1Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, 2saying: "The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. 3Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. 4For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. 5But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. 6They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, 7greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, "Rabbi, Rabbi.' 8But you, do not be called "Rabbi'; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. 9Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. 10And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ. 11But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. 12And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
13"But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. 14Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.
15"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.
16"Woe to you, blind guides, who say, "Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.' 17Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? 18And, "Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.' 19Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? 20Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it. 21He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it. 22And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.
23"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. 24Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
25"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. 26Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.
27"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. 28Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
29"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, 30and say, "If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.'
31"Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt. 33Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? 34Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, 35that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
One of the first things that went through my mind when I read this was, boy, I sure wouldn’t want to be on the wrong side of Jesus. He could really lash out the condemnation. He knew the Pharisees and Scribes hearts. And He could list off all their faults one by one. But Jesus also knows my heart. In the final judgment, will I incur the same condemnation from Jesus? I think the message in this text is for all of us, not just so we can hear Jesus berate the Pharisees and Scribes.
Jesus said to not do as the Pharisees did, but as they taught. Even those we admire, those who seem to know right from wrong so well, still have a tough time doing right. We should do what we are taught, not what we see others do. Just because we see others doing something, that does not mean it is right.
Do I make doing the right thing seem harder than it is? Do I have too many rules for what I think is right or wrong? Are those rules of God’s doing or mine? Am I just adding extra burden rather than helping to ease the burden for others?
Do I try to do right for my own recognition? Do I do it for my own pride? Do I flaunt what I do right? Do I feel superior when I do right? These Pharisees were taking the title of “Rabbi” for their own gain. But only One earns the title of Teacher, the rest of us are all equal, the rest of us are to all be servants. And if we try to achieve more, we will be humbled, and if we humble ourselves we will be as good as the rest. We are all brethren.
Am I a hypocrite like the Pharisees? Do I view others as not worthy to enter the kingdom of heaven, when I have no better right to enter heaven? Do I trod over others like the Pharisees who devour widows’ houses, then try to make myself look good with an outward appearance of attention to God, be it long prayers, attendance in church, or whatever I think gives the outward appearance of being a faithful servant of God?
Do I try to make someone else more like me, or more like God wants?
It is interesting the excuses the Pharisees could come up with. If they swore by one thing it was as nothing, but if they swore by another thing they were obliged to perform it. But these are only excuses, excuses which do not work with Jesus. Do I try to make excuses for my wrong doing? Do I try to claim some wrong doings are as nothing? Do I think some sins are minor and therefore do not count as much?
Like the Pharisees, do I pick and choose the services to God that I prefer, doing one to the extreme and ignoring another? Do I focus on outward appearances and ignore what is in my heart. Jesus says if we clean up what is in the heart, the outward appearances will take care of themselves. So I should not worry about outward appearances.
The Pharisees say that if they had lived in the days of their fathers, they would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets, they would not have participated in the destruction of the prophets. Yet they will be the chief violators in the death of Jesus. They say one thing but are unable to apply it to what they do. Do I do the same?
We all suffer the same guilt as the generation before us. We are no better than them, even though we like to think we will not make the same mistakes. How will we escape the condemnation of hell? Jesus said, “Therefore I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes.” Jesus sends us what we need to escape the condemnation of hell. But we destroy what He sends us, we sin even though Jesus sends us help. And on us comes the righteous blood shed by those we destroyed. We must be punished for our sins for Jesus said “Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.” The punishment of sin is death.
But the good news that Jesus doesn’t say in this list of condemnation is that He is going to take that punishment of death for us, for our sins. But first we must let Jesus into our lives. And when the time comes that Jesus lists off all my sins, in my final judgment, I don’t want it to be this same list He just rattled off for the Pharisees. I don’t want Him to have to die again for all the things He is so clearly telling us to not do.
I need to learn from this condemnation Jesus made of the Pharisees. I need to see to it that I am not just like them. Yes, this list Jesus goes through makes me think those Pharisees are pretty bad people. But when I really look at it I see that I am not much better. I better work on cleaning up my own heart. Jesus knows what is there. And Jesus could easily berate me better than anyone else could.