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 23:13–14 (ESV)
In the context of Matthew 23:13-36, Jesus heralded seven woes against the scribes and Pharisees. Luke 11:37-54 records an earlier lamentation of six woes. Rather than an oracle from a prophet of God, these woes are an oracle from the God of the prophets.
In the first woe, Jesus said, “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.” Jesus reproved the Jewish religious leaders because while pretending to be door openers they actually shut the door, so to speak, in people’s faces.
The phrase kingdom of heaven refers to God’s rule and reign over the hearts and lives of individuals He saves by grace alone, through faith alone, in the person and work of Jesus Christ alone. Where once people sought to rule their own lives, they now acknowledge God to be their Lord and Master of whom they serve for His honor and glory.
To shut (κλείετε; kleiete) means to close, exclude or to cover so as not to be seen. The scribes and Pharisees metaphorically did this by turning people away from the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His righteousness. Instead, they paraded before people a legalistic religion exalting tradition above grace. They adhered to the letter of the Law but not its spirit. The tragedy is the religious leaders were as spiritually lost as the people.
The scribes and Pharisees influence over the people of their day did not overcome the providential sovereignty of God. They were not able to thwart God’s purpose or design of saving His people.
“What is probably meant is simply this, that these leaders, in addition to not themselves entering by accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior, are exerting a sinister influence on other men, resulting in apostasy from Christ, in the sense of John 6:66. They are deceivers of men, genuine followers of Satan (Gen. 3:1, 4, 5). They are false prophets. Cf. Num. 15:1, 2; 2 Chron. 18:15; Rev. 2:14, 15, 20,” states Dr. William Hendriksen.
“Specifically, the scribes and Pharisees fought Jesus by means of their teaching, that is, by proclaiming the doctrine of work-righteousness. Think of their many rules and regulations directly contrary to the doctrine of grace and freedom in Christ. By such teaching they took away from the people “the key of knowledge” (Luke 11:52; cf. Hos. 4:6). They also fought Jesus by means of b. their conduct. The result upon those who associated with them was as indicated in 1 Cor. 15:33.”
How many pastors and others today preach a doctrine of works-righteousness? They inflict legalistic rules and regulations upon church members and attendees in order to condemn and to make them conform to man-made rules of self-righteousness. Enid Strict, unfortunately, is alive and well in many churches today.
“Though the church is not filled with hypocrites, there is no denying that hypocrisy is a sin that is not limited or restricted to New Testament Pharisees. It is a sin with which Christians must grapple. A high standard of spiritual and righteous behavior has been set for the church. We often are embarrassed by our failures to reach these high goals and are inclined to pretend that we have reached a higher plateau of righteousness than we’ve actually attained. When we do that, we put on the mask of the hypocrite and come under the judgment of God for that particular sin,” explains Dr. R. C. Sproul.
“When we find ourselves enmeshed in this type of pretense, an alarm bell should go off in our brains that we need to rush back to the cross and to Christ and to understand where our true righteousness resides. We have to find in Christ, not a mask that conceals our face, but an entire wardrobe of clothing, which is His righteousness. Indeed, it is only under the guise of the righteousness of Christ, received by faith, that any of us can ever have a hope of standing before a holy God. To wear the garments of Christ in faith is not an act of hypocrisy. It is an act of redemption.”
Soli deo Gloria!
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