat yourself up for your failures.

During our study I have seen that many of the things Jesus condemned in the leaders of Israel, are also faults that are found in me.

I have a choice: I can beat myself up or I can run to the cross!

I can withdraw, or I can open my arms and plead for mercy.

I can despair, or I can trust.

So, how /should/ we respond to these words to Jesus to the Scribes and Pharisees?

First, we should have an attitude of humility.

As we look at the Pharisees we should realize that these men thought they were right.

They believed they were serving God even thought they were fighting Him.

That same thing can happen to anyone.

Before we know it we can find ourselves feeling smug in our own sinfulness.

We can convince ourselves that evil is good.

How easy it is to drift.

How simple it is to rationalize sin.

How proficient we are at feeling that we have “arrived”.

If we learned anything from this study, I hope we have learned that we can be filled with confidence, and even a sense of righteous indignation, and still be dead wrong.

It CAN happen to us.

We can be so attached to our traditions, our preferences, and our experiences, that we stop being open.

We cease to be teachable and start becoming hard.