Hypocrites in the Chair of Moses: Jesus Teaches about Covenantal Authority
Today, Jesus denounces the Pharisees and scribes as outrageous hypocrites, yet He tells His disciples to do whatever they say. Why?
Gospel (Read Mt 23:1-12)
In the many parables He taught, Jesus gave His enemies, the religious elites of Jerusalem, ample opportunities to recognize Him as their Messiah and be converted. Their response, instead, was to try to trap and silence Him. In today’s Gospel, He now gives a direct warning to His followers about the dangers they present to God’s people. However, He begins His warning with a surprising exhortation: “The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example.” This presents a conundrum to the modern mind. Why would Jesus bind His followers to obeying people whom He denounces as fakes?
Jesus makes reference to “the chair of Moses.” In the synagogues, when teachers of the Law of Moses read the Scripture, they stood up. When they instructed the congregation about its meaning, they sat down, just as Jesus did in the synagogue in Nazareth when He began His public ministry (read Lk 4:16-20). Clearly, this “chair of Moses” was a seat of teaching authority in the Old Covenant. Moses was long dead, but the authority God gave him to lead His people and deliver His Word to them lived on in the “chair,” or office of leadership. The one who sat and taught in it was able to preach truthfully, otherwise Jesus would never have instructed His disciples to fully obey it. However, the authority provided by the chair of Moses did not translate into personal holiness for those who sat in it, as Jesus makes clear: “For they preach but they do not practice.” To live in accordance with what a man authoritatively taught from the chair of Moses was a personal, individual decision. We might say that while the charism of truth conferred by the chair of Moses made a man’s teaching infallible (free from error), it did not make him impeccable (free from sin).
Does this sound familiar? Of course, it does! This principle is the same one at work in the Chair of Peter, the papacy, where the teaching authority of the New Covenant resides. It is very important for us as Catholics to see that it was Jesus Himself who suggested that this charism of truthful, authoritative teaching can actually work, even when it is exercised by men who choose not to live the truth they teach. The promise Jesus made to Peter when He gave him the keys to the kingdom (see Mt 16:13-20) was that the gates of hell would never prevail against His Church. His Church was to be built on the foundation of Peter, on the office of leadership Peter would fill. Those who sit in the Chair of Peter teach with infallible authority. A Church that can teach error would not be one protected from hell! A Church that cannot teach truth authoritatively is doomed to constant fracture and disunity. However, the popes who sit in that Chair are not by any means thereby impeccable (free from sin). We know our history includes men who chose to live up to the truth they taught, as well as, sadly, those who didn’t.
