Matt 23
23.2: “Moses’ seat” – the place where leaders in the synagogue would sit. To sit in Moses’ seat meant you had the right to interpret the Torah and bind the behavior of others
according to that interpretation.
23.2-4: Those who sit on Moses’ seat should show grace toward those who are seeking to obey, while being more strict with themselves. The Pharisees here, are more strict with those they teach and more lenient with themselves.
23.5-12: Again the emphasis of the kingdom value of humility. The idea of not taking titles focuses in on desiring a title so that you can be exalted.
23.13-36: Jesus loses his meek and mild status in this passage.
23.23: Jesus calls people to follow both the smaller parts of the law (tithing even your spices) and the larger parts of the law—doing justice cf. Micah 6.8)
23.30 This is an interesting point—these people says they would never have done what those who came before them did. How often don’t we say the same thing. We would not have made the same mistakes, carried out the same injustice that those who came before us did. Jesus, though, makes it clear that the Pharisees were just like their forefathers. For us this calls for a very close examination of what we do and why we do it, why do we do church the way we do, why do we have the homes we do, the cars we drive—will people look back on us years from now and be as amazed at our blindness as we see the blindness, for example, of those at the Salem witch trials?
23.37: Jesus after attacking the Pharisees speaks of his longing for them to turn to him.
Luke 20-21
20.1: It is worth seeing that Jesus spends his time teaching and preaching. He considers these to be important for keeping the people on a path toward God.
20.2: Since Jesus is teaching in the temple the temple leaders demand to know who has given him authority to do such teaching. The question may relate to being a rabbi with Schmeha—which was a special kind of teaching authority conferred be other rabbis. In any case, this way the temple leaders’ turf and they didn’t want anyone imposing on it.
20.4: “Heaven” is another way of saying “God”. Jesus is asking if John’s baptism came from God or from men.
20.5: The temple leaders are politically astute. They know their answer will get them in trouble either with the people or the ruling authorities—so they plead ignorance.
20.9: The temple is referred to as a vineyard. There was a large golden cluster of grapes prominently displayed in the temple court. The wealthy would add a golden grape as a gift from time to time. As soon as Jesus begins talking about a vineyard, everyone knows he is talking about the temple.
20.9: The temple leaders fancy themselves as being in charge of the temple; Jesus tells them that they are only caretakers.
20.10: The servants that are beaten and killed represent the prophets.
20.13: To send his son seems like a very naïve move. He has already seen what these tenants do to his servants.
20.14: In a day when land holding was somewhat fluid anyone who worked the land for three years without a landlord was considered to own the land.
20.16: The people realize that Jesus is talking about the loss of the temple. They cannot imagine such a thing happening.
20.17: Jesus is the new cornerstone of the temple. He was rejected by the temple authorities but he will end up being the one on whom temple is built. Paul writes in Ephesians 2. 19Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, 20built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
20.22: Twenty years earlier Roman governors had re-imposed a tribute tax. The tax was designed to humiliate the Jews by showing that they were slaves to Rome. To pay the tax, according to many Jews, was to acknowledge that Caesar was lord. Because of this a revolt was begun in 6 A.D. The question posed to Jesus, then, is no small one. Does Jesus hold that Yahweh alone is God, or does he bend the knee to Caesar? Jesus’ response is one that declares that in reality all things belong to God.
20.24: A moment of comedy. No one was supposed to have a Roman coin in the temple because it had an image on it. For someone to have a coin showed they were not very pious. Jesus sticks it to this group even before he gives his insight. One commentary says, “In getting them to show him a denarius, however, Jesus exposed them as hypocrites, since no patriotic Jew should have been carrying this coin, with its ‘idolatrous’ portrait of the emperor and its inscription giving him the title ‘Son of God’.
20.25: “Give to Caesar…” Jesus’ implication is that Caesar owns the coin, but God owns everything else. Compared to God, Caesar is a lightweight.
20.37-38: Jesus follows a technique of the Pharisees by referring to a passage from the Torah in arguing with the Sadducees. This was the only part of the Bible the Sadducees accepted, so in using it Jesus strengthens his argument.
20.41-43: The belief of the Jewish people was that previous generations were holier and better than present generations. Jesus asks, “How can it be that David would call the Messiah, “Lord” if David is greater than the Messiah?” The answer is, “It can only be because Messiah is more than a human being.”
20.45: This is the kind of dangerous teaching that gets Jesus in trouble and eventually crucified.
21.2: “poor” is a rare word and it means “extremely poor”, the coins she was putting in where the coins of smallest value
21.4: Jesus notes the extreme heart of giving this woman has—she gives up what she needs to live on.
21.5: The temple was so magnificent and so well built that the idea it could ever be destroyed seemed like nonsense.
21.8: There as a constant flow of men claiming to be the Messiah. One of the best known. Bar Kochba, was endorsed by the famous Rabbi Akiva. Bar Kochba led a revolt in 130 A.D. that lead to the final defeat of the Jewish people and their expulsion from Jerusalem.
21.9: Many philosophers of the day insisted that wars etc. were signs of the end of days. Jesus says they are not. Instead this is the way things will be until the end.
21.13: The apostle Paul finds this to be true. He stands before many leaders and tells his message. Not one of them refutes his message. The only thing said by one is, “Your great learning is driving you insane.” Acts 26.24
21.15: We mentioned in an earlier study that God is able to bring things to mind because these people are people of the text. This is not Go simply giving them all the words, but God using what they know and helping them see what they have to speak.
21.16: In a culture based on family loyalty such a betrayal is particularly difficult to take. One wonders when Jesus says these words if he has Judas’ betrayal in mind because Judas is supposed to love Jesus like a son loves a father.
21.18: “perish” seems to refer to what the book of Revelation will call “the second death” i.e. we will not lose our salvation.
21.20-21: History records that many Jewish Christians ran out of Jerusalem when the Roman armies were coming in response to these words of Jesus. They ran to a place called Pehel (Pella). Other Jews say this running as disloyalty to the nation in a time of war. It resulted in resentment and sanctions against Jewish Christians.
21.24: These words became reality in 70 A.D. when Jerusalem fell.
21.27: Many of the Jewish people believed that salvation would come from within their ranks. Jesus points out that salvation comes from above.
21.32: Note the NIV text note that tells us “generation” can also mean “race”.
21.34-36: Jesus tells us to always be ready for his return and to pray that we can escape what is about to come. As one might wonder about the words of betrayal connecting with Judas, these words seem to refigure Peter and his lack of prayer that leads to his denying Jesus.
21.37-38: There is an eagerness among the Jewish people to hear the teaching of Jesus.
Sermon - Audio
