More Woes and Laments
TRANSLATION
(23) “Woe to you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! (I call you) hypocrites, for you give a tithe of (herbs like) mint and dill and cumin but have neglected the more important matters of the Law (such as) justice, mercy, and faith. These you ought to have done and without neglecting the former. (24) You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! (25) Woe unto you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! (I call you) hypocrites, for you clean the outside of the cup and plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. (26) You blind Pharisees! First clean the inside of the cup and plate, and then the outside also will be clean. (27) Woe to you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! (I call you hypocrites) for you are like whitewashed tombs which outwardly look beautiful but within are full of the bones of the dead and all kinds of uncleanness. (28) So you also appear outwardly righteous to others, but within you are filled with hypocrisy and wickedness.
(29) “Woe unto you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! (I call you) hypocrites, for you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous (30) and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have participated with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ (31) Thus, you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who killed the prophets. (32) Go ahead, then, and finish what your ancestors started! (33) You snakes! You brood of vipers! How are you going to escape being condemned to hell?
(34) “Therefore, I am sending you prophets, wise men, and teachers of the Law. Some you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town (35) so that on you will come all the righteous blood shed on the earth from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah, son of Barachiah, whom ye killed between the sanctuary and the altar. (36) Truly, I say to you that all these things shall come on this generation.
(37) “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, (the city) that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often would I have gathered your children together even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing! (38) See, your house is left to you desolate, (39) for I tell you that you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
OBSERVATIONS
Jesus brought this fierce condemnation of Israel’s religious leaders to a deeply emotional climax with his heartfelt lament for the city of Jerusalem, the place from which God’s knowledge should have been shining forth. Instead, Israel’s capital would soon be destroyed by the Romans for having rejected the promised Messiah.
Repetitions in this segment help us grasp its message. Four more times in quick succession Jesus voiced his reproof with the phrase, “Woe to you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! (I call you) hypocrites…” (vss. 23, 25, 27, & 29), for a total of seven pronouncements of “woe” in this chapter. Other repetitions included “blind” (vss. 24 & 26), “clean the outside/inside of the cup/plate” (vss. 25 & 26), “tombs” (vss. 27 & 29), “outwardly…within” (vss. 27 & 28), five occurrences of “prophets” (vss. 29, 30, 31, 34, & 37), two of “ancestors” (vss. 30 & 32), and three of “blood,” twice accompanied by “righteous” (all in vs. 35).
OUTLINE
I. Jesus pronounced woe on the teachers of the Law and Pharisees for their many hypocrisies. (23-28)
II. Jesus pronounced woe on them for killing the prophets God had sent to warn them. (29-36)
III. Jesus lamented the destruction soon coming on Jerusalem for her godless actions. (37-39)
IDEA STATEMENT
In itemizing the grievous sins of the religious leaders who rejected the Messiah, Jesus laid the groundwork for their future condemnation at the final judgment.
APPLICATION
It is hard to find a segment with stronger words of condemnation in the rest of Scripture. Jesus’ language in Matthew 23 gives us a foretaste of what the righteous Judge, seated on his “great white throne” in Revelation 20, will declare when he pronounces judgment on those who have refused to believe the Gospel and are thus consigned to an eternity apart from God.
In this disheartening chapter Jesus spelled out the sins of Israel’s religious leaders. First, “they preach and do not practice” (vs. 3). More than that, “they do all their good works to be seen by others” (vs. 5). They “shut up the kingdom of heaven in others’ faces” (vs. 13). As “blind guides” they give others misleading and false advice parading as reliable truth. They were “hypocrites…outwardly appearing righteous to others, but within (are) filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness” (vs. 28). They, like their forefathers, had “murdered the prophets” God had sent to warn them (vs. 31). Finally, they would crucify the Son, himself. Is it any wonder that Jesus left them with this final question of condemnation: “How are you going to escape being condemned to hell” (vs. 33)? This record of wrongs took on added poignancy as Jesus expressed his lament for the city which should have welcomed the coming of her Messiah but instead rejected him and put him to death (vss. 37-39).