Moment of Meditation: Moses' Seat (Matthew 23:2)

''The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat (Matthew 23:2).''

People like to be in charge. They want to have the authority. But they also want to be able to shift the blame. This fit the Pharisees and scribes of Jesus' day to a T. The entire twenty-third chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel is devoted to the hypocrisy of the scribes and the Pharisees. Those who could only preach from the traditions of the elders. Not from God's Word.

They held Moses' seat, but it had devolved into an honorary position. They clamored, schemed and plotted for the honors that went with being in Moses' seat. But they were unworthy of the office. They could sit in the chair, but they couldn't fill Moses' shoes as the religious leader of Israel. They were inadequate in their tasks because they sought to bring themselves honor instead of honoring God.

Jesus decries the scribes and Pharisees as hypocrites throughout this chapter. We'll spend these next couple of months dealing with Jesus' words to these hypocrites. May we learn from these words not to imitate them. Amen.