NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER TWELVE

Part V

Verse 37: Even your idle words will be used to judge you. What you have said will show whether you are right or whether you are guilty.

With this verse Jesus now goes deeper into the subject and shows where the root of the problem really lies with these self-righteous religious leaders. No more than orange trees will produce figs, so a diseased tree will not produce perfectly healthy fruit. Therefore, how could these people whose hearts were filled with evil, think or say anything else. When David was being pursued by King Saul who accused him of various crimes, David said, “Let the Lord be the judge. I hope the Lord will punish you for the wrong you did to me, but I won’t fight you myself. There is an old saying: ‘Bad things come from bad people. That’s why I won’t do anything bad to hurt you’.”¹

A revered Jewish Rabbi made this comment on these verses: “So says the proverb of the Ancient One: the proverb of the Ancient One of the world.”² For this Rabbi, this was the entire Torah, which is the proverb of the Holy One, blessed be He. The Psalmist also met people with this attitude, “The wicked are too proud to ask God for help. He does not fit into their plans. They succeed in everything they do. They don’t understand how you can judge them. They make fun of all their enemies. They say to themselves, ‘Nothing bad will ever happen to us. We will have our fun and never be punished‘.”³

But our Master, along with Solomon, had a word of caution for them, “Those who accept correction show others how to live. Those who reject correction lead others the wrong way. People sometimes tell lies to hide their hatred, but saying bad things about someone is even more foolish. A person who talks too much gets into trouble. A wise person learns to be quiet. Words from good people are like pure silver, but thoughts from the wicked are worthless. Good people say things that help others, but the wicked die from a lack of understanding.”⁴

One Early Church Bishop points out that if we are called to account “for every careless word,” how much more will those who have blasphemed against the Spirit of the only begotten Son receive a more bitter punishment on the day of judgment. And if, Christ says, someone merely utters a slander against someone else, that one will by no means escape judgment. If they will give an account concerning an idle word, how much more so concerning a hurtful deed.⁵

Then Early Church preacher Chrysostom makes this point: “Do you see how far the Judge is from being revengeful? How favorable the account required? For it is not upon what someone else has spoken of you but from what you have spoken yourself. From this will the Judge give His sentence. This is the fairest of all procedures. It rests wholly with you to speak or not to speak. So it is not those who are slandered but the slanderers who have cause to tremble and be anxious. Those slandered are not constrained to answer for themselves concerning the evil things said of them. But the slanderers will answer for the evil they have spoken. And over these words danger hangs. So persons censured should be without anxiety, not being required to give account of the evil others have said. But the censurers have cause to be in anxiety and to tremble, as being subject themselves to be dragged before the judgment seat. Hence slander is indeed a devilish snare, and a sin containing no pleasure but only harm.…So the plotter first destroys himself. One who walks on fire burns himself up. One who smites others bruises himself. One who kicks against the goads draws blood from himself.”⁶

So in light of what Jesus says here and the understanding passed down from the disciples to those who would lead the church in its early days, this is something every believer should take seriously. To keep this in context, it should be considered still part of what Jesus is responding to at the beginning of the chapter, involving those who speak against the Messiah and His mission, planned and anointed by God the Father, and empowered by the Holy Spirit. It was enough for the Pharisees to demand some sign from Jesus to prove that His way was the true way. But they were not expecting what they were about to be given.

These previous two verses are plainly connected by the narrative, but they are not confined to the same time frame. The words that we speak being the main subject and main point of reference aim both to the past and to the present. We are not warned about future words yet unspoken. At the same time, there is little said of receiving any present retribution, other than the normal embarrassment, rebuke and accusations of perjury, but we are admonished about their role future judgment. This becomes a very difficult situation then. Although what we have said in the past and say now in the present may slip from our memory, they will be our indictment in the future judgment.

Most everyone of us has either uttered or heard this remark, “I wish I could take back what I said,” or “I wish I had never said that.” But that’s like carelessly dropping salt instead of sugar into the coffee without first checking what was in the container, and then exclaiming “Oh, I didn’t mean to do that!” Those words alone will not change anything or remove the salty taste from the coffee. That’s why we need to be careful in what we say offhand or even in jest. Even more so when we are behind the pulpit or the lectern, especially what we say about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Word of God and other believers.

As believers, however, let us keep in mind that in Christ we are secure against double jeopardy; His forgiveness and blood covers any sin or spoken word when confessed and forgiveness is asked for. They will never haunt us again! Praise the Lord! That’s why the Old Testament Preacher said, “The most important thing a person can do is to respect God and obey His commands, because He knows about everything people do—even the secret things. He knows about all the good and all the bad, and He will judge people for everything they do.”⁷ So it is important that as soon as the Holy Spirit convicts us of wrong doing, to seek forgiveness with sincerity.

But the things our Lord was talking about were already anticipated by the Jews. A highly respected Rabbi said: “In the generation when the son of David [i.e., Messiah] will come, scholars will be few in number, and as for the rest, they will be unable to see the truth because their eyes will be filled with tears caused by disappointment and grief. Multitudes of trouble and evil decrees will be promulgated anew, each new evil coming before the other has ended.”⁸

A lot of this anticipated turmoil and confusion would be caused because liberal Rabbis rewrote the law to fit their own views. We are told: “When adulterers multiplied, the ceremony of the bitter water was discontinued, and it was Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai who discontinued it, as it is said [i.e., thereby fulfilling the prophecy,]: ‘I will not punish your daughters when they commit harlotry, and your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery, for they themselves consort with lewd women …’⁹”¹⁰ This was confirmed by the venerated Jewish theologian, Rabbi Moses Maimonides.¹¹

Verse 38: Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law answered Jesus. They said, “Teacher, we want to see you do a miracle as a sign from God.”

Here we are reminded about the story of King Shimon Bar Kozibah being mistaken as the Messiah by Rabbi Akiva because no one asked him to perform a miracle.¹² The story of King Kozibah took place in 135 AD, so it was already understood that the Messiah would be able to perform miracles. King Kozibah proclaimed himself the Messiah in the days of the writing of the Jewish Mishnah. He led a revolt against the Romans who controlled the land of Israel at that time. At first he was successful, however gradually the Romans recaptured the Land. Bar Kozibah and his men became isolated in the city of Betar.¹³ During the fast days lamenting over the destruction of the First and Second Temples which is called Tisha B’Av, and falls on the ninth day of the lunar month of Av,¹⁴ the city of Betar fell to the Romans, and hundreds of thousands were killed.

But this was not a one-time event, Jewish literature has stories where such signs were requested, so the Pharisees were only doing what had been done before. For instance we read: “The disciples of Rabbi Jose ben Kisma asked him, ‘When will the Messiah come?’ — He answered, ‘I fear lest you demand that I give you a sign proving that my answer is correct.’ They assured him, ‘We will demand no sign you.’ So he answered them, ‘When the gate of Caesarea Philippi falls down, is rebuilt, falls again, and is again rebuilt, and then falls a third time, before it can be rebuilt the son of David will come.’ They said to him, ‘Master, give us a sign.’ He protested, ‘Did you not assure me that ye would not demand a sign?’ They replied, ‘Even so, we desire one’.”¹⁵

In this story we see the main reason why the Pharisees were seeking a sign. Just as Rabbi Kisma feared, they did so to determine if he was telling the truth or telling a tale. The sign they sought was similar to the one the Egyptians asked of Moses to prove that he was sent by God, and what King Herod asked of Jesus, to walk on water so He could believe Him to be the Messiah. But regardless of the reason of the Pharisees and scribes to request a miracle as proof of Jesus’ Messiahship, our Lord gave them an answer I’m sure they were not expecting.

Chrysostom is not impressed with what the Pharisees were doing. He writes: “Just when they ought to be kneeling before Him, to admire, to be amazed and submit, they still refused to cease from their wickedness. And note their words too, teeming with flattery and pretension. For they tried to draw Him out in their deceptive way. First they insult, then they flatter Him; now calling Him a demoniac, now again Master, both out of an evil mind. No more self-contradictory words were ever spoken. This is why He rebukes them severely. Note that when they were questioning Him roughly and insulting Him, Jesus reasoned with them gently. But when they were flattering Him He reproached them with greater severity. They imagine that He is in control of neither passion and that He can be at one moment moved to anger and in the next moment softened by flattery.”¹⁶

Verse 39: Jesus answered, “Evil-minded and sinful people are the ones who want to see a miracle as a sign. But no miracle will be done to prove anything to them. The only sign will be the miracle that happened to the prophet Jonah.”

There is a good possibility that their evil and sinful mindedness was due to their refusal to believe what they saw and had the fortitude to test the Son of God, the Messiah, so as not to depend on faith to convince them. But just like God gave Noah the sign of the rainbow once the flood was over that it would not happen again, so a sign had already been prepared to proved that Jesus was truly the Anointed One. Jesus comes right out and tells them about Jonah so they need not guess or decipher what He was talking about.

Early Church writers had their views on what Jesus was saying here. For instance Origen states: “That generation was evil, on account of the influence that had come to be in it from the evil one. It was adulterous because it had left her natural husband—the word or law of truth—and had come to be wedded to a lie. The law which is ‘in the members’ of our flesh wars against ‘the law of the mind.’ It is an adulterer of the soul. Every opposing power, when it has intercourse with the soul unfaithfully—the soul that has as its bridegroom the Word of God—causes the soul to commit adultery.”¹⁷

Then we have the commentary of the author of an early commentary on Matthew. He offers this paraphrase as a possible conversation between Jesus and His detractors: “Do you wish to see a sign? Where were you when the devil, chastised by Me not with a whip but with a word, cried out, ‘What are we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come here to torment us before the time? We know that You are the Son of God.’¹⁸ The devils became aware of My power, and how is it that you have failed to see the sign of My works? Where were you when the blind seated by the wayside cried out, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us,’¹⁹⁸ that we may see?”²⁰ In other words, the writer feels that Jesus had every reason to tell these hard-headed unbelievers that they are worse than demons, at least the evil spirits recognize who He is and yet they refuse to submit to the obvious.

This same writer goes on to address the sign of Jonah. He says: “Why do the Jews seek signs and the Greeks seek wisdom? God pointed to the sign of the stumbling block of the cross to both the Jews and the Greeks. Thus those who wish to find Christ not through faith but through wisdom will perish on the stumbling block of foolishness. Those who wish to know the Son of God not through faith but through a demonstration of signs will remain trapped in their disbelief, falling on the stumbling block of His death. It is no small wonder that the Jews, considering the death of Christ, thought He was merely a man, when even Christians—as they purport to be but really are not—because of His death are reluctant to declare the only begotten, the crucified, as incomparable majesty.”²¹