Matthew 23:1-12 Part Four (Verse 4-Compassion)

Matthew 23:44“For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

What’s the burden that the Scribes and Pharisees bind on men’s shoulders? The Pharisees taught that it was only by doing good works that you were acceptable unto God. The only way that God will love you and bless you is if you are good, legalism in its purest form. If you’re good you get a cookie, if you’re good here’s another cookie, if your good here’s another cookie. The problem with that though, is that it lays a heavy burden on the person waiting for the cookie doesn’t it?

Why does it lay a burden? If I’m good I get a cookie right? What happens when the cookies stop however? Did they stop because I was bad? Did they stop because my wife was bad? Did they stop because my nation is bad? How much good do I have to do now until the cookies start again? How many good deeds can I store up so that I can keep receiving cookies? Do you see how this could spiral downward? Do you see that a relationship with God based purely upon deeds is no relationship at all?

The problem with legalism is that all it does is continue to weigh you down. You’re weighed down with the guilt of your sin and you keep trying to do things to bring yourself back up but then you sin again and it brings you down even farther. The Pharisees were agents of that guilt because anytime someone would come to them with an issue they would give them some task to “remove” the burden. Heaven forbid you had a victory in that area because then they would simply give you something else to do and at the first sign of failure you would be blamed for your lack of righteousness and the burden would continue to be stacked on. Sounds like fun doesn’t it?

The word for burden here comes from the Greek word for overloading an animal (at least that's what my commentary says). The word picture here is that you would load an animal up so heavy that the only thing it could do was stand there and bear the weight. You would then begin to beat and yell at the animal because it cannot move. If you can convince the dumb creature to move under its burden you follow behind it yelling and beating it for its inadequacy in carrying the load. Gee, that’s a great picture of compassion isn’t it?

That’s what the Pharisees were all about, keeping the people beat down in their sin and not offering them any hope or any compassion. That’s why Jesus’ message was so upsetting to them because Christ’s message was all about grace. Christ’s message was all about mercy. Christ’s message was all about forgiveness. And grace, mercy and forgiveness cut legalism right at the knees. Our relationship with God is never based on what we do, it is based entirely upon God’s grace, mercy and forgiveness.

Jesus is never about increasing our burden, as a matter of fact he tells us the opposite. Look at Matthew 11:28-30:

28“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30“For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Isn’t that beautiful? Jesus says ,”You take my load and I’ll take yours”. That is the burden that Christ bore for us on the cross. He has already carried that load and there is no need for us to pick it up again.

Isn’t grace wonderful? We don’t have to work off sin! We don’t have to do things to “get our cookies”. We simply respond to God in faith and ask Him to forgive our sins! How amazing! Look at 1 John 1:9:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Do you see any burden there? Christ says that He will forgive our sins if we will repent of them. He never tells us that we have to work our sins off. That message is horrible to a legalist because it strips away all of their righteousness and works. They hate that thought of grace, mercy and forgiveness because it is freely given.

We need to make sure that the message of the people that we listen to is smothered in God’s grace. We must make sure that they are consistently talking about the mercy, grace and forgiveness of God. We must make sure that they teach that human merit means nothing and that we are all under the grace of God. Look at 1st Peter 5:5-6:

5Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”6Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time,

Did you catch that? “All of you be submissive to one another”, that’s a tough thing to do isn’t it?

Peter would not command us to do this if the Holy Spirit would not equip us to accomplish it. We’re supposed to submit to each other aren’t we? We’re supposed to walk around in all humility. We must look at each other with grace and compassion realizing that all of us at one point or another had a burden to carry that we could not bear. The person who understands that he had been carrying a heavy load, and that load has been taken away from him by nothing but God’s grace and mercy, is not going to lay another burden on someone else. He instead is going to come along side and say, “Brother, turn to Christ. Brother, repent from that sin. Brother, let Him carry that load”. He’s never going to come along side and say “Try harder”

So when we are counseling with each other what do we do? When we are dealing with other people make sure that our message is bathed with mercy and grace and forgiveness. We must always remember the truth that our merit did not save us, God’s grace did.

Be compassionate to those who are struggling. Love those that are hurting. Some of us are hurting right now. I guarantee somebody is carrying a load as they read this that they shouldn’t. I’m also going to go as far as to say that some of us know that this person is hurting. What are we going to do? Are we going to be compassionate? Are we going to come along side of this person and show them grace? Are we going tell them of God’s mercy and tell them that Jesus loves them? Or instead are we going to come along side of them and be judgmental and tell them they should try harder.

Hear me well on this, I’m not saying that we are to accept the sin of our brothers. We are to point it out and help them to deal with it. We are always to point them toward the Christ. We are always to show them grace and mercy because One greater than us all has already demonstrated the same to us.

Grace and Peace to you all…