Flashback Episode — Father, Teacher, Leader: Matthew 23:1-36

As we continue moving through the events recorded in the gospels during the week leading up to the cross, we come across a powerful message that is easy to overlook and ignore after closing your Bible. While it is easy to orient your life and focus in alignment of this short teaching and challenge Jesus gives His followers while alone studying, it is more difficult to do so when living with others in community.

While the passage I have listed to cover this week is long, if we were to read it all, we would run out of time before being able to focus on Jesus’ challenge. Because of this, while I don’t like leaving parts of our passage unread, unfortunately most of this week’s passage will be unread on this podcast. I would encourage you to read the whole passage I shared in the intro, from verses 1 through 36, even though we will only spend time focusing on three verses tucked within this passage.

In our passage, while Jesus was transitioning between warning the crowd about being like the scribes and Pharisees to directly calling them out for how they are living without God’s love, Jesus makes a fascinating statement that we can easily miss because of the profound truths in the verses surrounding it. This truth is found in verses 8, 9 and 10 of Matthew, chapter 23. Let’s read this powerful idea using the New American Standard Bible translation. Starting in verse 8, Jesus tells His followers and those present:

⁸ But do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers. ⁹ Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. ¹⁰ Do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, that is, Christ. 

While, many of us are familiar with Jesus’ words in these three verses, as I read them in preparation for this podcast episode, something in my frame of mind or simply the Holy Spirit’s prompting lead me to see these three verses and phrases on a different level. Looking at the broader context of Jesus’ message warning His followers to be cautious of the scribes and Pharisees, I suspect that these three roles, rabbi, father, and leader, were roles and names that the Pharisees and scribes liked to be identified as.

However, instead of simply telling His followers to avoid these terms, Jesus shares each one with a reason why, and He ties that reason to a role God should be within our lives.

Jesus starts by telling them not to call each other rabbi, which would be another way to describe a spiritual teacher. I suspect that if Jesus spoke this message today, He would use the term pastor, because it is our modern day equivalent word for a spiritual teacher and leader. I don’t believe Jesus is challenging us to avoid calling people rabbis or pastors because we cannot or should not learn from them. Instead, I believe Jesus wants to draw us to a bigger truth and help us keep our eyes and focus on this bigger truth, specifically on the truth that we as a spiritual community worldwide have “One” who is our true Teacher. In John’s gospel, on their walk to the garden on the night Jesus was betrayed and arrested, Jesus promises that after He is gone, the Holy Spirit will lead them into all truth. Because of this promise, I strongly suspect that Jesus intends for us to look to the Holy Spirit as our rabbi, pastor, and teacher.

Next, Jesus tells the disciples to not call one another using the word “father”. Again, this isn’t because we do not have a biological male parent, but because He wants to draw out “One” who is our true Father. Within the Old Testament, in Psalm 139, the writer of the psalm says to God in verse 13, “You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb.” I suspect that Jesus wants us to view God the Father in Heaven as our “One” true Father, and as someone who is always there for us when we need Him. I wonder if this is one reason Jesus repeatedly described God in heaven as God the Father. God the Father is the One we look to as our Father because He helped create us in addition to our earthly parents.

Thirdly, Jesus tells His followers to avoid describing each other as “leaders”. I doubt Jesus said these words because He wanted to avoid any type of structure among His followers. When people group together, certain personalities are more leader-like than others. I doubt Jesus would want to erase the leader-like personalities from among His followers. Instead, I suspect that Jesus is more interested in having every one of His followers understand that regardless of the role we have in our spiritual community, we have a member of the Godhead who is our Leader. Since we have focused on the Holy Spirit and on God the Father, I suspect that the role of Leader in the Godhead is placed on Jesus Himself.

As the most visible member of the Godhead, Jesus is the easiest one for us to follow, and about the only thing that breaks through all the differences of opinions, conflicting ideas, and divisions in the body of Christ is the simple truth that we are to “follow Jesus”. In the broad history of Christian tradition, there are valid topics worth debating and there is room for differing opinions, but if we were to simply be like Jesus, love like Jesus, and act like Jesus, our differences of opinions would be minor in comparison to the love we would have for one another.

In these verses, Jesus takes three roles that the Pharisees and scribes probably liked using for each other to elevate themselves above the common crowds, and He tells His followers to only use those terms to describe God. God is our Teacher, our Father, and our Leader, and in a skillful way, Jesus shares these three roles in a way that connects each role with a member of the Godhead.

While we might be tempted to think this truth was only applicable for those in the first century, I believe that since Jesus spoke these words, and since Jesus did not give us a time constraint for this message, this challenge is just as applicable for us living today as it was for those living in the first century. I suspect that Jesus’ model for the role of each member of the Godhead in relation to Jesus’ followers will be the model used in heaven as we live together for eternity. While we live together here on earth, it is very easy for us to get caught up praising one another and developing a hierarchy where everyone fits in rank rather than simply taking Jesus’ words that we are all brothers and sisters with God as our Father, Leader, and Teacher.

I just had a thought. Part of me wonders if this was God’s original plan for the Israelite nation during the book of Judges and prior to them demanding Samuel to anoint a king. I wonder if God originally intended His nation to be a nation of brothers and sisters who continually would look to God to fill these three roles. If this is the case, then it is possible He is looking for this same model within in His church today. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that God’s model for His people is to view themselves as a group of spiritual brothers and sisters who hold God as our true Father, true Leader, and true Teacher.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life. If you haven’t done so, decide today to place God into the role of Father, Teacher, and Leader of your life. When each member of the Godhead fills these roles in our lives, our lives will be aligned with Jesus and with how He instructed His followers to live.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to intentionally grow closer to God and to learn what He is like. While other people can give you ideas to think about, take everything you read, hear, and see and in prayer and study, test it against the truths of the Bible to discover if it aligns with what God has taught us.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!