Matthew 23: 1-12
Because I’m a deacon, A lot of people open up to me about how they feel about this priest, or that bishop, or often, the Pope. Usually it’s a criticism. I don’t hear a lot of people saying, “He’s doing a great job.” Pope Francis gets a lot of flack. Unlike previous Popes, he’s not very careful about how he answers reporters or interviewers.
Today’s Gospel begins with a surprising statement: “The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatever they tell you.” Most of the time the gospels show Jesus fighting with the teachers of the law, often when they try to trap him into saying something divisive or dangerous. But here he tells his hearers to do whatever they tell you.
We need to reflect on a typical worship service in the synagogue in those days. The people would gather, men on one side, women and small children on the other -- or men in front, women and small children in the back, as is still done in mosques. The rabbi, or in Jesus’ time a scribe or a Pharisee who was also a scribe, since scribes could read, would lead the prayers, then read from the Torah scroll, and then from the scroll of the prophets or the scroll of the teachings -- the latter containing Old Testament books other than the first five and the prophets. It was something like our own lectionary. You probably remember when Jesus began his public ministry, he read from the scroll of Isaiah, and declared afterwards that “Today this has been fulfilled in your hearing.” After reading, the scribe, or perhaps another authority, would sit down and explain how that reading applied to life in general. That seat was referred to as the Chair of Moses. Someone who sat in it to teach was considered to have some of the authority of Moses himself, who, you may remember, gave some of his authority to seventy elders to help govern the people.
But Jesus goes on to say, “do not follow their example -- because they preach but do not practice.”
It’s very similar to what we Catholics believe. We believe the Holy Spirit keeps the Church from error. God shepherds his people through the Pope, the bishops, and our priests. But we all know that all of those individuals are humans, and all have some fault or other -- not necessarily sin, although we are all sinful; but rather faults that interfere with their mission.
Sometimes our teachers do act like hypocrites. They did in Jesus’ time as well. Jesus is telling us a couple of things here, true in his time and in ours: respect the fact that some people are given the authority to teach and listen to them. That does not mean we should necessarily act like them.
Then Jesus gives his disciples the bottom line. How do you tell good teaching from bad? You look to Jesus. He’s the only one we can ultimately call “rabbi” or teacher. Another point: if we are all brothers under the same Father, then anyone whose teaching threatens that bond between brothers is a false teacher. If you chip off chunks of the Church and go your own way, like the Protestant reformers, that’s pretty much an indication that despite their sincerity, their teaching is tainted with falsehood. And finally any threat to God-given authority which ultimately resides in Jesus himself, is another sign of false teaching; “Do not be called Master.”.
Sadly, we human beings still have to muddle through. Take the controversy over the old Tridentine rite of the Mass -- Latin, multiple repetitions, priest facing the altar, movements carefully practiced in the seminary so that once you were finally ordained you would say mass just like all the other priests in the world. Some people wanted that to continue. Pope Benedict lifted previous restrictions and allowed any priest to say the mass privately, and lay people could attend -- but it wasn't’ to be said in place of the regular liturgy. And of course Pope Francis put more restrictions on who could say the mass and when and where it could be said. Now none of this has to do with what we are to believe about the Mass, it has to do with church discipline. But you can see how a person who considers himself or herself a faithful Catholic but loves the Tridentine rite, and there are many who fit this description, might wonder which Pope is the one I should listen to? And confusion reigns.
And Jesus again teaches us who we should imitate -- the one who humbles himself, the one who takes the role of servant. And Jesus himself acts out this role and reminds us at the time of the last supper that he is the servant, he is the one who washes the feet of the apostles, he is the one who will lay down his life for his friends; he is the only one whose example we should follow.
