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"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. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees! 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.
"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.' Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? And, 'Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.' Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it. He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.
"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. Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
"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. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also."
- Matthew 23:13-26
In our current readings, Jesus is in Jerusalem. He has made the Triumphal Entry and cleansed the temple. He has been quizzed by various groups of the temple leadership, with the Pharisees in particular seeking entrapment. None have been able to do so. But, speaking out and responding, Jesus goes on the offensive. In yesterday's reading, we began Jesus' grand critique of the Pharisees. Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying: "The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. Therefore 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. For 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. But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, 'Rabbi, Rabbi.' But to you, do not be called 'Rabbi'' for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ. But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
"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." My study bible tells us: "The Pharisees perpetuate a systematic hypocrisy which creates a wall between people and God."
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees! 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." Jesus begins here with what my study bible calls "His eightfold indictment of the Pharisees." He charges them with "inverting God's values and with being mean-spirited, greedy, ambitious, absorbed in externals, hypocritical, and blindly self-righteous." And it suggests, "How much worse will it be for Christians who lapse into patterns of religious life similar to the scribes' and Pharisees'!" Here in these particular verses, the suggestion is that the proselytes learn only greed, and predatory behavior on the weak, from such practices, and thus become "twice as much a son of hell" as their teachers.
"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.' Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? And, 'Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.' Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it. He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it." These verses teach us about the emphasis on material gain -- the gold -- in these practices, and the neglect of the more weighty matters of God. It in fact, "devalues" the importance of God in creating all wealth and meaning of worth in the first place. Jesus, of course, has warned us not to swear at all -- a wise practice, given the weightiness He invokes here of just what we might swear by. He gives just a taste of the true measure of practices and of words. But in these practices, the Pharisees have lost sight of God.
"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. Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!" Just before Jesus began His critique of the Pharisees, He answered a lawyer regarding the greatest commandments. This criticism teaches that the Pharisees have failed to honor the greatest, "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind," and the second, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." My study bible -- which is the Orthodox Study Bible -- says: "These warnings are especially important to Orthodox Christians. This historic Church has maintained the ancient liturgical obligations, beautiful holy objects, specific rituals which externally guard righteousness, and imposing tradition, handed down through God-fearing fathers. These rites can be performed, invoked, defended and passed on without ever being taken by faith to heart; or they can be helps, safeguards and doorways into the true life of Christ in us, which transforms us from glory to glory." It adds here: "Jesus is not against externals, but considers them of lesser significance. The weightier matters are of trust and obedience to God in justice, mercy and faith." Regarding Jesus' last line here in verse 24, we're told, "In the ancient world, strainers were attached to the mouths of decanters, because any liquid might contain foreign matter. Pharisaic observance used the strainer also to strain out any ritually unclean substance which one might accidentally consume. This gnat and camel analogy points out how carefully the scribes and the Pharisees observed the minutiae of the Law, while neglecting its most significant aspects."
"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. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also." Finally, we come to these important verses which will lead to the rest of the critique in tomorrow's reading. These words remind us of Jesus' teachings from the Sermon on the Mount, earlier in Matthew's Gospel, when He taught His disciples to be self-aware, to "cut off" the things from themselves that cause difficulties -- meaning that we are to watch ourselves and cast away even habits that we are fond of if they get in the way of our membership in the Kingdom, God's work in us. Here, He puts it to them that their failure to care about the "inside" and their emphasis on good appearance isn't going to help them at all. "Extortion and self-indulgence" aren't categories for membership in the Kingdom, but rather that which must be cleansed -- the place to start in a true desire for good spiritual life.
The consistency of the Gospel reminds us once again that Jesus' teachings are really for everybody. The things for which He has condemned the Pharisees as hypocrites are really part and parcel of His preaching right from the beginning, in the Sermon on the Mount. He has taught His own disciples to "clean the inside of the cup," so to speak. He has taught them not to swear at all. And He has repeatedly warned them about hypocrisy. Before He came to Jerusalem, He taught His apostles several times about leadership in which the greatest among them would be the servant of all. The Church that Jesus sought to establish, this place of "living stones" which make up that Church, is in no way separate from His condemnation or criticism of the Pharisees. In fact, His teachings are perfectly consistent and came first to those who would be His disciples, His apostles, and those who will make up His Church -- especially the hierarchy. Therefore, as my study bible points out, these warnings in the form of the criticism of the Pharisees' practices come especially strongly to those who call ourselves His followers. There is perfect consistently in these teachings. And, truly, if Jesus' harshest criticism is to call someone a hypocrite (meaning "actor" in its original Greek root -- someone who wears a mask that covers up the true person underneath), then it is our duty to take it all to heart for ourselves. You really can't go wrong by taking Jesus' teachings seriously when He says in answer to the lawyer's question that the two greatest commandments are first to love God and second to love neighbor, because, after all, this is His Church as well that He sought to establish. His focus in His teachings to His disciples has consistently been on the heart, to take care of the "inside of the cup" so that the outside will be clean. See, for example, His teaching that it's not what goes into the mouth of a person that defiles, but what comes out of the mouth that is rooted in the heart. Therefore, it's up to us who call ourselves His followers to take all of this seriously, not as if they're mere words to those in the temple 2,000 years ago. We still have the same problems and the same temptations. It's still easy -- in fact, perhaps far easier, given the ways in which we are saturated with media and advertisements of all sorts -- to focus on the outside and neglect the inside, to seek after appearances rather than substance and simplicity. Can our "yes be yes and our no be no?" It's still a world in which we're going to be tempted and judged by appearances, one in which externals count, seemingly, for everything, in which integrity is something one really has to work at. But we have help, a merciful and loving friend and advocate, we have His words and teachings, a way to step through our lives and avoid the stumbling blocks -- and a graciously loving, immensely longing father and brother (and guidance) who simply await our return. The promise of love is the capstone on all the rest. When we forget the first and greatest commandment, we lose sight of the greatest treasure of all, the love of God that teaches us to be "like Him" and awaits us at every heartbeat, to show us the way. Jesus has already taught His disciples that "with God all things are possible."
