One of the great opponents of hypocrisy is ethicist at Princeton, Peter Singer. Dr. Singer is an atheist who relentlessly seeks to push the implications of the sexual revolution consistently into our culture to bring about social transformation that is consistent with atheist assumptions. He wants us to be consistent atheists. But, as Dr. Carl Trueman explains in his recent book, The Desecration of Man (which I believe is one of the most important books that has come out this year),
“[Singer’s] arguments for abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia rest upon a basic distinction between being human and being a person. For him, these are separable: One can be a human without being a person. Life begins at conception, but personhood only begins when a degree of self-consciousness has been reached, involving, in part, the ability to conceptualize the future and move intentionally in relation to that future. According to Singer, this is absent from children until the age of about two years, and also from mature human beings suffering from dementia.”
Infants, the disabled, and others with cognitive impairments may be human, according to Singer, but not persons. Therefore, killing them is not murder.
In his “Writings on an Ethical Life,” Singer explains that by viewing humans as intrinsically valuable by “mere membership in our species” (those are his words, “mere membership in our species”), we are clinging to what he calls “a legacy of religious doctrine.” Like, we’re being inconsistent atheists. We’re getting rid of God, so we need to get rid of everything that comes along with God, according to Singer.
This is where Singer’s attempt at consistency devolves into hypocrisy because, if you press him on why killing an infant might be wrong, listen to what he says:
“The difference between killing disabled and normal infants lies not in any supposed right to life that the latter has and that the former lacks, but in other considerations about killing. Most obviously, there is a difference that often exists in the attitudes of the parents. The birth of a child is usually a happy event for the parents.”
Do you catch his argument? The reason we don’t go around killing healthy babies is because the parents would be sad. This is where I believe his hypocrisy is most pronounced, because my question would be, “So what?”
If, according to atheist assumptions, we are all merely bone bags that were accidentally vomited by the universe onto a random ball of dirt, why does it matter if a couple of bone bags get sad? I think it’s a good question. Apparently, no one else does.
Even more, what if some of the bone bags decide it will make them more happy to kill their children, as was common in the Roman Empire? They called it exposure, where you put your babies out to die. Could you, based on atheist logic, argue that that is morally wrong? Maybe unattractive, but is it morally wrong?
Dr. Singer illustrates a universal truth: The smarter we get (and he is quite smart), the more sophisticated our hypocrisies. They are real, but we can’t see them because we can’t see what we won’t see. We can’t see what we won’t see. Let’s pray.
Father, we all have instinctive defense systems that protect us from seeing what we don’t want to see, especially when it comes to our own hearts. I can be so blind to what I don’t want to see. So the reason we are gathering here—having prayed over this service and recognizing that we are dependent on the Spirit of truth to speak to us, to open our eyes, to help us see hypocrisy in our own hearts—is because Jesus, you have a word for us today. We pray that your good news (which starts with bad news) would dismantle our defense systems so that we no longer need to fear seeing what we don’t want to see. As you do that, draw us near. Help us see Jesus. We pray in Jesus’s name, amen.
In Matthew 23, Jesus is confronting the hypocrisy of the religious leaders, but he’s doing it with the disciples present. You remember last week, the pronouns were really significant: “They,” referring to the religious leaders, and then Jesus would turn to “you,” the disciples. What Jesus is doing is he’s highlighting the Pharisees’ hypocrisy, not to humiliate them but to warn them, and also to train his disciples (all of us) in a way of living and leading differently.
You could break down the first two sections in Matthew 23 this way:
1. Hypocrisy can’t carry its own burden (1-12). That was last week.
2. Hypocrisy can’t see its own blindness (13-26). That’s where we’re going to be today.
In this section, Jesus uses the word blind five times, so the theme is obvious.
“Blind guides,” verse 16 and verse 24.
“Blind fools,” verse 17.
“Blind men,” verse 19.
“Blind Pharisee,” verse 26.
Hypocrisy can’t see what it won’t see. Let’s break that down. There are three things hypocrisy can’t see.
1. Hypocrisy blinds us to the eternal.
The eternal. Before we unpack this, let me answer three preliminary questions real quick.
Did you notice? If you have an ESV Bible, verse 14 is missing. It’s actually in the footnotes. Let me give you a couple of reasons for that:
Verse 14 is not found in the oldest and best manuscripts. Secondly, when manuscripts include verse 14, they place it in different locations in relation to verse 13 (sometimes before, sometimes after), which is hugely indicative of the fact that it was not original. Verse 14 is, however, found in Mark 12:40 and Luke 20:47. So verse 14 doesn’t belong in Matthew, but is original to Mark and Luke.
Jesus says “woe to you” seven times. Woe is a pronouncement of judgment that includes three ingredients: warning, compassion, sorrow. Jesus is not gloating as he issues this warning. He’s lamenting. Jesus, by the way, is gloatin’ free. That was so bad.
The Greek word “hupokrites” originally referred to an actor pretending to be a character. In the Greek world, actors wore masks, so the word “hupokrites” figuratively came to mean a dissembler or a two-faced person, which is the way we think of it today.
With these questions answered, let’s jump into verse 13:
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in” (Matthew 23:13).
Now, the kingdom of heaven most generally refers to the reign of God through Jesus. However, as we saw back in chapter 19, Jesus often uses terms almost (not quite) interchangeable with “kingdom of heaven.” Like “following him” or “entering life” or “being saved” or “entering the new world.” All of those, if you go back to chapter 19 (that section we studied a while ago), you will see them being almost interchangeably used.
The word “new world,” I love this word, “paliggenesia:” palen means again; genesis, birth. Like, birth again. It refers to a regeneration, a renewal. At times, it’s a very personal word. Other times, very cosmic. So when Jesus says “you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces,” he says you’re slamming the door on people’s hope of renewal, both personally and universally; salvation in a personal sense and an ultimate sense, when all things are made new.
There’s a play on words here: “kleio” means shut, “kleis” means key. The Pharisees embodied the contrast to what Jesus said back in Matthew 16:19. “I will give you the ‘kleis’ to the kingdom,” he said to the disciples. So the disciples are opening up the kingdom to people, and the Pharisees (according to Jesus) are shutting it. Verse 13, second half.
“For you [and as Morris points out, that ‘you’ is emphatic, ‘you of all people’] neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in” (Matthew 23:13b).
In the early 1900s, millionaire George Boldt was building a castle on the St. Lawrence River in New York. He dreamed of spending his summers here with his family, but he never went in. His wife died suddenly (January 1904). He was so devastated, he telegraphed for the construction to cease immediately, and the castle sat vacant for 73 years. They never went in. The people who should have gone in (him and his family) never went in.
That’s what Jesus is lamenting: You Pharisees, you devote yourselves to understanding the law, to seeking God. Of all people who should go in, it’s you! And you not only are not going in you are not letting other people go in! These are very strong words. It gets even stronger. Look at verse 15:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte [just to convert], and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves” (Matthew 23:15).
By the way, do you have a view of Jesus that allows him to talk like that? The way many Christians today think of Jesus is only affirming, never confronting. I don’t think you’re reading your Bible. Those are strong words: “twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.” Even when you are zealous to do good, to help people, you are harming them. Why? As we saw last week, you are so focused on image and status and titles you’re blind to what is eternal, to what ultimately matters.
Secondly, he’s going to press into this a little more. Hypocrisy blinds us to the eternal.
2. Hypocrisy blinds us to the substantial.
The substantial. They can’t see the difference between what matters and what doesn’t because they’re so focused on trivial distinctions. Jesus gives us three examples.
Example #1 – temple vs. gold
Verse 16,
“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred?” (Matthew 23:16-17)
As I mentioned last week, the Mishnah (which is the collection of rabbinic sayings; many, many volumes) has an entire volume on binding and non-binding oaths. If you’re struggling with insomnia, that’s for you. Here, Jesus is lamenting that, for these Pharisees, an oath sworn on the temple is viewed as non-binding, and an oath sworn on the gold of the temple is binding.
Example #2: altar vs. gift
“And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath’” (Matthew 23:18).
Oath sworn on the altar, non-binding. Oath sworn on the gift on the altar, binding. Jesus’s point here is very clear. He made it back in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:37). Let what you say be simply what? Yes or no. Like, just say what you mean. Why? Verse 19:
“You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it” (Matthew 23:19-22).
Jesus is saying to them, stop making trivial distinctions in order to evade accountability for your words!
Example #3: mint vs. mercy
These are examples of what blinds us to what is substantial. Mint versus mercy, verse 23:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others” (Matthew 23:23).
These leaders are super careful to tithe, as Deuteronomy 12:6 told them to. You could see them, like the Pharisee and his wife, just taking all the little mint leaves and being like, “Okay, we’re pulling out one out of every 10 mint leaves, and that goes to God.” Beautiful. So why is Jesus upset? You’re neglecting the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, faithfulness.
This past week, I was in Micah (providentially). Micah 6:8 refers to almost the same, communicates the same. Micah 6:8,
“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)
What is “do justice?” That is advocating for someone in need — specifically, a victim of injustice. You’re seeking to actively restore social well-being. “Love kindness.” You love “hesed.” You could translate that, “You love love.” Hesed is loyal, faithful, steadfast love. You love it. And you walk humbly with your God.
These three are almost identical to Jesus’s three in Matthew 23:23. This is what Jesus means by “weightier.” These are weightier than mint flakes. Verse 24,
“You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel” (Matthew 23:24).
Both gnats and camels are unclean animals from a Jewish perspective, so Jesus is describing a ridiculous scenario where you are meticulously filtering what you drink, just in case you would become unclean because a gnat happened to fly into your drink. While, at the same time, you’re wolfing down a camel.
I shared this many, many years ago, this tragic story, but I’m going to share it again because it is true and it’s very similar.
Several decades ago, a man who was visiting our church was hanging out, eating lunch with a friend who confided in him that he had become addicted, was hooking up with prostitutes, getting into all sorts of garbage. So the guy who was visiting our church said, “You need to go to your church leaders,” because this guy went to a really conservative church.
He said, “You need to go to your church leaders. You need to get help. You need to confess.” He said, “I would never do that. A, I could never do that. B, they would never help. I don’t know where to turn for help.” And he said, “If you’re not going to get it there, come to North Hills. We’ll help you.”
So the next Sunday, he comes, and at the end of the service, he walks out the door. The visitor who had invited him said, “Where are you going? Aren’t you going to talk to anybody?” He said, “I can never go to a church like that.” Why? “They sing praise choruses.”
The visitor from our church was saying, “Wait a second. You’re hooking up with prostitutes, and you have a problem with praise choruses? You are abusing and mistreating women. You are violating your marriage covenant. You are desecrating the law of God, and you’re worried about praise choruses? What is wrong with you?”
That’s what Jesus is saying. You have these mint flakes, and you are missing the weightier matters (justice, mercy, etc.). You can’t see it. It’s like us today, being meticulous in our budget to make sure we tithe fully 10%. Jesus is like, yeah, it’s good to be generous. Do that. Meanwhile, you’re neglecting the single mom who lives next door to you and is obviously not making it. Somehow that misses our attention. We can’t see that. We can see this. We can’t see that!
Hypocrisy blinds us to what is eternal, what is substantial, and third,
3. Hypocrisy blinds us to the internal.
Internal. Verse 25,
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence” (Matthew 23:25).
Once again, Jesus is using a mundane illustration to convey a massive point.
If you go to a restaurant and find out they only clean the outside of the cup, is that going to be okay with you? You’re like, “Hey, look at these cups, they’re shiny.” Then you go to drink, and there’s a dead roach in your drink (true story). There’s backwash from the previous customer, or a little crusty milk from a month ago.
Jesus is saying, you Pharisees are just like that: all clean on the outside and yet inside, full of greed and self-indulgence. Your image is familiar; your insides are foreign. What do we mean by that? Your image is familiar.
As we talked about last week, you’re very tuned-in to what people think about you. “She looked at me with those eyes askew.” Or, “He didn’t look at me.” “They ignored me online.” “They said this about me.” “I appeared this.” We’re tuned into that, how we appear. But meanwhile, there’s this swirling cauldron of anxieties and longings covered over by a veneer of resentment and bitterness. Somehow, we haven’t had time to see that. Jesus is flipping our priorities. Look at verse 26:
“You blind Pharisee! First [say that with me. First. That was lame. One more time. First. Yeah, first! That’s a statement of priority. What do I have to do today? What is my priority today? First,] clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean” (Matthew 23:26).
Start on the inside.
A couple of years ago, a missionary pastor at a large church in Dubai resigned after being confronted for a pattern of verbally abusive interactions. In his apology, he confessed to (and these are his words) “words and actions [that] have too often been intimidating and demeaning and have resulted in people feeling unsafe in my presence.” He gave examples like belittling people, publicly shaming, giving harsh feedback, using cruel humor, and misusing power.
He confessed,
“I failed to give people space to disagree, and I’ve made them feel stupid and worthless.”
He apologized to those he harmed. He thanked his colleagues for their “bravery and courage” to expose this, and he goes on to say,
“I recognize that sin has consequences, and a simple apology cannot put things back the way they were. I am more than willing to accept the consequences of my actions. I am committed to doing everything I can to help repair any damage that I’ve done. It was entirely appropriate, and I have willingly offered my resignation to the elders, which they have accepted. It was also appropriate that I offered my resignation to CMS, which is the mission board].”
Here’s the key, he goes on to say this:
“Be assured that I am looking forward with hope to the difficult and painful discipline of our Father shaping me more and more into the image of his Son. I covet your prayers as he works [where?] in me.”
We hear a lot of bad stories. One of the reasons I’m sharing this is— it is a bad story, but it’s becoming a good story: honesty, accountability, repentance… Repentance is always willing to accept consequences and not cover over. This is really an eye-opening miracle.
We know our eyes are beginning to open to see what we don’t want to see when becoming like Jesus becomes more important than being well thought of. When caring for others becomes more important than controlling them. When his work in us is more valuable than our comfort or reputation.
This pastor lost his job, his home, had to move to another country… Is it worth it? Think about this. I know for us right here, we’re like, “Yeah, it’s worth it.” Is it worth it? Hypocrisy says no. But what if I get a new heart? What if God changes me from the inside out? What if things that have needed to be addressed are finally being addressed? Things that I did not want to see, I finally begin to see. Is it worth it? Yes.
This is one of the big differences between hypocrisy and following Jesus. Followers of Jesus welcome correction, conviction, the difficult process of repentance, and hard conversations if they will lead us toward a greater awareness of our own hearts and an experience of God’s grace as he transforms us. It is worth it. Hypocrisy blinds us to all that. We can’t see the eternal, we can’t discern the substantial, we’re so caught up in trivial matters, and we certainly can’t see the internal.
Our prayer now is pretty simple: Father, open our eyes. Open our eyes, first of all, to the gospel because the gospel of Jesus is the only thing in the universe that does two things at the same time:
This is why, “Father, open our eyes to the gospel of Jesus.” This is the greatest antidote to hypocrisy. Because at the very same moment of “wow, my defense systems are melted away by the Spirit of truth and the grace of Jesus,” where there’s conviction and exposure, the grace of Jesus rushes in because Jesus, when he exposes hypocrisy in Matthew 23, is on his way to the cross to die for it. That’s good news.
Let me say a quick word to those of you with highly sensitive consciences. There are some of us, when we’re talking about hypocrisy, it can be paralyzing, right? We begin to say, “Now, why exactly did I do that?” So I want to refer back to an illustration I’ve used, and I’m going to keep using it because it’s really helpful to me, and that is the car with the hood.
When we come to moments like this, we open our car hood, and we do introspection in the presence of God: “Search me, try me, know me, see if there’d be any wicked way in me. I want to see, Father, what I can’t naturally and don’t want to naturally see. You do that work.”
Some of us are going to plan other times where we sit down with someone who really knows us, and we can ask them, “Are you noticing any duplicity in me? Are there things I need to see that I can’t see?” All of those conversations are good. That’s when the hood comes up.
People who don’t do this— There are people who won’t open their hood, and they’re deluded. But there are the people with highly sensitive consciences (who I’m talking to); they open the hood, and they can’t shut it. Like, the thoughts keep going and going. All day long, you’re wondering, “Why am I doing this? Should I not be doing this? Am I doing this to be well thought of?” It’s absolutely paralyzing.
Brothers and sisters, you can’t drive down the highway with your hood open. You can’t see. So there are times we open it. The Spirit searches our hearts. He reveals things. We learn, we repent, we grow. We welcome his cleansing, washing grace anew. Then we close the hood, and we follow Jesus, and we’re not going to work. That is a sign of growing in our walk with him.
So we want to do a couple things in response to his word: One, we’re going to sing. After I pray, we’re going to sing “Help Us See Christ,” because he is the only one who can open our eyes as we look to him.
Then after that, I want to come back up here, and I’m going to invite—nothing’s planned here—so I’m going to invite a couple of you, just a couple, who might want to pray for us regarding this, or confess something. Like, what is the Spirit saying to you? Briefly, and then we’ll continue to worship, and we’ll have an opportunity after that to seek prayer and respond to the Spirit. I’m just deeply burdened that we as a church don’t walk through passages like this unmoved. That’s scary.
Father, we want to hear what you are saying to us this morning. Please, help us see what we don’t want to see. As your Spirit breaks down our defense systems—some of these have been in place for decades, and we’re just going through the motions—but as your Spirit breaks those down, rush in. Rush in with your mercy. Please speak to us, draw us. Most of all, reveal Jesus. Jesus, thank you that you love hypocrites. You died for our hypocrisy. We don’t need to keep running, pretending, managing our image… We need you, so we come to you now in Jesus’s name, amen.
