NOTES for Mat 22:41-23:12

The Pharisees liked being religious people. They were authorities for their compatriots, respected teachers of the law, guardians of cultural tradition, and so on and so forth. We, too, do not object to greetings in the assemblies, if the opportunity arises, and we are ready to offer our weighty opinion in any situation—in short, to be held in high regard. But the essence of our religion, if life with Christ can be called that, does not lie in any of this. We are ready to be the Pharisees of our own time, or perhaps we already are. But are we ready to have no teacher other than Christ, no father other than God, no homeland other than His Kingdom, and to be servants rather than masters? Does this correspond to our ideas about religious life, about the tradition of our forebears whose heirs we are?