Matthew 23:23-28 Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
The Pharisees and the teachers of the law put on a good show for the people. They seemed to be righteous, dedicated, consecrated to God and his will. Humans tend to judge on the outside appearance, what appears to be right or good. But God knows the heart of a man; He rightly judges what a man really is; his goodness, his evilness, his willingness to deceive or be upright. God knows the intentions of men, their thoughts, their hopes, their secrets. When Samuel the prophet chose the first king of Israel, Saul, he thought he had God’s man, for Saul was a half head taller than all the other Israelites. He stood out in a crowd of men. Surely, he was the man that should lead Israel. Saul’s physical attributes made him the warrior king desired by the Israelites. Saul had a humble heart when chosen as the king of Israel. But sadly humility gave way to a self-willed attitude revealed in his defeat of the Amalekites. He failed God by not completely destroying all the Amalekites and their animals. He spared the king of the Amalekites and some of the better animals. He lied to Samuel when he told him that he spared the better animals to sacrifice to God. Samuel rejected this lie and judged Saul immediately. You have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you as king over Israel! (1 Samuel 15:26) Saul’s self-will, his words and ideas over God’s everlasting word brought judgement upon him. God’s word should never be secondary in a person’s life: God’s words should take preeminence over everything man thinks or does. King Saul made two seemingly innocuous decisions in this situation, but both violated God’s irrevocable word, causing him to lose his right to rule Israel. King Saul’s heart was not right with God. Therefore, God told Samuel to ordain another man as the ruler of Israel. He told Samuel the outward appearance of a man does not matter—only his heart matters. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7) David the shepherd boy was selected as the next King of Israel. In telling the history of Israel, Paul says David, was a man after God’s own heart; he will do everything God wants him to do. (Acts 13:22) David would follow God’s will in his leadership role, although human weaknesses would get him in trouble with God. The priests that Jesus confronted were not faithful in their leadership role. In fact their hearts were so contaminated that they were called vipers who were lethal to the people they ruled. They were making decisions in their lives that were important to God such as tithing: You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin, but they neglected what was more important to God. In their regulations and law bound attitude, they lost the heart and purpose of serving God.
God chose the Israelites out of all the people of the world to show his justice, mercy and faithfulness. The capstone of the law was to love others as you want to be loved, for that reflects how God loves people. The religious leaders presented themselves as clean vessels, looking good on the outside. You clean the outside of the cup and dish. They received much praise and deference from the people for their outward lifestyle, but Jesus knew their hearts as God knew King Saul’s heart. Inside they violated God’s nature; Jesus knew they are full of greed and self-indulgence. They were vipers, hypocrites, living a lie, lacking integrity, not truthful to the people. They championed self-will over God’s will. They loved the world and the things of the world more than God. They loved the praises of men, the places of honor, and money. They were as all men, seeking lives centered on self-will, not God’s will. The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.” (Jeremiah 17:9-10) The deeds of the leading priests and the teachers of the law were deceptive and evil. They were out to kill Jesus and eventually they got the Romans to hang Jesus on a cross. Jesus discerned their nature very accurately when he said, You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. Their wickedness was so great that they were constantly seeking to kill Jesus. Finally they succeeded in murdering him. Rather than being leaders, serving the God of love; they served hate, divisiveness and murder. They were Adam’s children, not God’s children. They were of Cain the murderer, not Abel who pleased God with his gift to God. As with king Saul, their failure to serve with integrity and obedience to God’s will brought them rejection. Jesus rejected their leadership role and called them hypocrites, vipers. His negative view of them caused Jesus to assail them with a list of three woes that led to his rejection of their outward form of godliness and inward evil inclinations.
These religious leaders claimed to know God, to be pleasing to him. They looked good in their flowing robes and broad phylacteries on their arms and foreheads. They looked the epitome of spirituality. But they did not know the God of creation, for had they known God, they would have revealed him as the God of love and mercy to the people. Instead, they emulated the secular world that sin had produced. Inside of them as with all men who are in a sinful state, they were full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. Not a very complimentary picture for sure. Paul talks about the state of men born of Adam by saying, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” (Romans 3:10-15) Jesus knew the nature of all men, but He loved them. He knew they would turn on him as He went to the cross. But Jesus loved people, and He expected the Jewish religious leaders to love the people, to treat them as a good shepherd would treat his sheep. The sheep needed guidance, good pasture, and clean water; but the religious leaders were as hired hands. They would only be guides of the people if the leaders received their just respect and praise. He knew they would flee if they felt threatened. Jesus threatened their leadership role, so they fled to the Romans to do away with Jesus. Their hearts were as all men: self-serving, self-motivated, selfish in spirit. In sinful men, God’s will and words do not motivate them, inspire them; only their will and their fleeting words are of importance to them. All have turned away, no one is righteous, not even one. But this desperate situation is not the closure to the story of men. For Christ has come to set us free from the yoke of sin, the inherited sickness of Adam. We are not under the burden of the law and regulations to please God. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law placed the obligations of the law heavily upon the backs of the people. Peter said to the church leaders, which one of us has kept the law perfectly? God demands perfection. The religious leaders were living lives of hypocrisy and lies, but Jesus, the Lamb of God, would set people free from hypocrisy and lies. He gave his life for our freedom. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. … For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Galatians 5:1-6) We are no longer bound by the law and its regulations. We have one who fulfilled the law completely. He is our perfection if we have placed our trust IN HIM, and not in our own works. God desires us to be his children, and to be his children, we must come to him in perfection. Our Adam’s DNA had to be changed to Jesus’ DNA. As children of our parents, we carry their DNA. To be children of God, we must be like him with his nature. Jesus is God, God in the flesh. We who are IN HIM have his nature. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law had only the nature of the law and its regulations. They did tithe, they did carry out the law to the best of their intentions, but they failed to have the law written on their hearts. Justice, mercy and faithfulness escaped their lifestyle. The only thing that really counts in a Christian’s life is faith expressing itself through love. Christ has completed the work of perfection. His plan for you is to prosper you in love, not to harm you, but to give you hope and a future with him. He will listen to you today. He has given you a voice to speak, words to say. Jeremiah chapter 29 says God will be found by you if you seek him with all your heart. Reject the woes of the Pharisees and walk in the joy of the Lord today.
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