In Matthew 23
ready yourself to be challenged by Jesus’ unrelenting challenge to the scribes and Pharisees, understanding that the temptations to which they succumbed were not peculiar to one time,
see in the first challenge- readiness to preach but not practice- the need to bring our words and our deeds into vigorous harmony,
notice the desire “they” (5, 6) have to be seen in their public gestures- ornamental toting of bits of God’s words, fringes, seating at feasts and in synagogue, greetings and titles- which call to mind Matthew 6 where the desire to be seen in prayer, giving, and fasting also was rebuked,
reckon with the return once again of paradox: the greatest serves and the humble are exalted, having your thinking trained once more to see the reversals of kingdom life,
brace yourself for the astonishing run of seven “woe unto you” proclamations,
notice how in the first (13) the Pharisees hover at the edge of the kingdom of heaven, unwilling to enter themselves or to allow others to enter who actually want to do so,
notice in the second (15) how the bounteous efforts to produce converts for heaven yields few converts and those few are doubly devoted to hell rather than heaven,
notice in the third (16) how gimmicks in swearing betray a confusion about the proper hierarchy of holiness and an inability to see heaven rightly,
notice in the fourth (23) the ongoing trap of focusing on the measurable and missing the “weightier matters” (23) and especially reckon with the ongoing responsibility of holding the little seeds and the big realities in proper proportion, unlike the pitiful camel swallowers,
notice in the fifth (25), sixth (27), and seventh (29), a pattern of cleaned or painted or decorated exteriors that obscure something less savory inside,
count this third time in Matthew that “brood of vipers” (3:7; 12:34; 23:33) is used against the seriously religious people of the day, and
ponder Matthew’s Spirit-guided decision to follow the catalog of woes with a sorrowful declaration that captures Jesus’s desire to gather the children of Jerusalem under his wing, which echoes Boaz’s language in Ruth 2:12, as he happily acknowledges Ruth’s response to “the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”