14. 36
The Coming Judgment of
Religious Hypocrites
Matthew 23:33-36
The Coming Judgment of
Religious Hypocrites
Matthew 23:33-36
THE TEXT
“You serpents, you brood of snakes! How will you escape the judgment of the Gehenna fire of destruction? 34This is why I am sending you prophets and wise men and expert teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify. Some of them you will flog in your synagogues and chase from town to town. 35That is why you will be found guilty of all the innocent blood that has been shed on earth—from the blood of Abel, who was approved of by God, to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah—the man you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. 36I can assure you: the punishment for all these things will fall upon the society of this age!”
COMMENTS
23:33 “You serpents, you brood of snakes! How will you escape the judgment of the Gehenna fire of destruction?”
These scathing words from Jesus would likely shock the people of the time and even more so the Scribes and Pharisees themselves. Nevertheless, because of all that Jesus has just pointed out about their hypocrisy this description of them is very well deserved. Certainly, the picture of them as snakes was apropos because snakes generally served as a symbol of evil and cunning throughout Israel's history (Matt. 3:7; 12:34).
But what about Jesus rhetorical question concerning their coming judgment? This is not so much a question as a declaration that they are headed for eternal destruction, even with him as their actual future judge. Along with their hypocritical lives their rejection of him as Israel’s Messiah and as saviour of the world condemns them to this fiery Gehenna.
23:34 “This is why I am sending you prophets and wise men and expert teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify. Some of them you will flog in your synagogues and chase from town to town.”
Jesus now begins to speak of the near future after his death, resurrection, and a further 40 days spent in educating these prophets, wise men, and expert teachers in biblical truth. These ones are the apostles and the earliest evangelists. The book of Acts and the many Christian letters show that just as Jesus prophesied, these ones do get persecuted, many are jailed, and some are murdered either by or at the insistence of these Jewish religious leaders. In this way they further fulfil Jesus’ description of them as “snakes” who are no better than their ancestors who murdered the ancient prophets.
Despite such persecution these “prophets and wise men and expert teachers” flood the known world with their message about the Messiah and the coming Kingdom.
23:35 “That is why you will be found guilty of all the innocent blood that has been shed on earth—from the blood of Abel, who was approved of by God, to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah—the man you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.”
The innocent blood that Jesus mentions is that of all who have shown allegiance to God starting with Abel who was the victim of mankind's first murderer, his own brother, Cain who killed him in a jealous rage (Gen. 4:4–8). So, here Jesus was following the Jewish canon of the time where 2 Chronicles was taken as the last book of the Hebrew Bible much as we would say today, “from Genesis to Revelation.” It is in this book of 2 Chronicles that Zechariah the son of King Jehoiada (also called Berechiah) was stated to have been stoned to death in the temple courtyard for preaching God’s message (2 Chron. 24:20-22). This passage is repeated in Luke 11:50-51, but omits the words “the son of Berechiah” and so leaving him as being “the son of Jehoiada” as in 2 Chronicle 24 where in verse 22 he says, as he is dying, “May the Lord take notice and seek vengeance.”
So, Jesus is here speaking of every prophet sent to Israel and Judah who was mistreated or martyred, but who will be avenged by God. Indeed, these Scribes and Pharisees are just as guilty as those earlier persecutors and will experience God’s wrath in His due time.
23:36 “I can assure you: the punishment for all these things will fall upon the society of this age!”
The rendering here of “the society of this age” is because the Greek word genea, usually rendered “generation,” refers to a block of mankind with similar characteristics. In Matthew 24:34 Jesus speaks of: “the crooked generation” of the present age. In Hebrew thinking it refers to the people that Jesus was speaking to at the time, but taken corporately of the entire wicked society of mankind which is organized against God and living through the present age between Jesus’ two advents. This is seen from an examination of the term “generation” throughout the Scriptures concerning the wicked generation who: “are not his children because of their defect; but are a perverse and crooked generation (GK genea)” (Deut. 32:5). Also, “there is a kind (Lit. generation) of man who curses his father…there is a kind (Lit. generation) who is pure in his own eyes” (Prov. 30:11, 12). Finally, Jesus notes that: “An evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign” (Matt. 16:4). Because they seek a sign despite all the evidence Jesus gave that he came from God and of his messiahship; this generation remains unbelieving. So, Jesus also speaks of those who are: “...ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation…” (Mark 8:38).
Although including the Scribes and Pharisees, this coming judgment goes beyond their time to include all who have ever murdered or will ever murder those who serve God. Hence this is not simply a pronouncement upon those in the Jewish sphere of life or even in the first century in the A.D. 70 event or only of religious leaders. Even the common people who act this way are to be so judged as in the Zechariah case of 2 Chronicle 24:21.
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