Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

 

 "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, is it 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.  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 

 

Yesterday we read that 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 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.  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, is it 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.  And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it."  My study Bible comments here that because the example of a leader can be so influential, leaders who do not love God can hinder others from finding Him as well.  So, therefore, leaders are held to a higher standard (James 3:1).  

 

"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."   These warnings begin the last part of this final public sermon of Jesus.  Nearly the whole of chapter 23 is taken with it.  My study Bible comments that the warnings which begin in this section (and will continue in tomorrow's reading) are especially important to Orthodox Christians.  It notes that the Church has maintained the ancient practices of tithing ("These you ought to have done"), sacred vessels "you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish", and holy rites following the tradition handed down from the ancient Church through today.  These practices can be expressions of deep faith, it notes, lead a person to deeper commitment to God, and safeguard our life in Christ -- or they can be observed without ever taking them to heart and lead to condemnation ("hypocrites!").  My study Bible explains that to "strain out a gnat and swallow a camel" is a reference to a practice in which the Pharisees would attach strainers to the mouths of decanters in order to avoid accidentally consuming any ritually unclean substance.  

 

 There are a few things we might want to pay attention to in today's reading, for they reveal patterns which Jesus condemns on the part of these religious leaders, the scribes and the Pharisees.  First of all we should place this section of chapter 23 of St. Matthew' Gospel in context.  This full chapter is an exposition of Jesus' final public sermon, and so it is noteworthy to begin with 6:simply on that basis.  It is a grand critique of the ways of the scribes and Pharisees, and in particular their hypocrisy.  It's notable for us that between the different parties that made up the ruling Council of the Jews (all of them religious leaders, and centered in the Jerusalem temple), the ones whom Jesus criticizes were perhaps the ones closest to Him in spiritual outlook and opinions.  The Sadducees are left out of this particular critique; they are the ones of whom He said they know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God (in this reading from Saturday).  It was a lawyer, in the second half of Saturday's reading, who approached Jesus with a question regarding the greatest commandments in the Law.  This lawyer was a Pharisee, and so we should keep this in mind.  For that Pharisee clearly understood Jesus' response to His question, and approved.  But the hypocritical practices Jesus condemns in today's reading show a clear violation of what Jesus called the first and greatest commandment ("You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind," which comes from Deuteronomy 6:5).  For these men in their hypocrisy pay lip service to piety, to devotion to God, but they don't practice it in what they do.  By their hypocrisy they take on pupils whom they mislead with their practices, and so "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."  As we reviewed in yesterday's reading and commentary, it's their job as stewards of the people and their spiritual tradition to lead them to God, but in their practices they do the opposite.  As teachers they fail to uphold their supposed purpose as religious leaders, rabbis.   Even worse, they prey on the weak and powerless, thus violating the second great commandment Jesus had given ("You shall love your neighbor as yourself" from Leviticus 19:18).  Jesus tells them, "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."   Such terrible teachers are they that they "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."  They not only fail to lead toward God, but lead toward the adversaries of God.  So blind are they to the things of God, they fail to understand that it is God who gives value to all things; therefore they can't see the sanctification of God, God's the power of holiness, and instead value the material that is useless without it.  Finally they miss God altogether in their pursuit of pious-appearing practices:  they tithe, but they have "neglected the weightier matters of the law:  justice and mercy and faith."  Without the love of God in their hearts, they have form but not substance.  They pay attention to the tiniest detail in appearing holy before others, but they swallow whole what is unclean in their faithlessness.  They take care to appear perfect to others in their external legalism, but "inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence."   In St. Matthew's 15th chapter, Jesus speaks of them by quoting from Isaiah:  "These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me" (Matthew 15:8; Isaiah 29:13).  What we see in the outcome of their hypocrisy is the cruelty of their practices, the opposite of the intentions of the Law, antithetical to the purposes of God.  They become allied with evil, teaching their proselytes to become "twice as much a son of hell" as themselves.  Again, we turn back to Christ's teachings to the disciples about authority, power, and greatness, and the need for the consideration and protection of the "little ones" among them.  The widows whose houses are devoured are among such "little ones," the powerless and dependent, and so are the proselytes who seek instruction of matters of God.  As always, we consider what these examples mean for us, for, as my study Bible points out, there is no one who needs to take consideration of these warnings and criticism more than we who value and cherish the traditions we inherit, the faith we follow -- for we might find ourselves also at the receiving end of this criticisms should we engage in such hypocrisy ourselves.  A pure focus on externals might find us, rather than fully practicing our faith, in the same place of condemnation as these men whom Jesus faces.  When confronted with the truth -- and He is the person who is the Truth standing in front of them (John 14:6) -- they respond only by seeking to destroy Him.  The weightier matters of the law, "justice and mercy and faith," fall by the wayside to the blindness of their ways.  Jesus teaches, effectively, that there are two ways.  One is toward God, and the other is away.  We cannot do both, and neither are we capable of standing still or being neutral.  Indeed, this would be the teaching of the early Church, such as is found in the Didache, and was already well-known in Judaism.  So let us place first things first, lest we also become blind to where we are leading, and take others astray with us as well.