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"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. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and 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.' Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? Therefore, 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, that 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. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'"
- Matthew 23:27-39
Jesus is in the temple in Jerusalem, and it is Holy Week in our current gospel readings in Matthew. He has begun His final public sermon, directed at the temple leadership, a great critique of their practices. In yesterday's reading, He continued: "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, 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. 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."
"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. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." The original meaning of the word hypocrite was "actor." In the ancient plays, that meant someone wearing a mask (hypocrite means literally "beneath a mask"). In yesterday's reading, Jesus spoke about the hypocrisy of these leaders, who practice outwardly to be observed by others, but inwardly do not concern themselves with the "weightier matters of the Law: justice and mercy and faith." Here His analogy takes full form: they are like whitewashed tombs -- beautiful on the outside, but full of "dead men's bones and all uncleanness."
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and 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.' Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? Therefore, 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, that 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. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation." The prophets of the Old Testament were those who spoke up, who warned repeatedly of corrupt practices, the neglect of justice and mercy, exploitation of the poor and helpless in violation of the faith. Jesus speaks here Himself in a prophetic voice, denouncing the practices that allow for this kind of hypocrisy. Here He likens the scribes and Pharisees of His time with those who killed the prophets for their word, for messages they didn't want to hear. He prophesies also of the future martyrs who will come in His name, included in the line of those who have already been "sent" by the Lord in the history of Israel. "Brood of vipers" is also used by John the Baptist for the Pharisees and Sadducees, as well as earlier by Jesus (see this link). The phrase alludes to the ungodly nature of such behavior. When Jesus prophesies that "all these things will come upon this generation," He's speaking about what is to come in Jerusalem.
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the nae of the LORD!'" In this metaphor, we see a feminine image for Christ given by Jesus Himself: that of a mother hen. Some may suggest the image is for a partridge, commonly seen in the Near East with large broods of chicks (and an inspiration for the "partridge in a pear tree" symbolism in the carol). The image is one of a protective mother rejected by her children. My study bible says that God's deepest desire is the reconciliation of His people, but most do not want Him. The desolate house, it says, refers to both the temple and to the nation itself. House can be used to mean "family" or "tribe." My study bible says, "Both this temple and the nation will be without God's presence once Christ departs." In this image, the prophetic voice is one of love, correcting and warning of danger.
Although the main focus of our readings in this last public sermon of Jesus is on the prophetic voice, what really intrigues me is the feminine image of the mother bird who wants to shelter all her chicks. It gives us a lot to think about. Jesus' whole life, and the lives of saints, teach us something important about qualities of character. A well-balanced person adapts qualities that we tend to associate with one gender or another: both courage and compassion, for example. Jesus' metaphor teaches us something essential to the understanding of prophetic voice: that correction, as part of God's work, is part of being a truly loving Parent to us all. The mother hen that wants to gather and protect all her chicks under her wings is the image of Christ who will also give His life for us: everything is done out of love for God's people. The Old Testament is very clear about this, and Christ teaches us also that correction is good, while emphasizing our own flaws as being our essential first focus ("First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye" - see Matthew 7:3-5). This image of the mother hen giving wise advice in an attempt to protect her children is related to another "feminine" image of Christ held from the earliest times in the Church: that of Sophia, or Wisdom. The great St. Sophia cathedral of Constantinople (present day Istanbul) is understood as Christ, the Wisdom of the Lord in the Old Testament. All of this teaches us not to fear Christ's discernment or judgment, nor His prophetic voice -- even the same voice that pronounces "woe" for these religious hypocrites. Everything He does, including warning us of the pitfalls of false roads, is done out of love. Calling out these leaders' hypocrisy is still a way of warning them of what is to come, and into what disaster they are leading the people, even though He seems certain now, in this final public sermon, that they will not change. It's important that we understand God's all-encompassing love -- particularly through this tender image of the mother hen with her brood -- as that which also warns and corrects, saves us from danger, encouraging us to clean up our own internal acts (that "plank" in our own eye) so that we are not blind, another word He uses for the Pharisees and scribes ("blind guides" He called them in yesterday's reading, above). Just as we must balance our image of Christ as Son and King with the "mother hen," and with the man of infinite compassion, of sympathy and friendship for women, the one who calls us to see Him in "the least of these," so we must also balance our understanding of love within His vision and teachings. We don't love someone by telling them everything they do is always perfect, but correction is always given with love. Jesus' corrections never use manipulation or phony guilt; but He always gives us the truth with love. Love and truth are inseparable; and so is forgiveness inseparable from repentance, turning back to Him. Let us remember that we are all called to walk this path, His Way. It's all one of a whole, of love and truth, of correction and nurturing, and infinite grace with the gift of wisdom (who is justified by all her children). Too often, it's the way of the world to ridicule or revile. True correction, given with love, and teaching true humility, is something altogether different, and is part of the love we learn from Him.
