This coming Sunday is the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time. In the previous post we considered the first of the three critiques of the scribes and Pharisees: they teach but they don’t practice what they preach. In this post we move to the second: They burden others while failing to act themselves.

4 They tie up heavy burdens (hard to carry) and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. 

In general, the Pharisees encouraged the people as a whole to live out their vocation to be a priestly nation (Ex 19:6). This was especially important given the destruction of the Temple and end of the role of the priests (all this in Matthew’s time). This meant applying the priestly purity laws to the people as a whole. It was particularly onerous. But the additional criticism is that they did not practice what they preach (v. 3). The scribes and Pharisees imposed rules on other people but gave them no help in understanding the deeper meaning within the rules. So in contrast with the “gentle yoke” and “light burden” of following Jesus, those who follow the scribes and Pharisees find themselves burdened, struggling under the weight of an arcane and complex legal code. Those who followed Jesus did not necessarily have a less stringent path, but it was oriented in a different direction.

At this point one needs to remember the refrain from Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” – “You have heard it said, but I say to you…” From that “launch” of his public ministry, Jesus has been working to have people understand the heart of the law and commandments and not just the rote following of rules and regulations – and in many cases to understand rightly, the real meaning and intent of the Law and commandments.

The imagery of the scribes tying up these loads before placing them on people’s shoulders is perhaps intended to allude to the extensive study and debate which have gone into formulating the scribal rules (e.g., 12:1–14 concerning the sabbath regulations). Yet they are not willing to help those whose troubles they have themselves caused; far from reaching out to the people, the Pharisees kept them at a distance (see 9:10–11). Contrast Jesus himself, who offers rest to the burdened (11:28–30). [R.T. France, 2007, 861]

Image credit: Woe unto You, Scribes and Pharisees (Malheur à vous, scribes et pharisiens) James Tissot, 1886-1894, Brooklyn Museum, PD-US