B (2:12)

This is one of my favorite. No, we don't talk before him. So it's fun to surprise each other. So this is a really great story. One thing I just wanna say, and then I'll turn it over to you because you have a lot of great insight into this passage. Many scholars have looked at this little episode and said, especially when they're looking at it in the Gospel of Mark, and they say, well, clearly here Jesus is denying that he is the Davidic Messiah. This is an amazing story. It's the only story in all of the synoptic gospels. Matthew, Mark and Luke, the only one where Jesus tells us about the Messiah. Think about that, right? This is the only passage where Jesus is going to tell us something about the Messiah. Now, they've been quizzing him. Jesus has been asked questions throughout this chapter, Matthew 22. We went through that last time. First the Pharisees, then the Sadducees, then another, some of the Pharisees, right? And now Jesus turns the table. Now it's time for Jesus to ask a question.

A (3:18)

I love it. He goes on the offense.

B (3:19)

That's right. That's right.

A (3:20)

And he throws. They're on their heels already. And now they're really perplexed, right?

B (3:24)

So now Jesus asks his question, all right? And his question is, whose son is the Christ? Right? Now some people say, oh, well, Jesus is denying that the Messiah is the son of David. That's absurd. No, the point here is that the Messiah. Jesus obviously thinks the Messiah is the son of David because in Matthew's Gospel, he is the Messiah. And Matthew's very clear. He's in the line of David. So the real question here is, what is Jesus's point? It's not to deny that the Messiah is the son of David, but to argue that the Messiah is more than just the son of David. And he does that by appealing to one of the most important psalms in the old Testament, Psalm 110. Why don't you explain, Tim, why this psalm is so important in this context?

A (4:19)

Well, you frame this beautifully. And I think that Psalm 110 is such an important psalm. It's a psalm of David for the coronation of his son, Solomon. So one of the big events we know that we read first and Second Samuel, there's a great struggle for the kingship of Israel. Israel. Saul has it, but he sins and is rejected. And then David becomes anointed. And then there's a struggle between Saul and David. David gets the kingship. And now the question is, David has a lot of sons. And as we move into the beginning of kings, the question is, which one of David's sons is going to take the kingship. And so this is. There's a lot of jockeying for this and different parties and groups are going this way. And David ultimately is going to choose Solomon. And one of his sons, Absalom, tries to choose the kingship for himself.

A (5:14)

And there's almost a coup against David, but David appoints Solomon, his son, to be king. And Psalm 110 is the coronation psalm for that great event. And so what's interesting is if you, if you read Psalm 110 in that context, and then if you put it in the context of the beginning couple, two chapters of First Kings, especially chapter one of Kings, what you see is that David is there for the coronation of his son Solomon. And David bows to Solomon and sees him as his Lord because he is the reigning king. It's the only time in the whole history of Israel that a son takes the throne while his father's still alive, which is really remarkable.

B (6:02)

That is a remarkable detail. Right, and so what's the takeaway from that then? Why, why is that significant? Is it because Jesus is somehow like Solomon? And, and how is, how is it like Solomon?

A (6:14)

Yeah. No, and we just saw him refute with the three questions. The, the best traps, the best thinking that, that the Pharisees, Sadducees and the scribes and the teacher of the law could come up with to entrap Jesus. Jesus has confounded them right, with his wisdom. And of course, who is known for wisdom? Solomon.

B (6:35)

Now, the other thing that's really significant about all this is if you go back and look at Psalm 110, there's a fascinating detail because it starts, Jesus quotes it the Lord. And here we can put it up on the screen. The Lord says to my Lord, and you see capital Lord. That's the name of God in Hebrew. That's why they put it in capital letters. Ancient Jews wouldn't say the name of God. It begins with a Y, so they wouldn't say that name.

A (7:01)

So they would say Adonai.

B (7:02)

Adonai, Lord. And so we read the Lord, Lord God says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. By the way, that line of sitting at my right hand, it's in the creed, right? This line is so important. We say Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father, he's seated at the right hand of the Father.

A (7:25)

That's so important. Michael, some people don't know that from this psalm. And it shows that Jesus is the fulfillment of this prophecy.

B (7:32)

That's right. So Jesus is going to be the one who ascends to heaven. And in the book of Acts, Peter explains that is the fulfillment of this psalm, when Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father in the ascension. But the psalm goes on to say something interesting. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now, this is a really significant detail because the whole scene that we've been reading about Jesus in the temple starts with him performing the temple action where he casts out the money changing table, overturns the money changing tables and drives out those who buy and sell. But then we go on to read after this, he entered the temple and they ask him, by what authority are you doing these things? And Jesus says, I'll answer your question if you answer my question. He asks them a question about John the Baptist. They refuse to answer. So Jesus doesn't answer. Now, this is the last scene in this sequence. And so Jesus is going to explain how he has the authority to act in the temple. See, they're wondering, you don't have this authority. You're not a priest. Who do you think you are in this? But by quoting this psalm, Jesus quotes a key passage where the Davidic king is a priest. And so this also helps to underscore, yes, Jesus is greater than David, like Solomon. Solomon built the temple, Right. Solomon has authority in the temple. So the son of David is greater than David, and Jesus is the son of David. He's like Solomon.

A (9:08)

And this is so important, Michael, because the context is Jesus has made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which is the capital, and Melchizedek was the king. Melekzedek means king of righteousness. And he was the king of Salem, which is the ancient city of Jeru. Salem.

B (9:25)

That's right.

A (9:25)

And so just as Melchizedek was a priest king of Salem was, which is ancient Jerusalem, now Jesus comes like David, as a new Melchizedek, like Solomon, and he's going to be a priest king. And that's going to be so important for what we're going to see in the rest of the Gospel, isn't it?

B (9:41)

That's right.

A (9:42)

Because with the Last Supper and the Passion narrative, Jesus is going to be a priest king.

B (9:46)

That's right.

A (9:47)

And that priesthood is such a crucial element. We're going to see him acting as a priest at the Last Supper.

B (9:52)

Right, right. And this psalm was actually used by the priestly family that went back to the Maccabees. They're called the Hasmonean family and Caiaphas would have been in that line. This. This psalm, scholars have shown, is used in the Maccabees, in the books of Maccabees, and in other works by Hasmoneans to explain why they should have been the rulers. Right. That that priestly line wanted to rule Jerusalem before the Romans came. The Hasmonean kings were priests and they would use Psalm 110. But what Jesus is doing is now quoting the psalm that the priestly leaders used and reminding them of its Davidic connections and pointing to the fact that the son of David would be greater than David himself. And of course, that's true in Jesus, who isn't just the son of David, but the Son of God par excellence.

A (10:45)

It's so beautiful because, you know, in that psalm, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand. So David is acknowledging that the Lord God is going to call his own Lord to have a seat at the right hand of God the Father, greater than David's. So there's a greater than David that is coming. And Jesus is saying and subtly suggesting this is him.

B (11:10)

And we've got more to say about this when we come to the trial of Jesus, because Jesus is going to quote this psalm again and do something no one was expecting with it. Yeah. So we'll get to it when we'll get to that, when we get there. Why don't we move then on to Matthew 23?

A (11:27)

I love reading chapter 23. Jesus is going to. And there's so much richness in this chapter. But one of the big things that confuses people is something that Jesus says.

B (11:38)

Before we do one thing. So as we've been moving through Matthew's Gospel, we've noticed that there's a shift always from narrative to discourse. Narrative to discourse. Right. A discourse is always long speech. And so in Matthew 3 and 4, we have Jesus being baptized, being tested. And then we have the Sermon on the Mount. And then in Matthew 8 and 9 we've got these 10 miracle stories. And then we've got Jesus's long speech to the disciples when he sends them out. In Matthew 10, the missionary discourse. In Matthew 11 and 12 we've got stories of Jesus rejection up in Galilee. Matthew 13 we have the long parables discourse, his long speech of parables in Matthew 13. And in Matthew 14:17 we have the revelation of Jesus identity to the disciples. And then we have the ecclesial discourse. All Matthew 18 is one speech. Now in Matthew 19:22, we've read about what Jesus has been doing up in Jerusalem. We've read about his temple action, his triumphal entry. Now we get to the last speech. We're almost to the end of Matthew's Gospel. This is the last speech of Jesus in Matthew. It starts in 23, it's going to end in Matthew 25.

A (12:46)

And I think that's so important because the fifth speech is also going to connect with.

A (12:53)

The first speech of Jesus, which is the Sermon on the Mount. And so we're going to see the Sermon on the Mount as a crucial.

A (13:03)

Parallel to this. So the Beatitudes in chapter five are going to echo here a lot of what's going on in chapter 23. And before we get to those parallels and echoes, Jesus is going to warn them. Look, because you just saw the scribes and the Pharisees acting wickedly and conspiring against the Messiah. And so Jesus says, look, he says to the crowds, you know, do whatever they tell you to observe, but don't do what they do, right? And so the problem is that the leadership of the people of God are corrupt. So you have to, you have to stick with the teaching that they relay. But you have to do that in a way that really.

A (13:43)

You don't break away from the teaching even if the teachers are corrupt. And that's the temptation, right? If the teachers are corrupt, forget it, I'm done with this, I'm going to walk away. And Jesus says, you can't do that. And it's so important in times of crisis because oftentimes the people of God have had corrupt priests and corrupt leaders and corrupt teachers, and yet the people still had to follow the law of God. And that's true in our own day today, right?

B (14:07)

And it's actually applicable to the apostles authority. Jesus has this amazing line, I think it's the most overlooked line in all of the gospels. He says the Scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses seat and the Greek word there for seat is the word cathedra. It's where we get the word cathedral, right? A cathedral is the church where the bishop has his seat, right? And the seat is the image of teaching authority. So Jesus is talking about the scribes and Pharisees have teaching authority, right? And he says, so do and observe whatever they tell you. Now that's amazing. Jesus is affirming that the Scribes and the Pharisees have teaching authority and that you must listen to what they say. So I love to point this out to my non catholic Christian friends, right. I like to say, so do you listen to the scribes and Pharisees. Have you done everything that they told you? Because that's what Jesus says, do whatever they tell you. And they do. I have to read the Mishnah or some ancient Jewish work. How do I know how to follow the teachings of the scribes and Pharisees? Well, stay tuned. Don't do the works that they do. So the scribes and Pharisees teaching authority is valid, but they don't always follow their own teaching. They supposedly are promoting the law, but Jesus describes them as lawless. Right. And so they're not actually keeping the law. He says they preach, but they do not practice. They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders. And you know, if you listen carefully to what Jesus says here, it sounds a lot like what Jesus says to Peter in Matthew 16. In Matthew 16, Jesus tells Peter, whatever you bind, Deo is the Greek verb there. Whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven. What did he say to the scribes and Pharisees? They bind heavy burdens on the shoulders of others. So the same authority that the Pharisees have to bind, that everybody has to listen to, Jesus says Peter is going to have in the future. Okay, so I have to do this. We have to move this because we can't see the time. We're trying to give all kinds of baseball signals over there to get this fixed. Okay, so. And it's distracting. So now we have the. We have, in Matthew 23, Jesus giving us a template for understanding what's going to happen with the apostles. Right. They have the authority to bind. Does that mean that they will always follow their own teachings? No. Peter's going to end up being a hypocrite. He confessed Jesus is the Messiah and private. And then in public he's going to reject him by his actions. So what Jesus is doing here, by giving the scribes and Pharisees recognizing their authority, he's also pointing to the fact that authority is being transferred to the apostles. And then later, Jesus says in verse 13, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, for you shut. Now, in Greek, the word that's shut is kleiete. It literally means to shut with a key, because the Greek word there is Kleidos for key. So it's the same word Jesus says in that Matthew 16. Yeah. In Matthew 16, Jesus says to Peter, I give you the keys. Right. And in Matthew 23, he says, the scribes and Pharisees have the authority to key shut the kingdom. So what? The Pharisees have. Is being transferred to the apostles. And like the Pharisees, who have authority and you have to listen to them, but they sometimes are hypocrites. So, too, the apostles and their successors, bishops, even popes. Right. Throughout history.

A (17:49)

No, it's so important. And of course, I love how you laid that out, because Jesus shows that the office. It reminds me even of David. He recognized the office of Saul, who was lying about him, who was corrupt and trying to kill him. But he said, far be it for me to raise my hand against the Lord's anointed.

B (18:07)

That's right.

A (18:08)

He recognized that Saul had a holy office, even if he was an unholy person who was rather wicked.

B (18:13)

That's right.

A (18:14)

And it's really hard for us because when we see somebody who has a holy office acting in a way that's wicked or corrupt, it's really frustrating. We're angry at them, but we have to keep to the idea of what they represent in the teaching office of the Church. We always have to hold to the teaching. Now, if they stray from the teaching and they teach error, then they're out of bounds.

B (18:37)

That's right. That's right.

A (18:38)

And then we don't have to follow. We don't follow bad teaching.

B (18:41)

We.

A (18:41)

We follow the official teaching of the Catholic Church and the deposit of faith that's been handed on, and we know where that deposit is, and we can open up the catechism.

B (18:50)

You know, that's right.

A (18:51)

And that's such a beautiful thing. And that's one of the things that I think St. John Paul II wanted as pope is to publish the catechism and make it easy for all Catholics to know. Because there was confusion amongst some clerics about Catholic teaching. And we see that in our own day where people would like to change the teaching to make it.

B (19:08)

Well, that happened after every council. Right. So Council of Nicaea comes up with a declaration, a creed, and it can never be changed. This is the declaration. The council basically says it must not be altered. And then what does the next council do? It altered it. And so not in a bad way. The Church didn't want it to be altered by just people, you know, tweaking it for their own purposes. But the Church has the authority to. To come in and say, now, wait a minute, there's some lack of understanding. We need to make something clear. And so after the Second Vatican Council, like after Nicaea and after other councils, there was confusion about, well, is this a new teaching? How do we integrate that? How do we.

A (19:51)

I'm so glad that Pope Francis canonized St. John Cardinal Newman because he talked about this development of doctrine, that the doctrines of the Catholic Church don't change or evolve. Right, like mutations, but they actually develop. And we understand deeper and deeper the mystery. And so the. The faith doesn't change. It's just our articulation, our insight into the faith oftentimes grows.

B (20:16)

That's right.

A (20:16)

And. And now, Michael, one of the great challenges here in this passage for Catholics.

B (20:22)

I think I know where you're going exactly.

A (20:24)

A lot of Protestants love, especially fundamentals love. They quote this passage as a way to go after Catholics. You've probably heard this before, but Jesus says, but you are not to be called rabbi. I'm going to back up a little bit earlier than they do. Usually you're not to be called rabbi. For you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one father who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors or teachers. Depends on how you want to translate it. For you have one instructor, the Christ, the greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted. So, Michael, people say, well, call no man Father. So you call what it says that.

B (21:07)

I've never seen that before. That's amazing.

A (21:09)

So you call, you know, Father Daniel Father.

B (21:12)

That's right.

A (21:12)

And we've got a great faculty member here who's a priest, Father Daniel Maloney. Or we have a great chaplain, Father James. Clever. And so you call him Father James. I call him Father James. I call him Father Daniel. Are we breaking scripture, Michael?

B (21:25)

No. And the reason for that is because it's very clear that Jesus wasn't being taken to mean this in a literalistic way. Jesus often uses something called hyperbole, right? So he says, if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off. Your right hand can't cause you to sin.

A (21:42)

None of the 12 had their right were missing an arm, right? So we know that they weren't taking it literally.

B (21:47)

It's not like my right arm is going to force me to hurt. Stop it.

A (21:50)

Hand.

B (21:51)

You've got to be nice, you know? No. All right, that's it. I'll cut you off. You know, your right hand doesn't cause you to sin. This is hyperbole. Well, the same thing is true of other aspects of Jesus teaching. How do we know when Jesus is talking in hyperbole or not? Well, we can look at what the early Christians did, and we can look at what the earliest Saints did, like St. Paul. St. Paul says he has become a father to the Christians in, say, Corinth. Right.

A (22:15)

Or to Timothy.

B (22:16)

Or to Timothy.

A (22:16)

You're my father's, your son.

B (22:17)

So he can just.

A (22:19)

And he says that inspired by the Holy Spirit.

B (22:21)

That's right.

A (22:21)

So we know that Paul can't be wrong and see himself as a spiritual father to those communities he's pastoring, just like priests do today.

B (22:29)

Right.

A (22:29)

And to spiritual disciples like Timothy and Titus.

B (22:32)

Right.

A (22:32)

And so God can be wrong.

B (22:34)

Obviously, this is not. And of course, the other. The word in English, father is not the word Jesus uses. Right. So it's a translation of the term that Jesus uses. But Jesus also says, honor your father and your mother. Right. So if he means call no one on earth father, he violates his own teaching with that. You're going to use a word for your male parent.

A (22:58)

I think one of the keys. Michael, what do you think about this? Because right before this is call no man. Rabbi, the idea here is you had the school of Shammai. You have the school, you have different rabbinic schools. And the idea that a particular leading rabbi has a school of thought, and in that sense, he's a spiritual father. And rabbis saw themselves as spiritual fathers. And what Jesus, I think, is trying to say is, look, I am your rabbi. I'm your spiritual father, giving you the teaching of God the Father. And you don't need to have another school of thought. And so the idea here is fatherhood in the sense of originating teaching. And even to today, when I always find it, I love going to the Holy Land in Israel, but you'll see different Hasidic Jews, and some will have their hair down to their ears, some will have it down to their shoulders. They'll have different kinds of dress and those different way of wearing their hair or having certain length of tassels, certain clothing signs are a signal of which rabbi they follow.

B (24:00)

Oh, I didn't know.

A (24:01)

And the school of rabbinic thought that they follow. And the idea is that Jesus wants one Catholic f family. He wants one universal family. And so there's one father and one family. If you end up having many fathers, you end up with many families. And I think what Jesus is telling them here is that they have to hold to the teaching of the scribes and the Pharisees because they're teaching authority. But at the same time, you are not to originate your own teaching. And so we are to be Catholic. And so there shouldn't be somebody who comes along as another priest or bishop. And then they start their own line of teaching and interpretation, maybe. Well, you know, I'm tempted to say some of the names of some of those people who've done that.

A (24:44)

But you get the point.

B (24:46)

We get the point. Yeah. I think that one of the key ideas here as well is that the scribes and the Pharisees seem. And at least the ones Jesus is addressing here, all scribes and Pharisees are not evil or hypocrites, by the way. Right. And that's pretty clear if you read the whole rest of the New Testament. But Jesus is excoriating those who seek honor from other people. They want the accolades, they want the titles. They want to be praised by a lot of followers. Right. And Jesus is warning them against that kind of pride. And so he says, whoever exalts himself will be humbled. Whoever humbled himself will be exalted. And what Jesus goes on to do is he issues seven woes. And woe is a language of judgment. And so the seven woes, we don't need to go through every one of them. I mentioned already, for example, the scribes and Pharisees are hypocrites because they shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. We go on to read, woe to you, blind guides. If anyone swears by they say. They say, if anyone swears by the temple, it's nothing. But if you swear by the gold in the temple, he's bound by his oath. So some people are trying to make these finer distinctions so that you can allow people to swear by the temple and the Dead Sea Scrolls. It's interesting. The Pharisees seem to be identified as the people who make things smooth. They want to smooth out things by looking for loopholes. It's the same basic idea that you find here. That wouldn't apply to all Pharisees, obviously. Okay. And the Dead Sea Scrolls are a different group than the Pharisees.

A (26:28)

I love the contrast we get with the Beatitudes, because you have the Beatitudes, which literally blessings.

B (26:32)

Right, right.

A (26:33)

And in the Old Testament, we know from the law of Moses, like in Deuteronomy, you have blessings and curses. And here you have beatitudes and woes, which is the blessings and curses.

B (26:42)

That's right.

A (26:42)

And so at the beginning of Jesus ministry, he begins in Matthew 5 with a list of blessings. And now at the end of his ministry, he's now giving us the warnings of the curses that happen if we're disobedient. And those curses are woes because it's woe to Us, if we do it right. And then here you have blind guides. Whereas one of the Beatitudes is, blessed are the pure in heart, they shall see God. Right. So this is the inverse of that.

B (27:09)

Right. And Jesus goes on to say something that's I think, important to underscore. He says, whoever swears by the altar swears by it and everything on it. Whoever swears by the temple, swears by it and him who dwells in it. So Jesus affirms that the temple is holy. Now, there are lots of people who want to come up with this idea that Jesus was anti priesthood, anti liturgy, anti sacrifice. That is not the case in the Gospel of Matthew. And we go on to see Jesus condemns the scribes and Pharisees for neglecting the weightier matters of the law. And finally it all comes to a climax with a word about judgment at the end. He says, fill up then the measure of your fathers, which is the image of judgment. Right. So the judgment will come when your sins reach a certain level is basically the idea there.

A (28:05)

Yeah, it's bringing. We're seeing a lot of the Gospel come together here because when we listen to the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus, after giving the Beatitudes, talks about, you have heard that it was said, but I say to you, so he deals with the Torah, and then after the Torah, he deals with other subjects that we'll talk about next time, like the Temple piety, and then finally alms, giving and deeds of righteousness. And so here we're going to see in this what we'll call the olivet discourse. Chapter 23 is dealing with the teachers of the Torah. And so he's saying, woe to these teachers of the Torah who aren't teaching the heart of the Torah. And they're using the Torah as a platform for personal advantage and self gain. And then in chapter 24, the next chapter, we're going to read and study. We're going to see Jesus address the Temple. And then in chapter 25, he's going to deal with how we're judged by how we do works of mercy. And so the three key aspects of the Sermon on the Mount are now brought out here. And in a sense, Jesus told them what they should do in the Sermon on the Mount. And now we're seeing the woes and the judgment if you don't do what Jesus commands. And so it's really important for us to pay close attention. So I want to invite you, go back and read through Matthew 5, 7 before we finish this Bible study on chapter 23 and 24. So next time we're going to cover Matthew chapter 23, and we'll pick up here with some things maybe in 23 that we haven't covered. But you get the large gist here of what we're trying to say Jesus is doing in chapter 23, giving woes to the teachers and the scribes. And again, what's so important? And I know Matthew, who is considered an outsider when he says to the scribes and the Pharisees, woe to you, for.

A (29:47)

You tithe mint and all these basic herbs and seasonings. You're even tithing that. But you miss the weightier matters of the law, love, justice and mercy. And we see that Jesus is trying to teach and correct that. We have to understand that God's law is about God's love. Well, thank you for being with us. And we ask the Lord to bless and keep you. We'll see you next time.