For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness

 

 "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 father's 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 

 

On Wednesday we began reading Christ's final public sermon, an indictment of the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees.  In yesterday's reading, He continued that sermon, saying,  "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 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 cumin, 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."  Here is Christ's vivid description of a hypocrisy that masks behavior that leads to death, not life.  

 

 "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 father's 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." My study Bible suggests that the reference to Zechariah (as in Luke 11:51) may refer to the prophet at the time of Joash the king (2 Chronicles 24:20-22), while there is another opinion it may refer to the father of St. John the Baptist, who, according to tradition, was also murdered in the temple.  

 

 "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!'"   My study Bible comments that God's deepest desire is the reconciliation of His people, yet most do not want Him.  The desolate house refers both to the temple and to the nation itself, for "house" can be used to mean "family" or "tribe" (see Psalms 115:12, 135:19). Both the temple and the nation will be without God's presence once Christ departs.  Noteworthy here is the feminine, loving, protective motherly image Christ gives for Himself as a hen who seeks to gather her chicks under her wings.  

 

 Jesus tells the scribes and Pharisees, "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."  In this image of the whitewashed tombs Jesus describes, we discover what we may look at as an illustration of what is called "the two ways."  These are the way of life and the way of death.  The two ways are specifically laid out for the people by God in the Book of Jeremiah, in which the prophet Jeremiah is instructed as follows, "Now you shall say to this people, 'Thus says the Lord: "Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death'" (Jeremiah 21:8).  In Jesus' preaching, we are taught about the two ways in the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus teaches, "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.  Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." (Matthew 7:13).  My study Bible tells us that the description of the two ways was widespread in Judaism (Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Psalm 1; Proverbs 4:18-19, 12:28, 15:21; Sirach 15:17), and also in early Christian writings (Didache, Barnabas).  In the struggle for the better way of the narrow gate, we as human beings wrestle against sin and human weakness in addition to spiritual forces of evil (Ephesians 6:12).  These varied forces and influences define the external focus of the religious leaders whom Jesus criticizes, who are like whitewashed tombs.  They are careful to appear to the world as pious and upholding religious law and doctrine, but their inner lives follow another way.  Hence Jesus' description, that all this beauty of the whitewash hides not only the sins done against others for gain (even "dead men's bones" that may allude to the prophets murdered by those in whose footsteps these men follow), but also their own neglect of their souls.  In Jesus words, they will "fill up the measure" of their "fathers' guilt."  Their hypocrisy, then, is a "way of death," another bad road leading to a bad end.  Jesus prophesies of those whom He will send out in the world:  "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."  But this bad road of hypocrisy in which, despite their words to the contrary, they follow the priests who stoned and killed the prophets before them, will lead to a particular end.  Jesus tells them, " . . . 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."  Those dead men's bones, and all uncleanness therefore includes not only the state of their souls in their turning from the love of God but also the sins of their ancestors whose ways they follow.  This is what it means that He calls them "sons of those who murdered the prophets."  We have to recall the repeated warnings to Israel by the prophets, constantly calling the people back to God, and persecuted and rebuked, even murdered, by those holding these responsible positions.  Jesus says to them that all this will come down upon this particular generation.  We must note that this passage ends with Christ's great, sad, and loving lament over Jerusalem, and her repeated refusal of the Lord's prophets who have been sent to her.  The Lord's "motherly" lament over His lost children echoes and expands upon David's mournful weeping over the loss of his rebellious son Absalom, and the transcendent love of the father for his lost son in Christ's parable of the Prodigal (2 Samuel 18:33; Luke 15:32).  Once again, we need to remind ourselves that these words of Jesus are not meant to simply teach us about the past, but to warn us about our own paths in life.  We are given grace to help us follow His light, to find His way of life for us (John 8:12).  I once spoke to a modern psychotherapist who put it this way; he said, "You're either going the right way or the wrong way."  In Christian terms, we follow the light or we don't.  To follow the light, as grace makes possible for us, is to find our lives in Him and where He leads.  To refuse is to find ourselves in darkness.  And this is what repentance is for, to come back to the way of life.  For He always awaits and calls us back.

 

 

 

For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him

 

And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?"  He answered and said to them, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.  For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.  Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.  And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:

'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,

And seeing you will see and not perceive;

 For the hearts of this people have grown dull.

Their ears are hard of hearing,

And their eyes they have closed,

Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,

Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,

So that I should heal them.' 

 "But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it."

 

- Matthew 13:10–17 

 

 In yesterday's reading, we were given a new turn in Christ's ministry.  We read that on the same day following a dispute with the Pharisees and scribes (and their demand for a sign from Him), Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea.  And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.  Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying:  "Behold, a sower went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them.  Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because had no depth of earth.  But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away.  And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them.  But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop:  some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.  He who has ears, let him hear!" 

 

 And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?"  He answered and said to them, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.  For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him."  My study Bible comments that the mysteries of the kingdom are not simply obscure concepts, or some religious truths meant only for the elite.  Neither is the understanding of the parables a purely intellectual process.  Even the disciples find the message hard to understand.  While Jesus taught the same message to all, my study Bible comments, it is the simple and innocent who are open to its message.  

 

"Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.  And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:  'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull.  Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,

So that I should heal them.' "  Jesus quotes from the prophesy of Isaiah (Isaiah 6:9-10).  My study Bible comments that this prophesy of Isaiah, according to St. John Chrysostom, does not mean that God causes spiritual blindness in people who would otherwise have been faithful.  It's a figure of speech common to Scripture which reveals God as giving people up to their own devices (as in Romans 1:24-26).   It's understood from this passage that God permits their self-chosen blindness (compare Exodus 8:15, 32 with Exodus 10:20, 27).  Spiritual blindness is not the result of God speaking through Isaiah, but rather Isaiah spoke because he foresaw their blindness. 

 

  "But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it."  Here He is speaking directly to His disciples, those who have chosen to follow Him, responding to the truths they perceive in His ministry, and His presence of holiness that is undeniable to them (John 6:68).

 

 Jesus has suddenly begun an unusual practice (for Him) which the disciples have never seen Him do before:  He begins to speak to the crowds ("great multitudes") in parables (see yesterday's reading, above).  His disciples are puzzled, and they come to ask Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?"  Jesus answered, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given." This is an intriguing answer.  Somehow Jesus seems to be saying to them that somehow it has been given to them by God that they should have the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven revealed to them, but not to the crowds in front of whom Christ now speaks in parables.  Parables sound like simple stories, and indeed they are, but to understand and to have insights about the spiritual journey and the reality of the kingdom of heaven, one would have to have some sort of experience of this to relate to the parable.  One would have to know something about the journey of spiritual truth, of growing closer to God and growing in participation in those mysteries in one's life.  But what is the point of speaking to the great crowds in parables?  Jesus tells the disciples, "For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him."   We take this together with the words from Isaiah Jesus goes on to quote, and we discover a fact about the spiritual life, which Jesus states here unequivocally.  We're either going to grow in this life, or we won't.  This is a reflection of the common theme, sometimes called "the two ways" in Scripture.  It's also referred to as the "way of life and the way of death" (Jeremiah 21:8).  These "two ways" were also described in the earliest teaching document known to the Church, considered to be the teachings of the apostles, called the Didache ("The Teaching").  Jesus Himself described these two ways when He taught (in the Sermon on the Mount), "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it" (Matthew 7:13-14).  But here in today's reading, He seems to teach us that there are some for whom these mysteries of the kingdom of God are accessible; perhaps they have a function in their inner life of being perceptive to them, and they will find them in Christ's parables, and be drawn to Him.  But, He also states, there are those who simply don't, and will not seek to have this abundance, as He puts it.  One presumes that this capacity is linked also to the capacity for repentance, for access to this Kingdom and its mysteries surely confers ways in which we change and adapt as we participate in this understanding, and grow more deeply into it.  Let us consider the reality of the presence of this Kingdom among us, and in our world, brought to us by Christ -- and how we will pursue it.  Our prayers are those that seek this participation and growth in the life of the Kingdom, for without it, what else is the point of His preaching to us in His parables of the kingdom of God?  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enter by the narrow gate

 

 "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.  Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. 

 

"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.  You will know them by their fruits.  Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?  Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.  Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.   Therefore by their fruits you will know them. 

 

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven." 

 

- Matthew 7:13–21 

 

We are currently reading through the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 - 7).  In yesterday's reading, Jesus taught, "Judge not, that you be not judged.  For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.  And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye?  Hypocrite!  First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.  Do not give what is holy to dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces. Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!  Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."

 

 "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.  Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it."  My study Bible explains that the description of the two ways was widespread in Judaism (Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Psalm 1; Proverbs 4:18-19, 12:28, 15:21; Wisdom of Sirach 15:17).  It is also found in early Christian writings (Didache, Barnabas).  Luke's version is more eschatological (Luke 13:24-30), as it refers to the end of the age.  Because we wrestle against sins and human weakness as well as spiritual forces of evil (Ephesians 6:12), entering the Kingdom is the more difficult way.  

 

 "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.  You will know them by their fruits.  Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?  Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.   Therefore by their fruits you will know them."  Because others can easily be deceived by such behavior, those who put on a show of virtue or religion are more dangerous than those who are evil outright, my study Bible explains.  Therefore, we must be all the more cautious among people who are outwardly virtuous.   Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire:  John the Baptist made the same statement in Matthew 3:10.

 

 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven."  Here in this context, Jesus begins speaking of Himself as Lord; this refers to the divine name "Yahweh" of the Old Testament.  He also speaks of the will of My Father, which He fully knows and shares.  Continuing in tomorrow's reading, the following verse will emphasize Christ's judgment.  My study Bible points out that taken together, this forms a three-fold testimony of the deity of Christ.

 

Jesus finishes His preaching in today's reading with a reminder of judgment.  After all that He has taught in the Sermon on the Mount (beginning in chapter 5; see this reading), He is finally revealing His deity  and the judgment to come.  As my study Bible points out, His words echo those of St. John the Baptist, who preached them in the context of repentance in preparation for the Lord.  Here Jesus openly refers to Himself as Lord, sealing His words and teaching in the Sermon on the Mount with that authority.  Let us note that He begins with an encouragement to find the narrow way; this is an emphasis on the uniqueness and particularity of this path He preaches.  Why is it narrow?  Because its counterpart or opposite, the road to destruction, is wide and broad and there are all kinds of ways to go down that road, and many who take it.  He doesn't say that everyone will take His narrow road (we should remember that He's speaking to disciples), but that it's difficult, and so, therefore, few find it.  His next teaching is a warning, against false prophets. He's warning His disciples -- and those to come -- about bad leaders who will take them astray.  We're told that we must be alert and discriminating ourselves.  We, His sheep, might be led astray by ravenous wolves in sheep's clothing.  What a description!  Christ's teaching is vivid and to the point and therefore holds the test of time, for ravenous wolves are greedy only for what they can get, hungry for what they can take from others. But He gives us a way of discernment:  by their fruits you shall know them.  We are all expected to be on a learning curve as we seek to follow Him.  In this context, His theme then turns to hypocrisy and to judgment, which will continue in tomorrow's reading.  As He has emphasized so often in the Sermon on the Mount, He goes back to the heart.  Do we love God?  Do we return God's love for us?  Do we simply mouth the words?  Do our leaders?  The proof is in the pudding, so to speak, as an old adage says.  We will be known by our fruits, and the fruit is the doing of the will of His Father in heaven.  How do we live?  By what do we live?  This is the narrow road He asks us to follow.