Matthew 23 begins with a tirade. Jesus has had enough of the scribes and the Pharisees. They call themselves "Teacher This" and "Father That", but they forget that they themselves have a lot to learn, and that they themselves are children of God - how can they possibly give fatherly advice if they don't listen to God, their own father and teacher?
And these hypocrites not only put themselves first, but they "make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long." The fringes were the four tassels on the corners of their robes - Numbers 15:37-41, put there to remind all good Jews to keep the Law. What about the phylacteries?
Well, at the beginning of June, our Old Testament reading began with these words from Deuteronomy: You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and fix them as an emblem on your forehead. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the LORD swore to your ancestors to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth. (Deut 11:18-21) This rather strange instruction occurs three more times in the story of Moses, twice in relation to the escape from Egypt, the Passover, and once more in relation to the Law.
Observant Jews today still wear two black leather pouches, tephilim, one on the left arm and one on the forehead. They contain the four texts enjoining their use. (Tephilim means "witnesses": the word does not appear in the Bible.) We do not know when the practice of wearing them began: some other parts of the instruction are clearly not meant to be taken literally but we know that by the time of Jesus, the practice was widespread. The Greek word used in Matthew's Gospel means something that keeps one safe - possibly recalling the idea that those who remembered God's commandments would live long lives in God's holy land.
The phylacteries reminded their wearers "to fear God, to walk in God's ways, to love and serve God with all their heart and soul". But they also had to "keep God's commandments" (Deut. 10:12-13). The Pharisees did this (or claimed to!) with zeal. The word Pharisee means someone who remains separate, and they read with delight the tale of how God had ordered their ancestors to keep themselves pure, by dispossessing and destroying the pagan peoples living in Canaan. They studied the detailed regulations about cleanliness and decency, and the punishments for misbehaviour. They did not always notice that many laws were about kindness to others: the newly-wed gets a year's leave from the army, the foreigner can gather the forgotten sheaves from the field, you cannot enforce a debt by taking a workman's tools or a poor person's clothes.
We all know the story of the children of Israel, led by Moses through the desert, and of the law revealed to him at Mount Sinai. Jesus spoke to his followers on another mountain, and turned the law on its head. The law had been largely negative: "You shall not." Jesus began by commending people with positive qualities - the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers. The law had concentrated on punishment: "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." No, no, said Jesus. Those words were for another age. In the new order, we are to love our enemies and to pray for our persecutors.
This was not something completely new, but it was a new approach, an approach that appealed to the heart and not to the mind, an approach that concentrated on rewards and not on penalties. God's love and goodness, God's faithfulness and God's friendship lie at the root of the Old Testament, but "the words" do not always show it. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus' words are absolutely explicit. We are to be guided by love: love for God, and love for our neighbour - and these are not two kinds of love, for "just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me." (Matt 25:40).
Jesus concluded the Sermon on the Mount by saying that Everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The "words" are not the same as the "words" in Deuteronomy. But the meaning behind them is identical: we are to love God, and to love God in others. For we all share God's image, and we can show this love not by making long lists of things that are wrong and punishing those who fall short, but by striving after the things that are right - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is, as Paul told the Galatians, no law against such things.
HD