2nd Week in Lent, Tuesday – 2nd March 2021 – Mt 23,1-12
Counter-Cultural Calling
In today’s passage, the Pharisees were not attempting to earn a place in God’s covenant through their Torah observance. Instead, as part of God’s covenant people, they attempted to live out faithfulness to the law, with a strong focus on avoiding ritual defilement whenever possible. However, Jesus’ problem with the Pharisees and scribes is not with their intentions in relation to God per se. Rather, Jesus provides their motivation in doing the law, i.e., to gain human favour and honour. They do the religious practices for the wrong audience (23,5-7; 6,1-18). They wear their religious garment with fringes to be seen by others. They seek honour from people rather than praise from God alone for their religious observances. Jesus is highly critical of their misplaced focus upon human compliments. On the contrary, Jesus’ followers are prohibited from elevating oneself over the others. They are forbidden to seek places of honour and the best seats in public gatherings. In fact, earlier in Matthew the disciples struggle to understand Jesus’ teaching on status reversal (cf. 18,1-5; 19,30-20,16; 20,20-28). Thus Jesus calls his followers and disciples to a way of counter-cultural commitment.
