Day Twenty-Seven · 30 Encounters with Jesus

Woes to the Phari- ses

Jesus speaks publicly to the crowds and His disciples about the teachers of the law and thePhari- ses, naming specific failures: heavy loads without helping hands, performance without substance, titles claimed without service rendered.

Matthew 23:1–12 Week 4: The Religious
Today's Scripture

The greatest among you will be your servant.

Matthew 23:11
Also Read

They tied up heavy loads and put them on people shoulders without lifting a finger to help.

Matthew 23:4

Whoever exalts himself will be humbled. Whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Matthew 23:12
Teaching

The woes are not directed at irreligious people. They are warnings to the most religious people in the room, people who knew Scripture, who prayed long prayers, who fasted, who tithed even their herbs. And the charges against them were not paganism. They were pride, performance, and using religion as leverage.

They tied up heavy loads and put them on people shoulders without lifting a finger to help. They did everything to be seen. They loved the best seats, the public greetings, the titles. They shut the kingdom of heaven in people faces, which is perhaps the most devastating charge. They were supposed to open the door. They were closing it.

Jesus reserved His harshest words for this. Not for the outsiders, the broken, the desperate. For the people who used religion as a way to be important. And the antidote He offers is simple: the greatest among you will be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled. Whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

This is a passage for people who have been in the faith for a long time. It is a mirror.

Speak This Out Loud
"Strip away every performance. Every title I hold too tightly. Make me genuinely humble, the real kind that does not think about itself."
Today's Challenge

Check the Mirror

Does your faith make following Jesus easier or harder for the people around you? Look at the heavy loads you have quietly placed on others and begin taking them back.

Journal Prompts
  • What does my religion look like to someone watching from the outside?
  • What heavy loads have I placed on others?
  • What titles am I holding too tightly?
  • Where have I been performing instead of serving?
Reflection Questions
  • Who is the religious person in my life receiving the harshest words from Jesus?
  • Am I opening or closing the kingdom for others?
  • What would it look like to be genuinely humble?
  • What performance needs to end today?
Today's Prayer

Lord, strip away every performance. Every title I hold too tightly. Every way I have made my faith about being seen or respected or right. Make me genuinely humble, not performed humility, the real kind that does not think about itself. In Jesus name, Amen.

This is a passage for people who have been in the faith for a long time. It is a mirror.

With love, Claire