Who then
are the people targeted in 7:15-20 and 7:21-23? Are they real opponents or
fictitious projections of heresy to come in the future? Are the same persons
addressed in vss 15-20 and in vss 21-23? Based on the SM as a whole, one can
conclude that the opposition consists of people who for the author(s) of the SM
really exist, not merely hypothetical constructs of what might happen in the
future. It seems also clear that the "false prophets" of vss 15-20
are not to be confused with the rejected petitioners of vss 21-23. The latter are the victims of the former, the
ones who have been deluded by the false prophets. It is also important to distinguish between
opponents recognized by the pre-Matthean SM and Matthew's ideas about the
heretics in his own church (cf. Matt 24:5, 10-12, 23-24; also 23:28).
The
question has frequently been discussed whether the group of people described in
vss 22-23 are "charismatics" or "antinomians." The evidence
leaves little room for doubt that they are indeed charismatics. They claim to
have prophesied, exorcised demons, and performed miracles, deeds that involve
ecstatic phenomena typical of charismatics.
Are these
people also antinomians? They may be to some extent, for they use, at least in
this description, their charismatic experiences as substitutes for their obedience
to the Torah. Thus operating outside the Torah, they are in the situation of
"lawlessness" (ανομια). This verdict is
polemical. It does not mean that the real intentions of the people portrayed
were to be immoral and lawless. They should not be stamped as anarchists denying
the validity of all law. Rather, it appears from the description in the SM that
these people end up being "lawless" against their own intention and
to their surprise, when Jesus rejects them and lets the verdict of condemnation
stand unopposed. They are the victims of self-deception caused by false
teachers who have set aside the teaching of Jesus (cf. 5: 19) and have led them
to ignore the Torah. They were led to think that charismatic experiences are
the greater accomplishments in the eyes of God. (Hans Dieter Betz, The
Sermon on the Mount [Hermeneia—A Critical and Historical Commentary on the
Bible; Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 1995], 541)