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.
Teachers such as those mentioned here worked to create dependance in the people who heard them on the teachers themselves rather than on the word of God that they claimed to illuminate. Their exaggeration of the traditional clothing and their excessive love for titles and honorifics were manifestations of this fact.
We can imagine such teachers claimed to have a teaching that was better than others had, better than was commonly known, because they themselves were so wise. Probably their was additional complexity that was purely of their own making so that they themselves would seem indispensable. Yet for those saddled with these burdens they did nothing to help. Their teaching was ongoing but it did nothing to empower actual change in the lives of their listeners.
Are their still such teachers who claim to have unique and privileged insights into the word of God? Are their teachers who assure us that we can finally have a breakthrough if we join their special program or subscribe to their YouTube channel? Undoubtedly. We must be careful to seek teachers who are not primarily interested in self-promotion, whose teaching is meant to clarify the Gospel and the Tradition rather than anything clever that they themselves devised. There are many such good teachers, who really are working more to help us carry the burden of Christ than they are trying to saddle us with more additional work and then leaving us to it. These are teachers who participate in the teaching office of the one true Rabbi and Master. And for them we should be grateful.
As for you, do not be called ‘Rabbi.’
You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers.
To the degree that any of us are involved in teaching we should desire that others grow to become as self-sufficient as possible, to depend as directly on the Gospel itself, on the Holy Spirit himself, as can be. We must realize that we finally have nothing to contribute beyond pointing back to these core realities and that when we mistake this point we only muddy the waters. This self-sufficiency, or better, God-sufficiency, was precisely the goal of John for his readers, which is why he told them, "you have no need that anyone should teach you" (see First John 2:27). How humble a thing for a teacher to say! Let us learn from his example.
Come now, let us set things right,
says the LORD:
Though your sins be like scarlet,
they may become white as snow;
Though they be crimson red,
they may become white as wool.
In Isaiah we hear a prophet who genuinely desired that his people would cast off the yoke of sin and be purified to bear the yoke of God. He himself was speaking so that his words could empower his listeners to practice the simple message that they had heard preached, to cast away the wrong burdens that had preoccupied them, and to carry the burden of the Lord himself, represented by concern for the widow and the orphan's plea.
If you are willing, and obey,
you shall eat the good things of the land;
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