This is a heavy teaching day for Jesus in the week. (It’s almost like He knew His time as limited!) Jesus teaches in the temple, gets challenged by religious leaders, gives major parables and warnings, and teaches about the end times, too. The Olivet Discourse happens here, and much more.

I will choose to highlight this one teaching below:

23 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: ² “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. ³ So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. ⁴ They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. ⁵ “Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries^[a] wide and the tassels on their garments long; ⁶ they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; ⁷ they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others. ⁸ “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. ⁹ And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. ¹⁰ Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah. ¹¹ The greatest among you will be your servant. ¹² For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.- Matthew 23:1-12

Point 1: Warning against religious leaders. There are so many “famous Christians”, “false teachers”, or “created religious organizations” today. I think a warning to a lot of these lay in these verses above. Does the person, organization, or “church” you look up to live by the statement of: “Everything they do is done for people to see”? This verse and the others here point to a works based faith. If this matches your organization or faith, I think it’s time to start questioning that organization. Verse 7 is interesting. If anyone says “you must address me as ‘prophet’, ‘apostle’”, etc. then those sentiments abide in this verse. In verses 8-10, he notes that you only have one Teacher, which is Jesus, the Messiah. No one can take his divine place, no one is greater than He, and no other book is above His Word. This is true no matter what person or false religion says otherwise. No one is greater than Jesus.

Point 2: Warning to us. ¹² For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted is a gut punch. If you lift yourself up with pride, you will be lowered in your own fall. If you humble yourself, the world will lift you up….wait…is that right? Nope, not at all. That’s not the message of the world. If you humble yourself, then Christ will lift you up.

This time for Jesus is filled with so much rich teaching, so I encourage you to go read Matthew 21:23 through Matthew 25:46 and meditate on these verses.