Matthew 23:4

a “And they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne,

b And lay them on the shoulders of men,

a But they themselves will not move them with their finger.”

For this is an expose of the Scribes and Pharisees. They are revealed as binding grievously heavy burdens on men, and making very little effort to help them carry them. They laid on men heavy religious requirements, especially negative ones (‘binding' was a word used for ensuring the enforcing negative commandments) which they themselves were able to observe because they had shaped their lives in a way that enabled them to do so, and on the whole had the resources. Indeed they had multiplied laws and expanded on them to such an extent that only an expert could really understand what was required. (Compare Matthew 12:1). But they had taken no note of the problems of ordinary people who had to live their daily lives in situations very unlike theirs, and especially those whose occupations prevented them from being able to fit in with their requirements, and yet some of whose services they made abundant use of. Thus they wrote off such people as weavers (women's work), tanners and dyers (constantly touching dead things), herdsmen and camel drivers (probably unscrupulous and dishonest, and necessarily not punctilious in religious observance), dung collectors (constantly ‘unclean'), bath attendants (undoubtedly immoral), public servants (traitors) and so on, as ‘sinners', and as not worthy of consideration, because they not only failed to observe the requirements of the Law as laid down by them, but often could not. And they made no attempt to assist such people in their difficulties. They were simply seen by most as riffraff, to be mainly treated with contempt (see Matthew 9:11). The Scribes and Pharisees thus found no difficulty in breaking bruised reeds and quenching smoking flax (see Matthew 12:20). They simply thrust them to one side.

This was in direct contrast with those who took on themselves Jesus' yoke, for they found that that yoke was ‘easy' (straightforward and understandable) and the burden was ‘light' (Matthew 11:28), it did not ask of them the impossible. He did not ask of them narrow and detailed requirements connected with ritual which had to be performed in the right way in order to be meaningful, but rather asked of them what they could all achieve in their daily lives if they really wished to do so, by living their lives in love and righteousness. That is why His yoke was ‘easy', not because it did not make demands (no one who has read the Sermon on the Mount could say that), but because it was clear and was applied in an atmosphere of love and forgiveness on those whose hearts were ready to respond. It was a glad and willing service in response to an all powerful love and compassion revealed towards them. They loved because He first loved them.

We should note here that the very reason that Jesus had spoken of His yoke, and of the lightness the burdens that He placed on men, was because His were in deliberate contrast to the difficult yoke (of their version of the Law) and the heavy burdens placed upon them by the Scribes and Pharisees, of which the people themselves were very much aware, and under which they groaned. Thus even those words in Matthew 11:28 had contained an implicit condemnation of the Pharisees, and of the strictness of the synagogues in unnecessary matters.

‘Will not move them with their finger.' This may have in mind the use of the fingers to help another to balance his pack, or the all too well known picture of an ass driver who piled on the load haphazardly and then did not bother to make his asses life easier by adjusting it with his fingers so as to spread the load, or it may simply mean ‘they will not lift even a finger to help them'. For they had worked out many ways of mitigating the harshest effects of the Laws on themselves, but they rarely bothered to enlighten the common people about these, or to assist them in their struggles of conscience with regard to them. They were good at saying ‘it is not lawful --'. They were not so good at saying, ‘consider this, it is not required'. Many in the crowds would have been nodding their agreement to this. They knew just how heavy they found the burdens heaped on them. Jesus would hardly have dared to say such things before the crowds had He not known that many of them would acknowledge them as true.