Seeds for 01/04/2024 - Matthew 23:5-7
Scripture: “Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.”
Observation: Jesus is really letting the Pharisees have it. In His previous comments, Jesus criticized their lack of integrity—the gap between what they said and what they did. We understand the force of this critique.
Perhaps yesterday was about how our actions impact our audience—those who hear and see whether our deeds match our words. In today’s text, Jesus speaks to how our audience impacts our actions.
Jesus speaks plainly: “Everything they do is done for people to see.” He’s said this sort of thing before: “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 6:1)
In that passage, from the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warns His followers not to imitate “the hypocrites” who make a great show of their “piety” or “practice of righteousness,” what we would today refer to as their devotional practices or spiritual disciplines, offering the examples of prayer, fasting, and giving.
In this passage, look at the verbs in each phrase: they make, they love, they love. The Pharisees and teachers exaggerate the physical symbols—the phylacteries and tassels—of their dedication. Their affection and committed action is for honors that pump them up—banquet and synagogue seats that convey importance, titles of address. They seek after these things in order to garner attention. To borrow wording from Steve Cuss, they are trying to make themselves larger instead of remaining content with being “exactly human sized.” (People sometimes make themselves smaller in order to avoid positive or negative attention too.)
In Christ, not only are we called to choose a humbler way, we are also free from the need to make ourselves larger or smaller in order to navigate the world successfully. Our worth is found in the God who sees and loves us rather than in positioning ourselves so that others admire us.
Application:
When is it tempting to make oneself larger or seek attention?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, keep me living from your love for me and not for others’ positive perceptions of me. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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