On This Day: Woe to the Hypocritical Gatekeepers

“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).

 

   Matthew 23 begins Jesus’ final message before going aside with his disciples to finish preparations for his crucifixion. It revolves around 7 woes against the scribes and Pharisees because of the damage they have done in hindering people from believing in Jesus as their Messiah.

   There is so much in this that speaks to the seriousness of how we affect people regarding the gospel. Are we the Gatekeepers who hold the door open for people to enter, or the religious hypocrites who make it difficult for people to come to Christ?

   But this also denounces the false teacher I am critiquing (Brad Jersak) for the very things Jesus spoke against those religious leaders, at least in the first woe, “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).

   Just writing that down brings to mind so many “church” people who have stood in the way of people coming into the kingdom while refusing to enter themselves. It is sobering and scary to read how clearly and strongly Jesus speaks against these leaders. They are hypocrites because they are supposed to be leading the people to God through his word, but are actually rejecting Jesus as “the Word”, and the Scriptures as “the word” that speaks of him.

   The conviction for me is twofold: first, I need to examine myself to be sure I am holding Jesus Christ out as the door to the kingdom of heaven and inviting everyone in my life to come to God through him. And second, I need to echo Jesus’ woes as the continuing word from heaven about religious hypocrites who stand in the way of people coming to the true Lord Jesus Christ through the true “good news of the kingdom”.

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)