Jesus and the Pharisees – Part 9 – “Seeing True Value” – Matthew 23:16-22

Like so many things in life, value is both relative and absolute.

In the arts, what’s valuable to you may not be so valuable to me, and vice versa. You may like Picasso, while I like Renoir. While we may agree that both artists are talented, we would both be willing to pay different prices for their art. That’s subjective, depending on each person’s opinion.

No matter how we may feel about art, though, we all agree that numbers have definitive values. The number “four” will always be worth “four.” A two will always be a two. Granted, there are some mathematicians who can argue that values of numbers are relative or subjective, but most people, even the most advanced mathematician, will agree that four is four and two is two. These values are absolute and objective.

What happens when we begin to place subjective values on what is objectively valuable? It opens the door to chaos and uncertainty. It is the problem that Jesus confronted the Pharisees with in today’s passage.

Background

The Pharisees as a rule did not believe in oaths. They believed that a person’s word should stand for something.

However, they also understood that they were dealing with men and women who were not so strong in their aversion to oaths. Many ordinary people would back up a promise or statement with an oath.

Recognizing the inevitable, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees began to teach about how to make an oath in order to try to contain the excessive amount of oaths flying around in society. They began to teach that certain oaths were steadfast, while other oaths were non-binding. In today’s passage, they taught that swearing by the gold in the Temple was a valid oath, while swearing by the Temple was non-binding, and that swearing by the gift on the altar was a binding oath while swearing on the altar was not.

The problem with grading oaths as binding and non-binding is that it opened the door for perjury and cheating. To swear on something that was non-binding was the equivalent of a child today saying something is true and then claiming that their fingers were crossed, so it didn’t count as a lie when their “true” statement proved to be untrue. When a person could never determine which oaths were binding and which were not, it devalued all the oaths made.

When Jesus came along, He recognized the hypocrisy of such rules, and He called them out on it. For one thing, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told His disciples that one of the ways their righteousness would exceed that of the Pharisees is to never swear. Jesus said that we should simply let our “yes” mean “yes” and our “no” mean “no.” Jesus said, “I tell you, Do not swear at al” (Matthew 5:34a).

And so we come to this third of the seven woes found in Matthew 23. While the first two woes were directed at their giving people a false sense of security in their spiritual life, this woe deals with the misplaced values reflected in the Pharisees’ teaching, which is the truth of today’s passage.

Central Truth: Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for their misplaced values.

Jesus pointed out:

1. The Pharisees focused on the minor items 16-18)

“Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold in the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, of the altar that makes the gift sacred?”

The first part of Jesus’ condemnation of the Pharisees in the matter of oaths is that the Pharisees had misplaced the meaning of what is truly valuable.

They taught that swearing by the altar and the temple were insignificant, while swearing on the gift on the altar and the gold in the temple were binding oaths. By insisting on this, the Pharisees showed they had no idea of what makes the gift and the gold truly valuable.

The Pharisees were looking for an expediency to alleviate the troubling practice of swearing oaths. When we look for an expediency or any easy way out, we tend to ignore the value of something and pass it off as inconsequential. That’s what’s going on here. By insisting that the less valued item is the one that maintains the oath, the Pharisees were essentially telling the world that the altar and the Temple are secondary to the gifts on the altar and the golden vessels within the Temple.

It would be similar to telling someone that the album cover is more important than the album inside. While I will grant you that that is sometimes the case, for the most part, when you and I would by albums (back when they were available), we did so because we liked the musicians and the songs that were recorded on the album. The cover was fun to look at perhaps, and it may contain some information that was helpful to us understanding the musicians or the songs, but it was listening to the album itself that gave meaning to the cover.

Jesus’ condemnation of the Pharisee practice of placing importance of secondary things over primary things can have an effect on us today. If we believe church attendance and membership is the primary focus of our fellowship with Him, if we come to believe that the true mark of a Christian is that we regularly participate in church events and reading the Bible while ignoring what the Bible is telling us, then we are placing the secondary issues after the primary issue, which is establishing a growing, dynamic relationship with Christ. If our focus is on anything less than our relationship with Christ, then we are no better than the Pharisees and their misplaced values in matters of making oaths.

2. What brings true value and worth (19-22)

“Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and everything on it. And he who swear by the temple swears by it and by the One who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the One who sits on it.”

The emphasis of swearing on the gift on the altar and the gold in the Temple misses the point of an oath in the first place. To raise the value of a gift or a golden vessel, or even giving great value to the altar and the Temple is to miss the fact that the Temple and the altar are only important because of their connection to God. Without God, the Temple is just another building and the altar is just another table.

Jesus’ point here is that, ultimately, all oaths come under the relationship we have with God. Because God gives value to anything the Pharisees say we should swear by, He is the one who sanctions the oath. And an oath before God is one that must be kept at all cost.

In Numbers 30, Moses gives the people a detailed instruction about making vows or swearing an oath. In that chapter, God, speaking through Moses, says, “When a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said” (Numbers 30:2). The instructions then speak primarily to oaths made by women. A woman living in her father or husband’s home is obligated to uphold the vow unless the father or husband learns about it and immediately renounces the oath. The chapter goes on to say that, “Any vow or obligation taken by a widow or divorced woman will be binding on her” (Numbers 30:9).

In Ecclesiastes 5:4-7, the Bible tells us, “When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it. Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. And do not protest to the temple messengers, ‘My vow was a mistake.’ Why should God be angry at what you say and destroy the work of your hands? Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore stand in awe of God.”

The point of Jesus’ teaching is that, ultimately, vow or an oath is always made before God Himself. As God makes clear in the Old Testament—the laws and prophets the Pharisees professed to teach and live by—He does not allow some others to be valid and others not. In God’s eyes, an oath is an oath and it must be fulfilled.

Conclusion

We live in a day and age where promises are made to be broken. Gone are the days when a man’s handshake was all he needed. Jesus tells us we are not to make oaths or vows, but we are to be people of integrity and honesty. We can do this only if our values are placed correctly. We can only live this way if we understand that our relationship with God is the most important thing about our lives, and that expressing that relationship in the way we relate to the people around us is a true reflection of how we are in relationship with God.

Our values, our integrity, our lives, are all connected to our relationship with God through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. When we walk in His ways, we know what really is important, what really is valuable.