Fr. Troy Beecham
Sermon, Proper 26A 2023
Matthew 23:1-12
“Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, ‘The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the market-places, and to have people call them ‘rabbi’. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father—the one in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Over the last several Sundays, we have seen Jesus being confronted by those who sought to discredit Him. In every case, He turns their attempts back upon themselves, much to their astonishment and consternation, and often to the delight of the common folk listening. In today’s Gospel reading, we see Jesus teaching His disciples, and all who were listening, just moments after the Sadducees had tried to trip up Jesus on an issue of logic and His teaching about the resurrection of the dead on the Last Day (the Sadducees did not accept the hope of the resurrection). That there were Pharisees in the crowd is without doubt by what Jesus says to His disciples and the gathered crowd in this teaching.
Jesus tells his disciples and the whole audience, which included the Pharisees and likely some Sadducees, that the Pharisees have authority to teach the Torah and the oral tradition, which the Pharisees considered to be an unbroken chain of teaching reaching back to Moses and had equal weight with the Torah. This is why Jesus says that they sit in Moses’ seat. But in saying this, to honor their teachings, He also says with searing irony to beware of their practices, which were not in alignment with the Torah. They are ‘great ones’ (rabbi means ‘great one’) rabbis, but they were teaching a severe, inhumane interpretation of the Law, and Jesus accuses them of not following their own teachings, but rather of using the Torah as a means of intimidating and controlling the people. They obsessed over minute and perplexing interpretations of the Law. In Luke 11:46, Jesus warns the Pharisee Torah scholars/lawyers of his time: “‘Woe also to you lawyers! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them’”. In contrast, in Matthew 11:28-30, He says: “‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ... For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light’”. In Acts 15:10, Peter says of those who expect Christians to follow Jewish practices: “‘why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear?’”.
Jesus says the Pharisees are vain and hypocritical (hypocrite is the Greek word for stage acting), exerting great effort to appear pious. “Phylacteries” are small boxes containing biblical texts, worn on the arm or the forehead, and “fringes” are prescribed in Numbers and Deuteronomy as a way of remembering to live by the commandments. But using such righteous reminders of the Lord our God as ostentatious displays nullifies their purpose. The practice of “the longer the fringes, the more pious the wearer” is spiritually void, and in fact calls into disrepute the teachings of the Torah. Jesus lays out four examples of their vanity and love of power over other people. Jesus then says that His disciples are not to arrogate to themselves the title of ‘great one’, rabbi, and seek to assume authority over their fellow disciples, because He, Jesus, is our one teacher, the only truly ‘great one’, and we are all His lifelong disciples. This does not mean, obviously, that we should not have teachers and leaders amongst us now, or how else would the Gospel be taught to all nations and the sacraments be celebrated? The issue is that no disciple of Jesus should think of themselves more highly that any other, nor should they seek to ‘lord it over’ others. Rather, His disciples must think of themselves as the servants of all, which He showed so shockingly, yet beautifully, when He washed the apostle’s feet at the Last Supper, something only a servant would normally do.
What do we make of Jesus saying “call no man ‘father’ on earth”? Christ’s word about never calling anyone upon the earth their father finds its true meaning in the context of His denunciation of the Pharisee’s false piety, their arrogance and pride, and their spiritual abuse of the people. Jesus is warning His disciples, including us today, to reject the insistence upon public honor and giving personal loyalty to anyone. In rabbinic tradition, there were schools devoted to the person and teachings of certain rabbis. The rabbis would accumulate disciples, men whose task it was to memorize the views and words of their rabbi and make them their own. Indeed, those teachers claimed a greater respect from their disciples than was given to their parents, since they reasoned that one’s parents gave only earthly life, while the rabbinic teacher gave spiritual life. They functioned more like modern gurus for those followed them as their personal disciples.
Jesus insisted that such total allegiance and blind loyalty has no place amongst His followers in His Church. The leaders in His Church are never to function as such “fathers”, commanding personal allegiance and accumulating personal disciples. Such complete allegiance may only be given to God, our Father in heaven. On earth, the only Leader to whom such devotion should be given is Jesus, the Messiah of all. His disciples are all brothers, all siblings, and even the leaders among us must look in all humility to the same Leader and Lord, the Christ of God (Matthew 23:8-10).
In all of this, what matters is where the heart finds its home, and to whom one gives ultimate loyalty. The rabbis of the Pharisees claimed personal loyalty from their disciples as their due in a kind of personality cult. Such a cult and such devotion have no place amongst Jesus’ followers. Cults are no new things. Jesus warned his disciples then to beware of falling into a personality cult, and he warns us the same today. The issue is not so much whether one calls their priest either “Father Tom” or “Pastor Tom”. The issue is the relationship between the teacher and the student. One can be led by Father Tom and address him as “Father Tom”, but Father Tom can never command ultimate personal loyalty—nor, as a true disciple of Jesus, would he wish to do.
The temptation to accrue personal disciples is a perennial one, and not confined to the Pharisees, scribes, and rabbis of the first century AD. We can see such cults of personality and the demand for personal allegiance in many spheres of life, including religion and politics. Though not using the ancient Middle Eastern honorific “father”, such people function as “fathers”, and “mothers”, to their supporters, authoritative gurus, demanding like the rabbis of old personal loyalty (and financial support).
It is meant to be otherwise among Churches whose clergy use the title “Father” as an honorific title, a title no more different than calling your physician “doctor”. Clergy are all meant to dress alike—the same black cassock, or at least black shirt, pants, and white collar. Their teaching is the same, so that it scarcely matters whether one goes to Father Lawrence’s parish or Father Justin’s. The use of a common title and of common clerical dress are intended to obscure and impede such personal style as would promote a cult of personality. Different clergy have different gifts, of course, and different parishes have different strengths and weaknesses. But the same Faith is proclaimed by all orthodox clergy in the same way. There is not an Italian orthodoxy here and an American orthodoxy there. Ecclesiastically speaking, there is but One who is the Teacher, and all clergy are brothers to those under their spiritual care (Matthew 23:8). Only Jesus is our earthly Leader, and He has taught us that God in heaven is our one, true Father, the only source of our being. We therefore call no man on earth the source of our being, our true and life-giving father apart from Him.
So, what can we then say, brothers and sisters, to express the heart of Jesus’ teaching in today’s Gospel reading? Humility is the source of all true virtue, and all religiosity lacking humility, such as thinking of any man or woman as the source of our life, is false. Titles, such as father, are only pernicious when they lead us to cult like devotion to another human, leading us away from our one Lord Jesus and from total dependence in faith upon our one Father in heaven, the source of our life. Pray, then, that God our Father will give to each of us the humility of His Son, our Savior Jesus, that we might be servants of all.
Almighty and merciful God, it is only by your gift that your faithful people offer you true and laudable service: Grant that we may run without stumbling to obtain your heavenly promises; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
