Seeds for 01/15/2024 - Matthew 23:33-39
Scripture: “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. 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. Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation.
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
Observation: Jesus’ frustration with the Pharisees and teachers of the law crescendos here as He calls them a pile of snakes! This may or may not be what Jesus has in mind, but I can’t help connecting this with Genesis 3 and the Garden of Eden. The serpent should have been ruled over by Adam and Eve, yet it seduced them into a disastrous choice. We have heard Jesus’ assessment of the Pharisees and teachers. They had a responsibility—a stewardship, to teach the people, lead them in worship, and help them grow in maturity and faithfulness to God. But they have failed. Where they should have strengthened the connection, they drove a wedge.
It’s hard for me to tell specifically what to make of Jesus’ condemnations. I don’t want to veer into speculation. What I find remarkable is that Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem comes on the heels of this particularly damning woe.
Jesus widens His audience from the particular group—the Pharisees and teachers—to the more general—Jerusalem itself. In doing so, He implicates the whole city as stubborn, stiff-necked people “who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you.” He’s drawing on history, and seeing a few days into the future. Yet within the truth-telling about justice, there is a word of compassion.
Jesus’ words of judgment are not from anger alone, or even primarily. Anger is not automatically wrong, of course, though we often get it wrong. As C.S. Lewis said, “Anger is the fluid that love bleeds when it gets cut.” In this instance we see that Jesus’ anger springs from a loving longing that Jerusalem, the people of God, would accept the redemptive love, care, and hope which He, the Messiah, yearns to provide. He wants them to return to faithfulness—to repent, that they may be healed. They refuse.
Plainly, distance and disconnection are not due to a lack of interest or effort on God’s part, but rather because they “were not willing.” God is ready to save. We must be willing to let Him.
Application:
When have you been stubborn towards God?
What helped you say “yes” to God’s work in your life?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, you stand at the door and knock. Grant me grace to open up and welcome you in. 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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