Jesus was a hater of hypocricy

JESUS WAS A HATER OF HYPOCRICY
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
MATT 23:27-28 27 “Woeto you, teachers of the law
and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like
whitewashedtombs, which look beautiful on the
outsidebut on the insideare full of the bones of the
dead and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on
the outsideyou appearto people as righteous but on
the inside you are full of hypocrisyand wickedness.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
FatalBlindness
Matthew 23:25-28
J.A. Macdonald
Our Lord continues to denounce woes againsthypocrites, both for what they
do and for what they are. The relation betweendoing and being is constant.
These things are written for our learning.
I. THE HYPOCRITE IS WOEFULLY GUILTY.
1. He is guilty of heart wickedness.

(1) Under the utmost ceremonialstrictness, like the garnished tomb enclosing
"deadmen's bones and all uncleanness," is concealedthe greatestmoral
laxity. Thus -
"Nature, like a beauteous wall,
Doth oft close in pollution."
(Shakespeare.)
(2) As an adorned tomb is but the garniture of death and corruption, so is the
external sanctity of the Pharisee in disgusting contrastto his inward
turpitude.
(3) The meat and drink in the platter and cup, externally so scrupulously
cleansed, are the nourishment and refreshment of the hypocrite. His luxuries
are procured by means nefarious and corrupt (see ver. 14). The hypocrite is
selfishto cruelty.
(4) The nourishment and refreshment of the Pharisee is, in the estimation of
Christ, filth and poison. Luxury punishes fraud, feeding disease with fruits of
injustice. The disease anddeath thus nourished are moral more than physical.
2. He is guilty of deceiving others.
(1) The cleansedoutside of the cup and platter, and the whiting on the
sepulchre, are intended to be seen; and so is the piety of the hypocrite. The
purpose is to divert attention from the filth and rottenness within.
(2) The successis often too well assured. Mansurveys surfaces. His vision does
not searchsubstances. To do this requires experiment which he is too lazy to
institute.
(3) Hence the professedbelief in human nature.
(a) Unconverted men must be hypocrites to be endured. Societywould be
intolerable but for its veneer.

(b) The children of nature are readily deceived in a world of hypocrites. Their
pride and self-conceitleads them to credit themselves with virtues; and the
Pharisee deceivesthem.
(c) But that religious persons should "believe in human nature" only shows
how successfullythe hypocrite may even "deceive the very elect."
(d) The believers in human nature are liable to trust in it instead of Christ for
their salvation, and perish in their delusion.
3. He is guilty of insulting God.
(1) He ignores God. While he strives after the praise of men, he leaves Godout
of the account. Is Godto be treated as nobody with impunity!
(2) He degrades God. Affecting the praise of men rather than the praise of
God, he treats the Creatoras inferior to his creatures. Willthis insolence be
endured forever?
(3) As the whitening of the sepulchre was intended to warn passengers to
avoid its defiling contact, so should the sham piety of the Pharisee warn
honest men away from the sphere of his moral infection (see Luke 11:44).
(4) Let the sinner be alarmed at the formidableness of the impending woe. Let
him repent, amend, and sue for mercy.
II. THE HYPOCRITE IS CRIMINALLY BLIND.
1. God requires truth in the heart.
(1) He is himself essentiallyholy. This means that his nature must repel from
him everything that is unholy. God must needs wage eternalwar againstsin.
(2) But his grace has made possible his reconciliationto the sinner.
(a) In the provision of the atonement.
(b) In the gift of the Holy Spirit.
(c) Through faith the righteousness ofthe Law may not only become
"imputed to us," but also "fulfilled in us."

(3) The life will be holy when the heart is clean. "The heart may be a temple of
God or a grave; a heavenor a hell" (Slier). The cleansing ofthe inside affects
the outside, but not contrariwise. "Cleanse firstthe inside of the cup and of
the platter, that the outside. thereofmay become cleanalso."
(4) There is a cleansing that is external even after the heart is clean. This our
Lord evinced when he washedthe feet of his disciples.
2. The hypocrite imposes upon himself.
(1) He is criminally blind to the folly that avoids those scandalous sins which
would spoil his reputation with men, while he allows the heart wickedness
which renders him odious to God (see Psalm5:9). Jesus saw the filth within
the cup and platter, and the rottenness within the sepulchre.
(2) He is criminally blind to the factthat in imposing upon his fellows he does
not impose upon his Maker. The same Jesus who showedthe Pharisee the
extortion and excessesofthe heart will show these things to him again in the
day of woe.
(3) The hypocrite is criminally blind to the fact that the life is cleansedin the
heart. Those only are externally cleanwho are inwardly pure. Christ views
the professionin relation to the state of the heart. In this light he will judge
the works ofmen at the last greatday. - J.A.M.

Biblical Illustrator
For ye make cleanthe outside of the cup.
Matthew 23:25-28
Moralablution
A. Tucker.
By this allusion to the cup and platter the Saviour taught that it is necessaryto
cleanse the heart first, that the external conduct might be pure.
I. WHY must we cleanse ourselvesfrom sin?
1. Becauseit renders us injurious to our fellow-men.
2. Becauseit hinders prayer.
3. Becauseit renders us offensive to God.
4. Becauseit is destructive to ourselves.
II. How may we cleanse ourselves fromsin?
1. Notby merely desiring to be cleansed.
2. Notby external reformations.
3. Notby scrupulous attention to religious ordinances.
4. Notby mere repentance.
5. But by faith in the only cleansing element — the precious blood of Jesus.
III. WHEN may we cleanse ourselves fromsin? Now!
1. Delayincreases the difficulty.

2. The present the only time of which we are sure.
3. God's commands brook no delay, etc.
(A. Tucker.)
Hypocrisy contradictory
Adams.
Hypocrites are like pictures on canvas, they show fairestat farthest. A
hypocrite's professionis in folio, but his sincerity is so abridged that it is
containedin decimo-sexto, nothing in the world to speak of. A hypocrite is like
the SicilianEtna, flaming at the mouth when it hath snow at the foot. Their
mouths talk hotly, but their feet walk coldly. The nightingale hath a sweet
voice, but a lean carcase;a voice, and nothing else but a voice:and so have all
hypocrites.
(Adams.)
Hypocrisy deceptive
Cawdray.
As a thick woodthat giveth greatshadow doth delight the eyes of the
beholders greatly with the variety of flourishing trees and pleasantplants, so
that it seemethto be ordained only for pleasure's sake, andyet within is full of
poisonous serpents, ravening wolves, and other wild beasts;even so a
hypocrite, when outwardly he seemethholy and to be wellfurnished with all
sorts of virtues, doth please wellthe eyes of his beholders; but within him
there lurketh pride, envy, covetousness, andall manner of wickedness, like
wild and cruel beasts wandering in the woodof his heart.
(Cawdray.)

Whited sepulchres
J. Trapp.
Hypocrites seemas glow-worms, to have both light and heat; but touch them
and they have neither. The Egyptian temples were beautiful on the outside,
when within ye should find nothing but some serpent or crocodile.
Apothecaries'boxes oft have goodly titles when yet they hold not one dram of
any gooddrug. A certainstrangercoming on embassage unto the senators of
Rome, and colouring his hoary hair and pale cheeks withvermilion hue, a
grave senatorespying the deceit stoodup and said, "Whatsincerity are we to
expectfrom this man's hands, whose locks,and looks, andlips, do lie?" Think
the same of-all painted hypocrites. These we may compare(as Luciandoth his
Grecians)to a fair gilt bossedbook;look within it, and there is the tragedy of
Thyestes;or perhaps Arrius' Thalya; the name of a muse, the matter heresy;
or Conradus Vorstius' book-monsterthat hath De Deo in the front, but
atheism and blasphemy in the text.
(J. Trapp.)
False appearances
T. Guthrie, D. D.
If yon go into a churchyard some snowy day, when the snow has been falling
thick enough to coverevery monument and tombstone, how beautiful and
white does everything appear! But remove the snow, dig down beneath, and
you find rottenness and putrefaction — dead men's bones and all uncleanness.
How like that churchyard on such a day is the mere professor — fair outside,
sinful, unholy within! The grass grows greenupon the sides of a mountain
that holds a volcano in its bowels.
(T. Guthrie, D. D.)
Emblem of hypocrisy

G. S. Bowes., S. Rutherford., R. Pollok.
A very capital painter in London exhibited a piece representing a friar
habited in his canonicals.View the painting at a distance, and you would think
the friar to be in a praying attitude. His hands are claspedtogether, and held
horizontally to his breast; his eyes meekly demissedlike those of the publican
in the gospel, and the goodman appears to be quite absorbedin humble
adorationand devout recollection. Buttake a nearer survey, and the
deceptionvanishes. The book which seemedto be before him is discoveredto
be a punch-bowl into which the rascalis all the while, in reality, only
squeezing a lemon. How lively a representationof a hypocrite!
(G. S. Bowes.)Thereis a spice of hypocrisy in us all.
(S. Rutherford.)The hypocrite — the man that stole the livery of heaven to
serve the devil in.
(R. Pollok.)
The hypocrite takes a partial Christ
The hypocrite maps out the road to Zion, knows it well, has sounded with
plummet the depths of the promises, can talk about them. But he has accepted
a two-parts Christ; there is perhaps a little pet sin, snugly tuckedup in a
warm corner of his heart, that he is unwilling to part with. Christ is his Priest,
his Prophet, but he will not have Him as his King.
Hypocrisy sometimes difficult to discover
Archbishop Secker.
Formality frequently takes its dwelling near the chambers of integrity, and so
assumes its name; the soul not suspecting that hell should make so near an
approachto heaven. A rotten post, though coveredwith gold, is more fit to be
burned in the fire than for the building of a fabric. The dial of our faces does
not infallibly show the time of day in our hearts; the humblest looks may

enamel the former, while unbounded pride covers the latter. Unclean spirits
may inhabit the chamber when they look not out at the window.
(Archbishop Secker.)
Posthumous testimony to the great and good
I. A SERIOUS CHARGE.
1. A too late recognitionof goodness which, when living, was ignoredor
persecuted.
2. A pretended veneration of the characters ofthe pious dead.
3. In truth a signalizing of their own goodness.
II. A FALSE DEFENCE.
1. Their characterbelied their profession — persecutors ofJesus would
hardly have been defenders of Isaiah, etc.
2. Betrayedgreatignorance of their own character.
III. A SOLEMN VERDICT.
1. Pronouncedguilty of the righteous blood shed by their party.
2. Hypocrites for pretending a veneration for departed worth while they
persecutedliving goodness.
Tombs
N. Rogers.
Tombs are the clothes of the dead: a grave is but a plain suit, and a rich
monument is one embroidered. Tombs ought, in some sort, to be
proportioned, not to the wealth, but deserts of the party interred. Yet may we
see some rich man of mean worth loaden under a tomb big enough for a

prince to bear. There were officers appointed in the Greciangames who
always, by public authority, did pluck down the statues erectedto the victors
if they exceededthe true symmetry and proportion of their bodies. The
shortest, plainest, and truest epitaphs are the best. Mr. Camden, in his
"Remains," presents us with examples of great men who had little epitaphs.
And when once I askeda witty gentlemanwhat epitaph was fitted to be
written on Mr. Camden's tomb, "Let it be," said he, "Camden's Remains." I
say also, "the plainest; " for exceptthe sense lie above ground, few will
trouble themselves to dig for it. Lastly, it must be "true;" not, as in some
monuments where the red veins in the marble may seemto blush at the
falsehoods writtenon it. He was a witty man that first taught a stone to speak;
but he was a wickedman that taught it first to lie.
(N. Rogers.)
God searchesthe heart
Momus, the heathen god of ridicule, complained that Jupiter had not made a
window in the human breast, so that it might be seenwhat was passing within.
To an omniscient God no window is needed, every thought, and wish, and
intention being perfectly discerned.
Garnished tombs
Gadsby.
The tombs of saints in Egypt are held in greatveneration. They are covered
with a circular building in the form of a cupola, and are regularly
whitewashed, repaired, rebuilt, and decorated, as was the case withthe Jews.
In the largertombs lamps are kept constantlyburning, as amongstthe
Romanists, and no Christian is allowedto enter. At Pera the tablets are all
upright, and surmounted with turbans, tarbooshes, orflowers. The dignity of
the personin the grave is displayed by the kind of turban at the top of the
stone. Mostwere of white marble, and many richly gilt and ornamented. They

are about the size of our railway mile-posts, and are as thick on the ground as
nine-pins. The flowers denote females. Some are painted green, these were
descendants ofMahomet.
(Gadsby.)
Whitened sepulchres
In the plains of Sahrai-SirwanRawlinsonnoticedmany whitewashedobelisks
placed on any elevations which occurredconveniently, some rising to the
height of fifteen feet, a modern example of "whitenedsepulchres." The
custom of "garnishing the sepulchres" prevails more or less throughout
Persia.
Outward purification must begin within
T. Williston.
I. It is a characteristic offallen men that they are apt to content themselves
with cleansing the outside. They are at greaterpains to seempure than to be
pure.
II. Though outward purity is desirable, and even measurably praiseworthy,
yet, if it be not the fruit of a purified heart, it is unreliable and comparatively
valueless. Forthe welfare of this life it is better that one should be winning
than repulsive, moral than immoral. It is better to have a washedoutside than
to have both outside and inside filthy. If outside only it is unreliable; has no
inherent permanency.
III. A cleansedheart is a sure producer of genuine and permanent purity of
life. Learn:
1. That God estimates characterby the state of the heart.
2. That man has a corrupt heart, and is therefore loathsome in God's sight.

3. That to have God's favour man must be cleansed, and that to be effectualit
must begin in his heart.
4. That there is such a thing as being effectuallycleansedand rendered
acceptable to the Holy One.
(T. Williston.)
Deceptiondeceived
J. C. Coghlan, D. D.
So it ever comes to pass that we are punished for deceiving others by being
ourselves deceived. Our successsecures ourdelusion. When an actwhich is
properly an indication of some good motive is repeatedly performed in the
sight of those who cannot see the heart, they take for granted the motive and
give us the credit of it — provided only the act be of the class which it is the
fashion of the day and place to applaud as religious. We are assumedto be
what, at first, we know we are not. But in time this knowledge fades away;we
acceptas the independently formed judgment of others that which really
restedupon our own successfuldeception;we come to considerour conduct as
in itself sufficient proof of the motive which is universally assumedto be its
source. We move in a circle of hypocrisy, and it becomes difficult to decide
whether we are the authors or the victims of the delusion. We are, in fact,
both.
(J. C. Coghlan, D. D.)
COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(27) Ye are like unto whited sepulchres.—Contactwitha sepulchre brought
with it ceremonialuncleanness, andall burial-places were accordinglywhite-
washedonce a year, on the 15th day of the month Adar—i.e., about the
beginning of March—thatpassers-bymight be warnedby them, as they were
of the approachof a leper by his cry, “Unclean, unclean!” (Leviticus 13:45).
The word translated “whited,” means literally, “smearedwith lime
powder”—i.e., “whitewashed,”in the modern technicalsense ofthe word. It
should be noticed that the similitude in Luke 11:44 is drawn from the graves
that were not whitened, or from which the whitewashhad been worn away,
and over which men passedwithout knowing of their contactwith corruption.
Some have thought, indeed, that this passagealso refers to graves which had
lost the coatof whitewash, and were “beautiful with grass and flowers.” It
seems hardly likely, however, that the perfect participle would be used to
describe such a state of things, and it is more probable, looking to the date
above given, that our Lord pointed to some tombs that were shining in their
new whiteness.
MacLaren's Expositions
Matthew
THE KING’S FAREWELL
Matthew 23:27 - Matthew 23:39.
If, with the majority of authorities, we exclude Matthew 23:14 from the text,
there are, in this chapter, sevenwoes, like seventhunders, launched against
the rulers. They are scathing exposures, but, as the very word implies, full of
sorrow as well as severity. They are not denunciations, but prophecies
warning that the end of such tempers must be mournful. The wailing of an
infinite compassion, ratherthan the accents ofanger, sounds in them; and it

alone is heard in the outburst of lamenting in which Christ’s heart runs over,
as in a passionof tears, at the close. The blending of sternness and pity, each
perfect, is the characteristic ofthis wonderful climax of our Lord’s appeals to
His nation. Could such tones of love and righteous angerjoined have been
sent echoing through the ages in this Gospel, if they had not been heard?
I. The woe of the ‘whited sepulchres.’
The first four woes are directedmainly to the teachings ofthe scribes and
Pharisees;the last three to their characters. The two first of these fasten on
the same sin, of hypocritical holiness. There is, however, a difference between
the representationof hypocrites under the metaphor of the cleanoutside of
the cup and platter, and that of the whited sepulchre. In the former, the
hidden sin is ‘extortion and excess’;that is, sensualenjoyment wrongly
procured, of which the emblems of cup and plate suggestthat goodeating and
drinking are a chief part. In the latter, it is ‘iniquity’-a more generaland
darker name for sin. In the former, the Pharisee is ‘blind,’ self-deceivedin
part or altogether;in the latter, stress is rather laid on his ‘appearance unto
men.’ The repetition of the same charge in the two woes teachesus Christ’s
estimate of the gravity and frequency of the sin.
The whitened tombs of Mohammedan saints still gleamin the strong sunlight
on many a knoll in Palestine. If the Talmudical practice is as old as our Lord’s
time, the annual whitewashing was latelyover. Its purpose was not to adorn
the tombs, but to make them conspicuous, so that they might be avoided for
fear of defilement. So He would say, with terrible irony, that the apparent
holiness of the rulers was really a sign of corruption, and a warning to keep
awayfrom them. What a blow at their self-complacency!And how profoundly
true it is that the more punctiliously white the hypocrite’s outside, the more
foul is he within, and the wider berth will all discerning people give him! The
terrible force of the figure needs no dwelling on. In Christ’s estimate, such a

soul was the very dwelling-place of death; and foul odours and worms and
corruption filled its sickening recesses. Terrible words to come from His lips
into which grace was poured, and bold words to be flashed at listeners who
held the life of the Speakerin their hands! There are two sorts of hypocrites,
the consciousand the unconscious;and there are ten of the latter for one of
the former, and eachten times more dangerous. Establishedreligionbreeds
them, and they are speciallylikely to be found among those whose business is
to study the documents in which it is embodied. These woes are notlike
thunder-peals rolling above our heads, while the lightning strikes the earth
miles away. A religion which is mostly whitewashis as common among us as
ever it was in Jerusalem;and its foul accompaniments ofcorruption becoming
more rotten every year, as the whitewashis laid on thicker, may be smelt
among us, and its fatal end is as sure.
II. The woe of the sepulchre builders {Matthew 23:29 - Matthew 23:36}.
In these verses we have, first, the specificationof anotherform of hypocrisy,
consisting in building the prophets’ tombs, and disavowing the fathers’
murder of them. Honouring dead prophets was right; but honouring dead
ones and killing living ones was conscious orunconscious hypocrisy. The
temper of mind which leads to glorifying the dead witnesses,also leads to
supposing that all truth was given by them; and hence that the living teachers,
who carry their messagefarther, are false prophets. A generationwhich was
ready to kill Jesus in honour of Moses, wouldhave killed Mosesin honour of
Abraham, and would not have had the faintest apprehension of the messageof
either.
It is a greatdeal easierto build tombs than to acceptteachings, anda good
deal of the posthumous honour paid to God’s messengers means, ‘It’s a good
thing they are dead, and that we have nothing to do but to put up a
monument.’ Bi-centenaries andter-centenaries and jubilees do not always

imply either the understanding or the acceptanceofthe principles supposedto
be glorified thereby. But the magnifiers of the past are often quite unconscious
of the hollowness oftheir admiration, and honest in their horror of their
fathers’ acts;and we all need the probe of such words as Christ’s to pierce the
skin of our lazy reverence for our fathers’ prophets, and let out the foul
matter below-namely, our ownblindness to God’s messengers ofto-day.
The statementof the hypocrisy is followed, in Matthew 23:31, with its
unmasking and condemnation. The words glow with righteous wrath at white
heat, and end in a burst of indignation, most unfamiliar to His lips. Three
sentences,like triple lightning flash from His pained heart. With almost
scornful subtlety He lays hold of the words which He puts into the Pharisees’
mouths, to convictthem of kindred with those whose deeds they would
disown. ‘Our fathers, sayyou? Then you do belong to the same family, after
all. You confess thatyou have their blood in your veins; and, in the very act of
denying sympathy with their conduct, you own kindred. And, for all your
protestations, spiritual kindred goes with bodily descent.’Christ here
recognisesthatchildren probably ‘take after their parents,’ or, in modern
scientific terms, that ‘heredity’ is the law, and that it works more surely in the
transmissionof evil than of good.
Then come the awful words bidding that generation‘fill up the measure of the
fathers.’ They are like the other command to Judas to do his work quickly.
They are more than permission, they are command; but such a command as,
by its laying bare of the true characterofthe deed in view, is love’s last effort
at prevention. Mark the growing emotion of the language. Mark the
conceptionof a nation’s sins as one through successive generations,and the
other, of these as having a definite measure, which being filled, judgment can
no longer tarry. Generationafter generationpours its contributions into the
vessel, and when the lastblack drop which it can hold has been added, then
comes the catastrophe. Mark the fatal necessityby which inherited sin
becomes darkersin. The fathers’ crimes are less than the sons’. This

inheritance increases by eachtransmission. The cloak strikes one more at
eachrevolution of the hands.
It is hard to recogniseChristin the terrible words that follow. We have heard
part of them from John the Baptist; and it sounded natural for him to call
men serpents and the children of serpents, but it is somewhatof a shock to
hear Jesus hurling such names at even the most sinful. But let us remember
that He who sees hearts, has a right to tell harsh truths, and that it is truest
kindness to strip off masks which hide from men their own realcharacter,
and that the revelation of the divine love in Jesus would be a partial and
impotent revelation if it did not show us the righteous love which is wrath.
There is nothing so terrible as the anger of gentle compassion, and the fiercest
and most destructive wrath is ‘the wrath of the Lamb.’ Seldom, indeed, did
He show that side of His character;but it is there, and the other side would
not be so blessedas it is, unless that were there too.
The woe ends with the double prophecy that that generationwould repeatand
surpass the fathers’ guilt, and that on it would fall the accumulatedpenalties
of past bloodshed. Note that solemn ‘therefore,’which looks back to the whole
preceding context, and forward to the whole subsequent. Because the rulers
professedabhorrence of their fathers’ deeds, and yet inherited their spirit,
they too would have their prophets, and would slay them. God goes onsending
His messengers, becausewe rejectthem; and the more deaf men are, the more
does He peal His words into their ears. That is mercy and compassion, that all
men may be savedand come to the knowledge ofthe truth; but it is judgment
too, and its foreseeneffectmust be regardedas part of the divine purpose in
it. Christ’s desire is one thing, His purpose another. His desire is that all
should find in His gospel‘the savourof life’; but His purpose is that, if it be
not that to any, it shall be to them the savour of death. Mark, too, the
authority with which He, in the face of these scowling Pharisees,assumesthe
distinct divine prerogative of sending forth inspired men, who, as His
messengers, shallstand on a level with the prophets of old. Mark His silence

as to His own fate, which is only obscurelyhinted at in the command to fill up
the measure of the fathers. Observe the detailed enumeration of His
messengers’gifts,-’prophets’under direct inspiration, like those of old, which
may especiallyreferto the apostles;‘wise men,’ like a Stephen or an Apollos;
‘scribes,’such as Mark and Luke and many a faithful servant since, whose
pen has loved to write the name above every name. Note the detailed prophecy
of their treatment, which begins with slaying and goes downto the less severe
scourging, and thence to the milder persecution. Do the three punishments
belong to the three classesofmessengers,the severestfalling to the lot of the
most highly endowed, and even the quiet penman being hunted from city to
city?
We need not wriggle and twist to try to avoid admitting that the calling of the
martyred Zacharias, ‘the son of Barachias,’ is an error of some one who
confusedthe author of the prophetic book with the person whose murder is
narrated in 2 Chronicles 24:1 - 2 Chronicles 24:27 We do not know who made
the mistake, orhow it appears in our text, but it is not honest to try to slur it
over. The punishment of long ages ofsin, carried on from father to son, does
in the course of that history of the world, which is a part of the judgment of
the world, fall upon one generation. It takes long for the mass of heaped-up
sin to become top-heavy; but when it is so, it buries one generationof those
who have workedat piling it up, beneathits down-rushing avalanche.
‘The mills of God grind slowly,
But they grind exceeding small.’
The catastrophesofnational histories are prepared for by continuous
centuries. The generationthat laid the first powder-hornful of the train is
dead and buried, long before the explosionwhich sends constituted order and

institutions sky-high. The misery is that often the generationwhich has to pay
the penalty has begun to awake to the sin, and would be glad to mend it, if it
could. England in the seventeenthcentury, France in the eighteenth, America
in the nineteenth, had to reap harvests from sins sownlong before. Such is the
law of the judgment wrought out by God’s providence in history. But there is
another judgment, begun here and perfected hereafter, in which fathers and
sons shall eachbear their own burden, and reap accuratelythe fruit of what
they have sown. ‘The soul that sinneth, it shall die.’
III. The parting wail of rejectedlove.
The lightning flashes of the sevenfoldwoes end in a rain of pity and tears. His
full heart overflows in that sad cry of lamentation over the long-continued
foiling of the efforts of a love that would fain have fondled and defended.
What intensity of feeling is in the redoubled naming of the city! How
yearningly and wistfully He calls, as if He might still win the faithless one, and
how lingeringly unwilling He is to give up hope! How mournfully, rather than
accusingly, He reiterates the acts which had run through the whole history,
using a form of the verbs which suggestscontinuance. Mark, too, the matter-
of-course wayin which Christ assumes that He sentall the prophets whom,
through the generations, Jerusalemhad stoned.
So the lament passesinto the solemn final leave-taking, with which our Lord
closes His ministry among the Jews, and departs from the temple. As, in the
parable of the marriage-feast, the city was emphatically called‘their city,’ so
here the Temple, in whose courts He was standing, and which in a moment He
was to quit for ever, is called‘your house,’because His departure is the
withdrawing of the true Shechinah. It had been the house of God: now He
casts it off, and leaves it to them to do as they will with it. The saddest
punishment of long-continued rejection of His pleading love, is that it ceasesat
last to plead. The bitterest woe for those who refuse to render to Him the

fruits of the vineyard, is to get the vineyard for their own, undisturbed.
Christ’s utmost retribution for obstinate blindness is to withdraw from our
sight. All the woes that were yet to fall, in long, dreary successiononthat
nation, so long continued in its sin, so long continued in its misery, were
hidden in that solemndeparture of Christ from the henceforwardempty
temple. Let us fear lest our unfaithfulness meet the like penalty! But even the
departure does not end His yearnings, nor close the long story of the conflict
betweenGod’s beseeching love and their unbelief. The time shall come when
the nation shall once more lift up, with deeper, truer adoration, the hosannas
of the triumphal entry. And then a believing Israel shall see their King, and
serve Him. Christ never takes final leave of any man in this world. It is ever
possible that dumb lips may be opened to welcome Him, though long rejected;
and His withdrawals are His efforts to bring about that opening. When it
takes place, how gladly does He return to the heart which is now His temple,
and unveil His beauty to the long-darkenedeyes!
BensonCommentary
Matthew 23:27. Wo unto you, for you are like whited sepulchres — Here we
have the seventhwo. Dr. Shaw, (Trav., p. 285,)gives a genialdescription of
the different sorts of tombs and sepulchres in the East — concluding with this
paragraph — “Now all these, with the very walls of the enclosure, being
always kept clean, white-washed, andbeautified; continue to this day to be an
excellentcomment upon Matthew 23:27.” The scribes and Pharisees, like fine
whited sepulchres, lookedvery beautiful without, but within were full of all
uncleanness, and defiled every one who touched them. This was a sore rebuke
to men who would not keepcompany with publicans and sinners for fear they
should have been polluted by them!
Matthew 23:29-31. Wo unto you, because ye build the tombs of the prophets
— Here we have the eighth and lastwo. “Bythe pains they took in adorning
the sepulchres oftheir prophets, they pretended a greatveneration for their
memory; and, as often as their happened to be mentioned, condemned their
fathers who had killed them, declaring that if they had lived in the days of

their fathers, they would have opposedtheir wickedness;while, in the mean
time, they still cherished the spirit of their fathers, persecuting the messengers
of God, particularly his only Son, on whose destruction they were resolutely
bent.” Ye build the tombs of the prophets — And that is all, for ye neither
observe their sayings nor imitate their actions. And say, We would not have
been partakers, &c. — Ye make fair professions, as did your fathers.
Wherefore ye be witnesses, &c. — By affirming that if you had lived in the
days of your fathers you would not have been partakers with them in the
blood of the prophets, ye acknowledgethat ye are the children of them who
murdered the prophets. But I must tell you, that you are their children in
another sense than by natural generation;for though you pretend to be more
holy than they were, you are like them in all respects;particularly in that you
possesstheir wicked, persecuting spirit, and coverit by smoothwords, thus
imitating them, who, while they killed the prophets of their own times,
professedthe utmost venerationfor those of past ages.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
23:13-33 The scribes and Pharisees were enemies to the gospelofChrist, and
therefore to the salvationof the souls of men. It is bad to keepaway from
Christ ourselves, but worse also to keepothers from him. Yet it is no new
thing for the show and form of godliness to be made a cloak to the greatest
enormities. But dissembled piety will be reckoneddouble iniquity. They were
very busy to turn souls to be of their party. Not for the glory of God and the
goodof souls, but that they might have the credit and advantage ofmaking
converts. Gain being their godliness, by a thousand devices they made religion
give way to their worldly interests. They were very strict and precise in
smaller matters of the law, but careless andloose in weightier matters. It is
not the scrupling a little sin that Christ here reproves; if it be a sin, though but
a gnat, it must be strained out; but the doing that, and then swallowing a
camel, or, committing a greatersin. While they would seemto be godly, they
were neither sobernor righteous. We are really, what we are inwardly.
Outward motives may keepthe outside clean, while the inside is filthy; but if
the heart and spirit be made new, there will be newness oflife; here we must
begin with ourselves. The righteousness ofthe scribes and Pharisees waslike
the ornaments of a grave, or dressing up a dead body, only for show. The

deceitfulness of sinners'hearts appears in that they go down the streams of
the sins of their ownday, while they fancy that they should have opposedthe
sins of former days. We sometimes think, if we had lived when Christ was
upon earth, that we should not have despisedand rejectedhim, as men then
did; yet Christ in his Spirit, in his word, in his ministers, is still no better
treated. And it is just with God to give those up to their hearts' lusts, who
obstinately persistin gratifying them. Christ gives men their true characters.
Barnes'Notes on the Bible
Like unto whited sepulchres - For the construction of sepulchres, see the notes
at Matthew 8:28. Those tombs were annually whitewashedto prevent the
people from accidentallycoming in contactwith them as they went up to
Jerusalem. This custom is still continued. Dr. Thomson (The Land and the
Book, vol. i. p. 148)says, "I have been in places where this is repeatedvery
often. The graves are kept cleanand white as snow, a very striking emblem of
those painted hypocrites, the Pharisees,beautiful without, but full of dead
men's bones and of all uncleanness within." The law consideredthose persons
unclean who had touched anything belonging to the dead, Numbers 19:16.
Sepulchres were therefore often whitewashed, that they might be distinctly
seen. Thus "whited," they appearedbeautiful; but within they containedthe
bones and corrupting bodies of the dead. So the Pharisees.Theiroutward
conduct appearedwell, but their hearts were full of hypocrisy, envy, pride,
lust, and malice - suitably representedby the corruption within a whited
tomb.
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary
27. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,hypocrites!for ye are like whited
sepulchres—or, whitewashedsepulchres. (Compare Ac 23:3). The process of
whitewashing the sepulchres, as Lightfoot says, was performed on a certain
day every year, not for ceremonialcleansing, but, as the following words seem
rather to imply, to beautify them.
which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's
bones, and of all uncleanness—Whata powerful way of conveying the charge,
that with all their fair show their hearts were full of corruption! (Compare Ps

5:9; Ro 3:13). But our Lord, stripping off the figure, next holds up their
iniquity in naked colors.
Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them
which killed the prophets—that is, "ye be witnesses thatye have inherited,
and voluntarily servedyourselves heirs to, the truth-hating, prophet-killing,
spirit of your fathers." Out of pretended respectand honor, they repaired and
beautified the sepulchres of the prophets, and with whining hypocrisy said, "If
we had been in their days, how differently should we have treated these
prophets?" While all the time they were witnesses to themselves that they
were the children of them that killed the prophets, convicting themselves daily
of as exacta resemblance in spirit and characterto the very classesover
whose deeds they pretended to mourn, as child to parent. In Lu 11:44 our
Lord gives another turn to this figure of a grave:"Ye are as graves which
appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them." As one
might unconsciouslywalk over a grave concealedfrom view, and thus
contractceremonialdefilement, so the plausible exterior of the Pharisees kept
people from perceiving the pollution they contractedfrom coming in contact
with such corrupt characters.
Matthew Poole's Commentary
See Poole on"Matthew 23:27".
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,.... Itis much these men could
bear to hear themselves so often called by this name; and it shows great
courage in our Lord, so freely to reprove them, and expose their wickedness,
who were men of so much credit and influence with the people:
for ye are like unto whited sepulchres;or "coveredwith lime", as the Syriac,
Arabic, and Persic versions, render it. Forthe Jews usedto mark their graves
with white lime, that they might be known: that so priests, Nazarites, and
travellers, might avoid them, and not be polluted with them. This appears
from various passagesin their writings:

"The vineyard of the fourth year, they marked with clods of earth, and an
uncircumcised one with dust, , "and graves with chalk", mixed (with water)
and poured (on them (x).)
Of this marking of the graves, the reasonof it, the time and manner of doing
it, Maimonides (y) gives us this account:
"Whoeverfinds a grave, or a dead carcass, oranything for the dead that
defiles, by the tent he is obliged to put a mark upon it, that it may not be a
stumbling to others;and on the intermediate days of a feast, they go out from
the sanhedrim, to mark the graves.--Withwhat do they mark? , "with chalk
infused" in water, and poured upon the unclean place:they do not put the
mark upon the top of the unclean place, (or exactlyin it,) but so that it may
stand out here and there, at the sides of it, that what is pure may not be
corrupted; and they do not put the mark far from the place of the
uncleanness, that they may not waste the land of Israel; and they do not set
marks on those that are manifest, for they are known to all; but upon those
that are doubtful, as a field in which a grave is lost, and places that are open,
and want a covering.
Now because whenthe rains fell, these marks were washedaway, hence on the
first of Adar (February) when they used to repair the highways, they also
marked the graves with white lime, that they might be seenand known, and
avoided; and so on their intermediate feastdays (z): the reasonwhy they
made use of chalk, or lime, and with these marked their graves, was becauseit
lookedwhite like bones (a); so that upon first sight, it might be thought and
known what it was for, and that a grave was there: hence this phrase, "whited
sepulchres":
which indeed appear beautiful outward; especiallyat a distance, and when
new marked:
but within are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness;worms and
rottenness, which arise from the putrefied carcasses, andare very nauseous
and defiling,

(x) Misn. MaaserSheni, c. 5. sect. 1.((y) Hilch. Tumath Meth, c. 8. sect. 9. (z)
Misn. Shekalim, c. 1. sect. 1. & Moed Katon, c. 1. sect. 2. Maimon. &
Bartenora in lb. (a) Jarchi in Misu. MoedKatan, c. 1. sect. 2. & Bartenora in
Misn. MaaserSheni, c. 5. sect. 1.
Geneva Study Bible
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,hypocrites!for ye are like unto whited
sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of
dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
EXEGETICAL(ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Meyer's NT Commentary
Matthew 23:27 f. The graves were whitewashedwith lime (κονία)every year
on the 15th of Adar (a customwhich Rabbinical writers trace to Ezekiel
39:15), not for the purpose of ornamenting them, but in order to render them
so conspicuous as to prevent any one defiling himself (Numbers 19:16) by
coming into contactwith them. For the passagesfrom Rabbinicalwriters, see
Lightfoot, Schoettgen, andWetstein. A kind of ornamental appearance was
thus imparted to the graves. In Luke 11:44, the illustration is of a totally
different character.
ὑποκρίς. κ. ἀνομ.] (immorality): both as representing their disposition. Thus,
morally speaking, they were τάφοι ἔμψυχοι, Lucian, D. M. vi. 2.
Expositor's Greek Testament
Matthew 23:27-28. Sixth woe, referring to no specialPharisaic vice, but giving
a graphic picture of their hypocrisy in general(cf. Luke 11:44).
Cambridge Bible for Schools andColleges
27. like unto whited sepulchres]In Luke the comparisonis to “graves that
appear not,” by walking over which men unconsciouslydefile themselves. To
avoid this ceremonialdefilement the Jews carefullywhitewashedthe graves or
marked them with chalk on a fixed day every year—the fifteenth of Adar. The

custom still exists in the East. One of the spiteful devices of the Samaritans
againstthe Jews was to remove the whitewashfrom sepulchres in order that
the Jews might be contaminated by walking over them.
Bengel's Gnomen
Matthew 23:27. Ὅτι, κ.τ.λ., for, etc.)In this verse the especiallydistinctive
characteristic ofhypocrites is described:for hypocrisy is named in Matthew
23:28. Cf. Luke 11:44 with the context.—κεκονιαμένοις, whited)The Jews
used to whiten their sepulchres with chalk.
Pulpit Commentary
Verses 27, 28. - Seventh woe - againstanother form of the same hypocrisy
(Luke 11:44). Whited (κεκονιαμένοις)sepulchres. Once a year, about the
fifteenth of the month Adar, the Jews usedto whitewashthe tombs and the
places where corpses were buried, partly out of respectfor the dead, but
chiefly in order to make them conspicuous, andthus to obviate the risk of
persons incautiously contracting ceremonialdefilement by touching or
walking over them (Numbers 19:16). To such sepulchres our Lord compares
these Pharisees, becausetheir outwardly fair show concealedrottenness
within (comp. Acts 23:3). Indeed, it might be said that their seeming
exceptionalpurity was a warning of internal corruption, a sign post to point to
hidden defilement. Obtrusive religiousness, emphatic scrupulosity, are marks
of pride and self-righteousness, utterly alien from real devotion and holiness.
Vincent's Word Studies
Whited sepulchres (τάφοις κεκονιαμένοις)
Not the rock-tombs, belonging mostly to the rich, but the graves coveredwith
plasteredstructures. In general, cemeterieswere outside of cities;but any
dead body found in the field was to be buried on the spot where it had been
discovered. A pilgrim to the Passover, for instance, might easilycome upon
such a grave in his journey, and contractuncleanness by the contact
(Numbers 19:16). It was therefore ordered that all sepulchres should be
whitewasheda month before Passover, in order to make them conspicuous, so
that travellers might avoid ceremonialdefilement. The fact that this general

whitewashing was going on at the time when Jesus administered this rebuke
to the Pharisees gavepoint to the comparison. The word νιαμένοις (whitened,
from κόνις, dust) carries the idea of whitening with a powder, as powdered
lime.
PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES
WILLIAM BARCLAY
DisguisedDecay(Matthew 23:27-28)
23:27-28 "Alas for you, Scribes and Pharisees!for you are like white-washed
tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of the bones of
dead men, and of all corruption. So you, too, outwardly look righteous to men,
but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."
Here againis a picture which any Jew would understand. One of the
commonestplaces for tombs was by the wayside. We have already seenthat
anyone who touched a dead body became unclean (Numbers 19:16).
Therefore, anyone who came into contactwith a tomb automaticallybecame
unclean. At one time in particular the roads of Palestine were crowdedwith
pilgrims--at the time of the PassoverFeast. Fora man to become unclean on
his wayto the PassoverFeastwouldbe a disaster, for that meant he would be
debarred from sharing in it. It was then Jewishpractice in the month of Adar
to whitewashall wayside tombs, so that no pilgrims might accidentallycome
into contactwith one of them and be rendered unclean.
So, as a man journeyed the roads of Palestine on a spring day, these tombs
would glint white, and almost lovely, in the sunshine; but within they were full
of bones and bodies whose touch would defile. That, said Jesus, was a precise

picture of what the Phariseeswere. Theiroutward actions were the actions of
intensely religious men; their inward hearts were foul and putrid with sin.
It can still happen. As Shakespearehad it, a man may smile and smile and be
a villain. A man may walk with bowed head and reverent steps and folded
hands in the posture of humility, and all the time be looking down with cold
contempt on those whom he regards as sinners. His very humility may be the
pose of pride; and, as he walks so humbly, he may be thinking with relish of
the picture of piety which he presents to those who are watching him. There is
nothing harder than for a goodman not to know that he is good;and once he
knows he is good, his goodness is gone, howeverhe may appearto men from
the outside.
BRIAN BELL
Matthew 23:13-39 2-19-17 Outwardly Religious. Inwardly Corrupt. I.
Slide1 Announce: A. Slide2-4 Gil - Office closedMon. Scholarships Winter
Camps. Real. BetterTogether. B. Me - Children at Risk cancelledfor the Pro
Life Go Mobil for life event tonight. 1. Slide5 MercyProjects - hosting a
Ukraine Reception6pm this Wed b4 service, Agape rm II. Slide6 Intro:
Outwardly Religious. Inwardly Corrupt. A.In dealing with the topic of
greatness,In dealing with little ones, Jesus is gentle. In facing foes, He is bold.
1. As we said, Jesus uses His strongestlanguage in this ch. 2. Against who,
unbelievers? No, againstthose who profess to be believers, aka hypocrites. B.
What is a hypocrite? The Greek word denotes someone acting out a part in a
play. 1. In Greek drama the actors held masks overtheir faces. 2. Eachmask
was painted to representthe character, the actor played. 3. In real life, a
hypocrite is a personwho masks his real self, while he plays a part for his
audience. C. Last week we talkedabout...too oftenwe wearmasks to hide who
we really are from others and from God. However, God can see through our
mask. a) Put the mask on and God can’t work (It’s hypocrisy, phony,

duplicity). b) Take the mask off and Godcan work (It’s vulnerability, honesty,
authenticity). (1) Hopefully you turned in your mask lass week to Jesus.
D.Slide7a WhenPtolemy, outstanding astronomer, astrologer, geographer,
mathematician, of the 2nd century, decided to build the Pharos (island off
Alexandria, Egypt), he chose Sostratus to design that mammoth lighthouse,
which later became one of the Slide7b 7 Wonders of the Ancient World. 1.
Ptolemy insisted that the structure should bear his inscription as a personal
memorial; however, Sostratus didn't think the king should getall the credit.
1
2. Slide7c He therefore put the title of Ptolemy on the front of the lighthouse
in a thick plaster which would be eye catching at first, but later would be
worn awayby the elements. Secretlyhe had cut his own name in the granite
underneath. 3. Slide7d For decades the sea dashed againstthe inscription and
gradually eroded it. Though it lastedthe lifetime of that earthly monarch, it
finally was obliterated, leaving the name Sostratus standing in bold relief. a)
The Pharisees inthis chapter weartheir religion for all to see on the outside,
proud of what they’ve built in their life...only to 1 day be exposed. b) 1 day
all of us will finally be exposed& only what is underneath/inside will last.
E. Slide8 So far Jesus has warned the Religious leaders with 3 Parables. He’s
spokendirectly to the Herodian’s, Sadducees, & Pharisees. And now, He
delivers 8 Woe’s. 1. Jesus is pronouncing these Woe’s not with a temper, not
with meanness, but with painful sorrow. We’ll catchHis heart in the last few
verses. F. 7 out of the 8 Woe’s He calls them Hypocrites. In 1 He calls them
Blind Guides. 1. Hypocritical as to their character;blind guides as to their
leadership.
III. Slide9 WOE 1, DETOURING OTHERSFROM THE KINGDOM (13) A.
Woe – it infers grief & deep regret. [Anguish, not anger] 1. Jesus’purpose for
these woe’s was to try to help the religious leaders & the people they
influenced. B. It’s bad enough to keepyourself out, but to stand in the way of
others, is detestable. 1. How is your Lifestyle keeping others from entering?
C. If you disagree with Christianity & don’t want any part of it (so be it), but

don’t you dare influence others to follow you to the pit. D. Slide10 *You are
either detouring others from the Kingdom or inviting them into it.
IV. Slide11 WOE 2, DAMAGING THE DEFENSELESS& SHOWY
PRAYERS (14)
2
A. Some manuscripts omit this vs.14 ESV/NIV. But it is in Mrk.12:40 &
Lk.20:47 so we know it is God’s truth, even if it wasn’t here. B. 2
Indictments: Swindling widows & making pretentious (attempting to impress)
prayers. 1. Both of these are bad enoughby themselves, both make them
guilty of the lowestHell. 2. They will have to stand before the widows judge
one day. Ps.68:5 A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, Is God in His
holy habitation. a) God doesn’t leave this even to His best angel, but takes this
unto Himself. b) His Mercyis extended to those longing for families. He
becomes their Father. He is the peculiar Guardian to the defenseless. c)He’s
the Presidentof Orphanages...the ProtectorofWidows. C. Note: greater
condemnation - proves that there are degrees ofpunishment, as there are
degrees in Glory. 1. All the ungodly will be condemned by the Righteous
Judge. But the Greaterdamnation is reservedfor the Hypocrites, who behind
their mask of long prayers, have been ripping off widow’s. a) How are we
ripping off widows? Maybe by not being a family to them? D. Slide12 *You
are either damaging the defenselessand showing off your long prayers or
helping the defenseless andkeeping your public prayers, short & honest.
V. Slide13 WOE 3, WINNING OTHERS OVER TO LEGALISM (15)A. A
proselyte is a convert to a cause. They were out to win others to their legalistic
system. B. Twice a son of hell - The convert is usually shows much more zeal
than his leader, thus this dble devotion only produces dble condemnation. C.
Slide14 *You are either winning others over to legalismor winning them over
to grace.
VI. Slide15 WOE 4, BLIND GUIDES WHO PLAY W/MAN MADE RULES
(16-22)A. They were the religious guides of the Jews. Willfully Foolish,
Willfully Blind. B. (17) Fools - They thought they were wise, He calls them
Fools. 1. Blind - Sin, prejudice, bigotry, & hypocrisy had blinded their eyes.

3
2. Spurgeonsaid, There are none so stupid as those who will not learn, & none
so blind as those who will not see. C. They tried to come up with different
ways to swear/vow without using the Divine Name. 1. He points out their folly
in reversing the right order of things. a) He shows they were doing the very
thing they tried to avoid. 2. Stick to letting your yes be yes & no, no. Mt.5:34-
36. D. Slide16 *You’re either playing w/man made rules or living out the great
realities of faith.
VII.Slide17 WOE 5, MAJORING ON MINORS (23,24)A. They were so
punctilious to tiny details (tithing their smallestherb plants) while
disregarding the law’s true heart (the weightiermatters). 1. They were
sticklers for detail and yet blind to greatprinciples. 2. They were using a
microscope fordetails and a kaleidoscopefor doctrines. a) The Talmud tells of
the ass ofa certain Rabbi which had been so well trained as to refuse corn of
which the tithes had not been taken. Vincent B. Justice, Mercy, & Faith are
the important qualities God is seeking. C. Jesus didn’t condemn tithing. He
condemned when you allow your legalistic scruples to keepyou from
developing true Christian character. D. (24) Strain out a gnat or Filter out a
gnat. And swallow a camel(hyperbole). CamelConsumption 1. Both insect&
camels were ceremoniallyunclean. 2. They strain a gnat from their wine, so as
not to be defiled. Yet, they commit greatsins w/o any twinge of conscience
therefore swallowing a camel, humps and all. E. Slide18 *You are either
majoring on the minors or you are majoring on the majors.
VIII.Slide19 WOE’S 6-8, OUTWARDLY RELIGIOUS, INWARDLY
CORRUPT (23,24)A. Slide20 WOE 6, INSIDE OUT (25,26)B. They had
frequent washings. Bothof themselves & of their vessels.C. Jesus shows itis
possible to be cleanon the outside, yet defiled on the inside.
4
D. Jesus lookedinto their cup & saw greed& self-indulgence. 1. As Jesus
peers into your cup this morning what does He see? E. Here was their
supreme fault & failure: Attention to externalism, to the neglectof the
internal condition of their life. F. If your only focusing on your externals &

not your heart, than your a 20thcent Pharisee. G. Slide21 *You are either
cleanon the outside & dirty inside or you are cleaninside, which leads to a
cleanoutside.
H. Slide22 WOE 7, WHITEWASHED TOMBS (27,28)I. Jesus in one fell
swoop, sliceda beautiful red polished apple right in 1/2 & exposeda juicy
brown worm eating awayat the core. [bad sunflowerseed. walnut w/worm] J.
The Jews were carefulnot to touch anything related to dead bodies. 1. One
month before Passoverthey’d whitewashthe tombs. Remember it’s only 3
days from Passover. He’s probably looking at one right then. 2. Contactw/a
grave causeddefilement. Contactw/these Pharisees did likewise. K. Dead
men’s bones - what a graphic snapshotof the hypocrite. 1. Illus: PaintedHand
Pump - Babrov, Russia. Our hotel had such dirty water. Driving out the next
morning I noticed they had painted the hand pumps white on the street
corners. It didn’t make the watersweeter. L. D.L. Moody said, If I take care
of my character, my reputation will care for itself. M. The Pharisee’s livedfor
reputation, not character.
N. Slide23 WOE 8 - PROPHET PERSECUTORS (29-36)O. (29) The
Pharisees built, improved, & embellished the tombs of the Prophets (ie.
Davids). Which was a false professionof reverence ofthe prophets. 1. Their
fathers killed the prophets. And they put monuments up to killed prophets.
And they went on with the same business of killing prophets.1 P. (30) What
irony that at that very moment they were already plotting the death of the
Lord of Prophets.
5
1 G.Campbell Morgan, pg.150.
Q. (32) Fill up - Topit off. Top off your cup...with my blood. 1. Go ahead&
finish what your fathers started. Israel’s measure was almost full. R. (33) A
goodsurgeoncuts deep...so did Jesus. S. (35) This Zechariah is found in 2
Chron.24:20-22 the last book in the bible...Hebrew bible that is. So from
Genesis to Malachi. A to Z. Whole range of OT history is indicated. T. (36)
The Prophet has spoken. 1. Insteadof hearing the woe’s and coming out of

darkness, they just tried to snuff out the light. 2. And it was before that
generationhad passeda way that Jerusalemwas besieged& destroyed, ad 70.
IX. Slide24 NOT WILLING (37-39)A. (37) Don’t miss this...this chapter,
w/the heaviestindictment, ends w/sobs & tears. B. Jerusalem, the nation of
Israel. Jerusalem, Jerusalemsignifies deepemotion. 1. Just like Absalom,
Absalom. Martha, Martha. Saul, Saul. C. I wanted to gather...youwere not
willing - this summarizes the tragedy of final rejectionof truth. 1. Jn.5:39,40
You searchthe Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and
these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that
you may have life. D. Mosesusedthis analogyof the hen gathering her chicks
in his farewellsermon also (Deut32:11). 1. What a picture this is of love,
tender care & a willingness to die to protect others E. (38) The Temple was
My house (21:13), but now it had been abandoned & left empty. Which Jesus
does next...see 24:1. F. (39) Yet, Jesus leaves the nation w/a promise...He
would 1 day return. I shall return. or I’ll be back. 1. He will remove His
presence from Israel until the GreatTribulation...which segue’s us into the
end times teaching next. 2. Till...long ages have passedsince the king went
awayinto the far country. 3. The signs of the times tell us His coming is
drawing near.
6
G.Againstthe backgroundof this indictment, we see one last touching portrait
of Jesus. As He condemned these hypocrites, His heart broke for them and for
the crowds who would soonscreamfor His death. 1. In anguish, Jesus cried
out...(msg)Jerusalem!Jerusalem!Murderer of prophets! Killer of the ones
who brought you God’s news!How often I’ve ached to embrace your children,
the waya hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you wouldn’t let me.
And now you’re so desolate, nothing but a ghost town. What is there left to
say? Only this: I’m out of here soon. The next time you see me you’ll say, Oh,
God has blessedhim! He’s come, bringing God’s rule!

JIM BOMKAMP
Matthew 23:25-39: “Finishing Up The ‘Woes’PronouncedBy Jesus OnThe
Pharisees And Scribes”
by
Jim Bomkamp
Back Bible Studies Home Page
1. INTRO:
1.1. In our last study, we saw that Jesus had begun to pronounce 7 or 8
‘woes’upon the leaders of the nation of Israel, and in fact we’ve seenthat all
of chapter 23 deals with Jesus’condemning of the Pharisees andScribes
1.1.1. In these ‘woes’we saw that though these prophesied the harshestof
judgments upon the leaders of the nation of Israel, that they were pronounced
with the utmost of pity and sorrow.
1.1.2. Warnings are issuedin mercy for they give opportunity for repentance
1.1.3. We saw how that these ‘woes’would affectthe entire nation of Israel,
not just the leaders, so these judgments would cause many innocent people to
suffer.
1.2. In today’s study, we will finish up studying these ‘woes’.
2. VS 23:25-26 - “25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of
robbery and self-indulgence. 26 “You blind Pharisee, first cleanthe inside of
the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become cleanalso.”” -

Jesus pronounces a ‘woe’upon the Pharisees andScribes for cleaning the
outside of the cup and of the dish, while the inside was filthy
2.1. The cleanliness ofthe outside of a cup or a dish did not matter as
much as the inside since it is really the inside of the cup or the dish that needs
to be cleansince that is the part that a person eats or drinks out of. This
symbolizes the fact that the religion of the Pharisees andScribes was all on the
external of their life, not the internal, and internal righteousness is of much
more value than external righteousness, in fact it is really the inward part of
us that God is most concernedabout.
2.1.1. Manyyears ago, I once was eating at Mexicanrestaurantin Phoenix,
and like many restaurants, the lights were very dim in the place. I had
ordered a cup of coffee with my meal, and when I was about ½ of the way
through with my cup of coffee, I noticed that the inside of the cup was much
darker than the cream coloredoutside of the cup, and it just didn’t look right
to me. Well, I finally took my finger and ran it along the inside of the cup and
all of the black that was along the sides of the cup came off on my finger. The
cup had been full of cigarette ashes before they poured the coffee into it. I
immediately lost any appetite I previously had. Well, in the same way in our
lives, God sees the inside of us as well as our external, and if the inside of us is
filled with things that are sinful and do not glorify God, He is not pleasedwith
how we are living our lives.
2.1.2. The ‘internal part’ of the lives of the Pharisees andScribes describes
the things that filled their hearts, and a person’s heart is either filled with the
goodness ofthe Lord or it is filled with sin. The internal part of the Pharisees’
and Scribes’lives was filled with sin, for their hearts were bent upon robbery
and self-indulgence.
2.1.2.1..The King James translates this word ‘robbery’ here to be ‘extortion’,
for these men used their positions of authority in the nation for their own
purposes and extorted money from widows and those who were in
unfortunate circumstances.

2.1.2.2.This word‘self-indulgence’ is translatedas ‘greed’or ‘excess’in some
other translations, and it just speaks ofthe fact that these men were always
looking out only for themselves and any opportunity that they might be able
to find to exalt themselves or to profit personally either in their monetary
status or the lusts of their flesh.
2.2. In Matthew 5:19-20, Jesus soughtto differentiate external
righteousness from internal righteousness whenhis disciples were accusedof
eating with unclean hands, which went againstthe teachings of the Pharisees,
and in those verses He taught that it was from within out of the heart that all
sin originated, “19 “Forout of the heart come evil thoughts, murders,
adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. 20 “Theseare the things
which defile the man; but to eat with unwashedhands does not defile the
man.””
2.3. In Luke 11:39-41, Jesus rebukedthe Pharisees forhaving only
external righteousness as He askedthem whether or not the same God created
the internal as well as the external parts of their lives, “39 But the Lord saidto
him, “Now you Phariseescleanthe outside of the cup and of the platter; but
inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness. 40 “Youfoolish ones,
did not He who made the outside make the inside also? 41 “But give that
which is within as charity, and then all things are cleanfor you.”
2.4. In this chapter, Jesus is teaching that if we will concentrate upon
cleaning the inside of our lives where the attitudes and motives of our lives are
concerned, then the outside of us will automaticallyfall in line and be clean
also. Cleaning out the inside of our lives, dealing with where our hearts are
really at, is to getat the root of the sin that is in our lives.
For you are like whitewashedtombs which on the outside appearbeautiful,
but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 “Evenso
you too outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of
hypocrisy and lawlessness.”” - Jesus pronounces a ‘woe’ upon the Pharisees

and Scribes for appearing like whitewashedtombs which appearbeautiful but
inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness
3.1. In Israel, the people knew that if they were to accidentallystep on or
touch in any way a tomb or a dead body that they would be ceremonially
unclean for a week, and then they would have to go through the ritual
cleaning required by the Law of Moses before they could again be accepted
into the fellowship of the people and come into the temple. Thus, yearly they
would paint all of the tombs around Jerusalemwith a bright white paint so
that the tombs would stick out even at night and people wouldn’t accidentally
come into contactwith a tomb.
3.1.1. In Numbers 19:16-20, Moses has written down the ordinance to be kept
by those who become defiled by touching a dead personor a grave, “16 ‘Also,
anyone who in the open field touches one who has been slain with a swordor
who has died naturally, or a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean for
sevendays. 17 ‘Then for the unclean personthey shall take some of the ashes
of the burnt purification from sin and flowing water shall be added to them in
a vessel. 18 ‘And a clean personshall take hyssop and dip it in the water, and
sprinkle it on the tent and on all the furnishings and on the persons who were
there, and on the one who touched the bone or the one slain or the one dying
naturally or the grave. 19 ‘Then the clean personshall sprinkle on the unclean
on the third day and on the seventhday; and on the seventh day he shall
purify him from uncleanness, and he shall washhis clothes and bathe himself
in water and shall be cleanby evening. 20 ‘But the man who is unclean and
does not purify himself from uncleanness, that personshall be cut off from the
midst of the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord; the
waterfor impurity has not been sprinkled on him, he is unclean.”
3.2. Jesus tells these Pharisees thatthey are like whitewashedtombs
which ‘on the outside appear beautiful’ due to their being painted yearly with
the bright white paint, but He tells them that just like those tombs, the only
beauty they had was on the outside of the tomb for inside the tomb there was
nothing but ‘dead men’s bones and all uncleanness’.

3.2.1. Jesus says thatit was only on the outside that they ‘appear righteous to
men’, but God who knows also what is on the inside of men knows that on the
inside of their hearts they are ‘full of hypocrisy and lawlessness’.
3.3. In Luke 11:44, Luke records some of the ‘woes’which Jesus
pronounced upon the Pharisees andScribes, and there Luke records that
Jesus saidthat these leaders in Israelwere just like the tombs that people
would accidentally stepon and then become unclean, for everyone who came
in contactwith these men were defiled by them, “44 “Woe to you! For you are
like concealedtombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of
it.””.
3.4. My pastor, Wayne Taylor, once taught us about what he called ‘fake
fruit’. He askedif we had ever noticedthat if you go to the store and buy the
plastic fruit for the decorative fruit plates, that every piece of fruit is perfectly
concentric and painted without a flaw. In contrast, realfruit is often lumpy
and has imperfections in it because it is born out of trials and the fiery
crucible of life. Many Christians act on the external like everything is going
well in their lives and the Lord is blessing them, and they come to church and
exhibit ‘fake fruit’ in their lives that is too real to be true, for it shows that it is
manufactured. The real fruit of the Holy Spirit is born out of real life, and
though it is not as shiny and concentric, it tastes really goodand that is what is
important.
For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the
righteous, 30 and say, ‘If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we
would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the
prophets.’ 31 “Consequentlyyou bear witness againstyourselves, that you are
sons of those who murdered the prophets.”” - Jesus pronounces a ‘woe’
againstthe Pharisees andScribes for adorning the monuments of the
righteous and saying that if they were alive in the day of those men they would
not have been partners with their murders

4.1. This is an interesting ‘woe’because in it Jesus condemns the
Pharisees andScribes for honoring and venerating the saints and prophets of
old while falselyboasting that they would not have murdered those prophets
had they been alive during the days when they were martyred.
4.2. These leaders are being condemned because they on the one hand
recognize just how wrong it was to persecute those who lived righteously and
honored the Lord, and yet on the other hand they are doing the same things
that the people who murdered God’s prophets did, towards Jesus and those
who lived righteously.
4.2.1. The hearts of the Pharisees and Scribes were every bit as wickedas the
hearts of the people who murdered the prophets of old.
4.2.2. It is the Pharisees andScribes own testimony of how wrong the people
of old who murdered the prophets were that actually condemns themselves,
because they were doing the same things.
5. VS 23:32-33 - “32 “Fillup then the measure of the guilt of your
fathers. 33 “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how shall you escape the
sentence ofhell?”” - Jesus tells the Pharisees andScribes to ‘fill up the
measure of the guilt of your fathers’
5.1. Verse 32 is an interesting verse as it appears that Jesus tells the
Pharisees andScribes to continue in their sinning.
5.1.1. Thesemen had hardened their hearts to Godto the point that He is
giving them overto their sin, or confirming their own decisionin a sense.
Paul wrote in Romans 1:20-25 about how the Lord gives people over to a
reprobate mind who go too far in hardening the hearts to the Lord, “20 For
since the creationof the world His invisible attributes, His eternal powerand
divine nature, have been clearlyseen, being understood through what has
been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew
God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in

their speculations, and their foolishheart was darkened. 22 Professing to be
wise, they became fools, 23 and exchangedthe glory of the incorruptible God
for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed
animals and crawling creatures. 24 Therefore Godgave them over in the lusts
of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among
them. 25 For they exchangedthe truth of God for a lie, and worshipedand
served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessedforever. Amen.”
5.1.2. Onthe night when Jesus was betrayed, Judas was finally sealedin his
heart by God to be confirmed in his own decisionto rejectChrist, as at the
last supper Jesus told him, “Whatthou does, do quickly”(see John 13:27).
5.1.3. In Rev. 22:10-12, the apostle Johnwrites some similar words to what
Jesus says here as he is wrapping up the revelation of Jesus Christ and sealing
up the words of prophesy which declare God’s soonjudgment to come upon
the world, “10 And he *saidto me, “Do not sealup the words of the prophecy
of this book, for the time is near. 11 “Let the one who does wrong, still do
wrong; and let the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is
righteous, still practice righteousness;and let the one who is holy, still keep
himself holy.” 12 “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to
render to every man according to what he has done.””
5.2. Jesus calls these PhariseesandScribes ‘serpents’ and a ‘brood of
vipers’, words which symbolize many things in the scriptures:
5.2.1. Satanis calleda ‘serpent’ because of his cunning and evil stealthiness.
5.2.1.1.Thus, Jesustaught us to be ‘wise as a serpent’ and gentle as a dove.
5.2.2. It was as he had takenthe form of a ‘serpent’ that Satancame to Eve as
the tempter, and because ofhis cunning and stealthiness was successfulin
tempting her.
5.2.3. Vipers were very poisonous snakeswhichwere common in Israel, and
since they were small and lookedlike a stick on the ground, many people
didn’t seem them and were bitten and died because of the bite of these
creatures.

5.2.4. It was whenPaul was upon the island of Malta in Acts 28 when he had
a viper fasten onto his hand. Paul shook the viper off into the fire, and the
natives on the island were shockedthat Paul didn’t immediately die from the
poison, and then they beganto worship Paul.
5.3. Paul asks these PhariseesandScribes how it is that they think that
they will escapethe sentence ofhell?
5.3.1. Theseversesrevealonce againthat Jesus taughtvery clearly that there
was a literal hell that people were going to go who did not come to Christ for
salvationin this life.
6. VS 23:34-35 - “34 “Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets
and wise men and scribes;some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of
them you will scourge in your synagogues, andpersecute from city to city, 35
that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from
the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the sonof Berechiah,
whom you murdered betweenthe temple and the altar.”” - Jesus tells the
Pharisees andScribes that he is going to send to them prophets, wise men, and
scribes, whom they will scourge and persecute
6.1. After His resurrectionfrom the dead, Jesus sentto the Pharisees and
Scribes His 12 apostles and many other disciples, and they persecutedthem.
All of the 12 apostles with the exception of John, the Son of Thunder, died of
martyrs deaths.
6.1.1. In Acts 7:54, we read that it was the Pharisees andScribes who killed
Stephen, the first Christian martyr, then next Herod had James, the Sonof
Thunder, thrust through with a sword after he saw how much it had pleased
the Jews thatStephen had been murdered.
6.1.2. Onthe missionaryjourneys of Paul in the book of Acts, we see that the
Jewishleaders in all parts of the known world would persecute those who
preachedthe gospelto them. See 2 Corinthians chapter 6 for a chronicle of

the sufferings which Paul endured during his missionary journeys, most of
which occurred at the hands of the Jews.
6.2. Interestingly though, Paul tells the Pharisees andScribes that they
will incur not only their ownguilt but they will also incur the built of ‘all
righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Able to the blood
of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered betweenthe temple
and the altar’.
6.2.1. In the scriptures, we read that eachpersonshould only incur the guilt
for his own sins, not for the sins of his fathers, howevera person’s guilt is
proportional to the amount of light that they have received, and those of
Jesus’day had receivedmore light than all of the generations before
combined, therefore they should be guilty of all of the sins of the previous
generations.
6.2.2. There are a couple of interesting things about these verses also:
6.2.2.1.Whyshould the range of guilt be from ‘Abel’, the first person
murdered in human history, to ‘Zechariah’?
6.2.2.1.1.Wasthis a representative group then? Did they represent really all
of those who were martyred for their faith in Old Testamenttimes?
6.2.2.2.Wedo not know who this man ‘Zechariah’ is?
6.2.2.2.1.There is no recordof a murder of the ‘Zechariah’ who was a minor
prophet and wrote the book by his own name?
6.2.2.2.1.1.However, Zechariah1:1 declares to us that this prophet’s father
was named Berachiah?
6.2.2.2.2.There are otherZechariah’s mentioned in the Old Testament, one in
particular in 2 Chron. 22-24, who lived in the latter part of the Old Testament
period may be the man mentioned here. He was the son of Jehoida the Priest.
Jehoida was a righteous priest, and he served the Lord all of his days. He
took the young man Joash, age 7, and made him to be king while his wicked
grandmother, Athaliah, had been ruling. Athaliah reigned after the death of
her sonAhaziah, and when she realized that her son was dead, she went and

had all of her grandsons from Ahaziah murdered so that she could reign as
the queen-mother. However, Joashhad been stolenawayand protected.
Well, when Joashwas 7 years old, Jehoida the priest anointed him as king
over Israel, and wickedAthaliah was then put to death. Joashthen served the
Lord faithfully for many years (he reigned 40 years), all of the years of
Jehoida’s life. However, nearthe end of his reign, Jehoida died at the age of
130 and he left his son Zechariahin charge as priest. Zechariah however
condemned Joashone day for his sin because afterthe death of Jehoida Joash
had turned away from the Lord to adolatry. Zechariahtold Joashthat
because he had abandoned the Lord, the Lord had abandoned him, and
therefore Joashhad Zechariah stoned to death, and that day Zechariah died
in that area betweenthe temple and the altar.
6.2.2.2.2.1.The problem with accepting this man to be the Zechariah
mentioned is that his father was not named Berachiah, but Jehoida. However,
it could be that when he was calledthe sonof Jehoida, he was really the
grandsonof Jehoida and that his father was named Berachiah.
7. VS 23:36 - “36 “Truly I say to you, all these things shall come
upon this generation.”” - Jesus verified that the ‘woes’that He had
pronounced on these Phariseesand Scribes were judgments that would
happen to them
7.1. Jesus oftenin His teachings said, ‘Truly, truly’, in order to emphasize
that He meant what He was saying.
7.2. The judgments did not fall for 40 years, howeverin God’s mind they
fell upon that generation. So, this brings us to a question of what is a
generationto God? This question will againbe askedin chapter 24 when
Jesus talks about the generationthat will witness the events that He speaks of
there.

8. VS 23:37 - “37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets
and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gatheryour
children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you
were unwilling.”” - Jesus reveals the tender love that He had for those who
were calledto be God’s people, the Israelites
8.1. In Luke 13:34, Jesus utteredtheses same words, including that which
is in verse 38, howeverLuke has Jesus uttering these words far before this
point in time in the gospelof Matthew, just before Jesus’arrestand
crucifixion.
8.1.1. It could be that Jesus uttered these words on more than one occasion.
8.2. There is greatsorrow and grief in these words uttered by Jesus, as
He does not enjoy the fact that the Israelites will now be judged by God for
turning awayfrom their God and rejecting their Messiah.
8.3. Jesus affectionatelyrefers to the Israelites as His little chicks, and
that like a mother hen He greatlydesired to gather His chicks and protect
them under the shelter of His able arms, howeverthey were ‘unwilling’ to
come to Him for that protection.
9. VS 23:38 - “38 “Behold, your house is being left to you
desolate!”” - Jesus abandons the House of God
9.1. When Jesus had come into town at the beginning of this lastweek of
His life, He had purged the temple of the money changers because zealfor the
house of the Lord had consumed Him, now He rejects the house of God and
calls it ‘your house’ (referring to the Pharisees andScribes).
9.2. When God leaves our lives we are left ‘desolate’.

10. VS 23:39 - “39 “ForI say to you, from now on you shall not see Me
until you say, ‘Blessedis He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”” - Jesus
tells the Pharisees and Scribes that they will not see Him againuntil they are
hailing Him as the Messiahwith the same chants the people yelled when He
arrived at the beginning of the week during His Triumphal Entry
10.1. These words were originally written in Ps. 118:26.
10.2. In Zech. 12:10-12, we readabout that future time when all Israel shall
turn to the Lord and receive Jesus as their Messiah, “10 “AndI will pour out
on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace
and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and
they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep
bitterly over Him, like the bitter weeping over a first-born. 11 “In that day
there will be greatmourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of
Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 “And the land will mourn, every
family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by
themselves;the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by
themselves;”
11. CONCLUSION:
11.1. Remember, when we read the rebukes, ‘woes’, andjudgments uttered
againstthe religious leaders in Israel that they all apply to any people of any
era in time who are false teachers and prophets, leading God’s people astray
rather than onto the path that leads to God, His Son, and the salvationthat
was purchasedby His blood.

Matthew Thy Kingdom Come
PREVIOUS PAGE | NEXT PAGE
23. Jesus Condemns the Scribes and Pharisees
Article contributed by www.walvoord.com
Hypocrisy of the Pharisees, Matt23:1-12
Jesus, atthis time, was thronged with pilgrims from all over Israelwho had
come to celebrate the Passoverfeast. Addressing Himself to them and to His
own disciples, Jesus solemnlywarned them concerning the scribes and
Pharisees (cf. Mark 12:38-40;Lk 20:45-47). This discourse, as a whole, is
found only in Matthew. Jesus beganby acknowledging thatthey were seated
in Moses’seat. While not saying it in so many words, He implied that they
were usurpers who were not truly successors ofMoses.But nevertheless, their
position must be recognized. Accordingly, He told them, “All therefore
whatsoeverthey bid you observe, that observe and do” (23:3).
By commanding them to observe and do what the Pharisees instructedthem,
Jesus certainlydid not mean that they should follow the false teachings of the
Pharisees but rather those teachings that naturally and correctlyarose from
the Law of Moses.In general, the Pharisees were upholders of the law and
should be recognizedfor this.
Jesus wenton immediately, however, to point out their hypocrisy and
commanded the people, “But do not ye after their works:for they say, and do
not” (v. 3). He then cited the hypocrisy of the Pharisees.Theylay heavy
burdens upon the people but would not do anything to make the load lighter.
Their own works were done to be observed by men rather than God. They
made broad their phylacteries, the Scriptures which they customarily bound
to their foreheadand to their left wrist, containing the Scriptures of Exodus
13:3-16;Deuteronomy 6:5-9 and 11:13-21. This they did, not only when they
prayed in the morning, but throughout the day, for the purpose of being seen

of men. They also enlargedthe borders of their garments, the tassels referred
to in Deuteronomy 22:12, which were tokens that they were holy men.
Jesus chargedthe Phariseeswith loving the best places at the feasts and the
chief seats in the synagogue. Theyloved to be called rabbi, which recognized
that they were teachers and scholars. Jesus reminded them that their Messiah,
“Christ,” was their Master, and God was their Father. It is of interest that He
referred to the Christ, or the Messiah, in Matthew 23:8, 10. What He was
saying was that the Phariseesand scribes had forgotten the preeminence of
God and of their Messiah.
This condemnation by Jesus of the pretentions of the scribes and Pharisees
does not rule out reasonable recognitionof authority in Israelor in the
church, but obviously prohibits making this a goalin itself. He held before
them instead the desirability of being a servant, or one who ministers, and He
concluded, “And whosoevershallexalt himself shall be abased;and he that
shall humble himself shall be exalted” (v. 12). His disciples were not to seek to
be called rabbi and were forbidden to use the word father indiscriminately,
even though Paul used father correctlyin 1 Corinthians 4:15, and John
addressedfathers in 1 John 2: 13-14. The generalteaching is clear. Theywere
not to seek man-exalting titles such as rabbi, father, or minister to gain the
recognitionof men. Disciples ofChrist should not exalt themselves but should
seek to serve others and leave the exalting to God Himself.
Jesus Pronounces SevenWoesUpon the Scribes and Pharisees, 23:13-36
In this section, climaxing the controversyof Christ with the scribes and
Pharisees,sevensolemnwoes are pronounced upon them. Only Matthew
records this scathing denunciation of these religious leaders of the Jews. These
woes, in contrastto the Beatitudes, denounce false religionas utterly
abhorrent to God and worthy of severe condemnation. No passagein the Bible
is more biting, more pointed, or more severe than this pronouncement of
Christ upon the Pharisees. Itis significantthat He singledthem out, as
opposedto the Sadducees, who were more liberal, and the Herodians, who
were the politicians. The Pharisees, while attempting to honor the Word of

God and manifesting an extreme form of religious observance,were actually
the farthestfrom God.
His first condemnation, in 23:13, related to the factthat they did all they could
to shut out others. False religionand pretense are always the worstenemies of
the truth and are far more dangerous than immorality or indifference. As the
religious leaders of the Jews, theywere held guilty before God of blocking the
way for others seeking to enter into the kingdom of God.
In verse 14, another woe is indicated, in which the scribes and Pharisees were
chargedwith devouring widows’houses and making long prayers to impress
others. The verse, however, is omitted in most manuscripts and probably
should not be consideredas rightly a portion of this Scripture. It may have
been inserted from Mark 12:40 and Luke 20:47.117If it is included, it would
bring the total woes to eight instead of seven.
In Matthew 23:15, the secondwoe is mentioned. In this one, the Pharisees
were describedas extremely energetic on both land and sea to make
proselytes of the Jewishreligion. But when they were successful, Jesus
charged, “Ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.” In
referring to hell, Christ used the word Geenna or Gehenna, a reference to
eternal damnation, rather than to Hades, the temporary abode of the wicked
in the intermediate state. The Phariseesand their proselytes both would end
up in eternaldamnation.
A third woe is mentioned in verse 16, based on the trickery of the Pharisees,
who held that swearing by the gold of the temple bound the oath. Jesus
denounced them as both fools and blind, as obviously the gold was
meaningless unless it was sanctifiedby the temple, and the gift on the altar
was meaningless unless it was given significance by the altar. Repeating His
accusation, He declaredin verse 19, “Ye fools and blind: for whether is
greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?” Accordingly, Christ
concluded that an oath basedon the temple was binding, just as an oath based
on heaven carried with it the significance of the throne of God and God who
sits on the throne.

The fourth woe, mentioned in verse 23, has to do with hypocrisy in tithing.
While they were so concernedin paying the tithe down to the smallestspice or
seed, they omitted the really important matters: obeying the law and
manifesting mercy and faith. He repeated His charge that they were blind,
straining out a gnat or a small insect, but swallowing a camel. He was, of
course, speaking figurativelyof their dealing with minutiae but omitting the
really important things.
The fifth woe is pronounced in verse 25, where He repeatedthe charge that
they were hypocrites, merely actors acting a part. He chargedthem with
cleaning the outside of the cup and the platter but being unconcernedabout
what was inside, where cleanliness reallymatters. He meant by this that they
were concernedwith ceremonialcleanliness, that which men observed, but not
really concernedwith holiness. While observing ceremonialrites of cleansing,
they were not above extortion and excess.
In verse 27, Jesus mentioned the sixth woe. In this one, He described them as
whited sepulchres, graves thathad been made beautiful and white on the
outside but within were full of dead men’s bones. This illustrated that the
Pharisees were outwardlyrighteous but inwardly full of hypocrisy and
iniquity.
Jesus concludedwith the seventh woe, in verse 29, in which He chargedthem
with building tombs of the prophets and garnishing them with decorations
and claiming that they would not be partakers with their fathers in martyring
prophets. Jesus calledtheir very witness to account, that they were the
children of those who killed the prophets, and He told them, in verse 32, “Fill
ye up then the measure of your fathers.” In other words, do what your fathers
did and even do worse. Jesuswas, ofcourse, referring to their intent to kill
Him and to their later persecutionof the church.
In the severestterms, in verse 33, Jesus addressedthem, “Ye serpents, ye
generationof vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” He described
the scribes and Pharisees as poisonous snakes, destinedfor terrible judgment
which would be theirs in hell, specificallyGehenna, the place of eternal
punishment.

Jesus declared, in verse 34, that He would send to them prophets, wise men,
and scribes who were also believers. Some of them they would persecute, some
they would scourge and drive out of the synagogue,and others they would kill
and crucify. Their works would justify bringing upon them the just
condemnation coming from all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from
the time of righteous Abel, killed by Cain (Gen 4:8), to the martyrdom of
Zacharias, the sonof Barachias (2 Ch 24:20-22). Zacharias, mentionedas the
son of Jehoiada in 2 Chronicles 24:20, probably was the grandsonof the priest
and Barachias washis actualfather. Richard Glover, in his outline of
Matthew 23, summarizes the characteristicsofhypocrisy in these words,
“Hypocrisy is a hard taskmaster…livesonly for the praise of men…concerns
itself with the small things of religion…deals with externals chiefly…reveres
only what is dead…finds a fearful judgment.”118
The present sadchapter in the days of Israel’s apostasywas the climax of the
religious rulers’ long rejectionof the things of God. Jesus solemnly
pronounced that all these acts of rejection of God and His prophets would
cause judgment to come upon this generation, which they would bring to
culmination by their rejectionof God’s only Son. This prophecy was tragically
fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalemand the scattering of the children of
Israelover the face of the earth. Jerusalem, the city of God, and the
magnificent temple, the centerof their worship, were to lay in ashes as an
eloquent reminder that divine judgment on hypocrisy and sin is inevitable.
Lament over Jerusalem, 23:37-39
Probably no words of Jesus in His public ministry are more eloquent than the
words recorded in Matthew of Christ’s lament over Jerusalem(cf. His earlier
lament over Jerusalem, Lk 19:41-44). Here is revealedthe breaking heart of
God over a people whom God loved, and yet a people who spurned that love
and killed those whom God sentto them. The chapter that holds the most
severe indictment of any of the discourses ofChrist “ends in sobs and tears,”
as Criswelldescribes it.119 Jesus declared, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou
that killestthe prophets, and stonestthem which are sent unto thee, how often
would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gatherethher
chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” (Mt 23:37). The repetition of

the address to Jerusalemsignifies the deep emotion in which Jesus spoke, and
can be compared to repetitions of similar characterin Samuel 18:33, where
Absalom is so addressed;Jesus’repeatedaddress to Martha in Luke 10:41;
and the call to Saul in Acts 9:4.
Jerusalem, which means “city of peace,” was the scene where the blood of the
prophets was spilled, and stones were castatthose who brought a messageof
love. Both the verbs for “killest” and “stonest”are presenttense, speaking of
habitual or characteristic action. Againand again, prophets had been killed
and stoned, and the end was not yet. The figure of a hen, or any mother bird,
connotes a brood of young gathering under protective wings, a familiar image
in the Bible (Deu 32:11;Ps 17:8; 61:4).
How tragic the words, “Ye would not!” It was God’s desire to save them, but
it was their will to turn away. There was nothing left but to pronounce
judgment, and Jesus did this in Matthew 23:38, “Behold, your house is left
unto you desolate.”By“house,” undoubtedly He was referring to the city. It
could, however, also relate to the nation itself, which was to suffer severelyin
dispersion over the world. The expressionleft desolate is contained in a simple
verb meaning to be left alone. How alone is a city, a nation, or an individual
from whom Godhas departed.
Even in the midst of this gloom and condemnation, however, a ray of light is
given in verse 39, when Jesus said, “ForI sayunto you, Ye shall not see me
henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessedis he that comethin the name of the
Lord.” The generationto whom He was speaking was indeedto be left
desolate, tragicallyalone, but there was hope for a future generation, a
generationwhich would turn once againto the Lord. With these words, Jesus
closedHis last public discourse and left the temple for the last time (cf. Mt
24:1).
Moses hadwritten long ago in Deuteronomy30:1-3, “And it shall come to
pass, when all these things are come upon thee, and thou shalt call them to
mind among all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee, and
shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all
that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and

with all thy soul; That then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have
compassionupon thee, and will return and gatherthee from all the nations,
whither the Lord thy God hath scatteredthee.” Moseswenton to predict their
regathering and their possessionof the land (Deu 30:4-5). In Deuteronomy
30:6, he stated“And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the
heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy
soul, that thou mayest live.”
Other references to the same revival in the Old Testamentare frequently
found. The closing chapters of the prophecies of Isaiah mention againand
againthe coming revival of Israel, as, for instance, in Isaiah65:18-25.
Jeremiah, in like manner, prophesies Israel’s future restorationin Jeremiah
30:1-11;31:1-14, 27-37. Zechariahspeaksofit in chapter 8, and 12:10; 13:1;
14:9-21. The New Testamentpicks up similar truth in Romans 11:25-36 and
pictures Israeltriumphant on Mount Zion in Revelation14:1-5. While it is
tragic that Israeldid not know the day of her visitation at the time of the first
coming of Christ, the godly remnant of Israel, that awaits His secondcoming
to sit on the throne of David, will experience the blessing of the Lord and
receive a new heart and a new spirit, of which Ezekielspoke in Ezekiel36:23-
28.
J. C. RYLE
Verses 13-33
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!For you devour widows'
houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will receive
greatercondemnation.
"But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,hypocrites!Because you shut up the
Kingdom of Heavenagainstmen; for you don't enter in yourselves, neither do
you allow those who are entering in to enter. Woe to you, scribes and

Pharisees,hypocrites!For you travel around by sea and land to make one
proselyte;and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much of a son of
Gehenna as yourselves.
"Woe to you, you blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the temple, it is
nothing; but whoeverswears by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.'You
blind fools!For which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the
gold? 'Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoeverswears by the
gift that is on it, he is obligated?'You blind fools!For which is greater, the
gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift? He therefore who swearsby the altar,
swears by it, and by everything on it. He who swears by the temple, swears by
it, and by him who was living in it. 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 tithe mint, dill, and
cumin, and have left undone the weightiermatters of the law--justice, mercy,
and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not to have left the other
undone. You blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel!
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!For you cleanthe outside of
the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and
unrighteousness. You blind Pharisee, first cleanthe inside of the cup and of
the platter, that the outside of it may become cleanalso.
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!For you are like whitened
tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men's
bones, and of all uncleanness. Evenso you also outwardly appearrighteous to
men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!For you build the tombs of
the prophets, and decorate the tombs of the righteous, and say, 'If we had
lived in the days of our fathers, we wouldn't have been partakers with them in
the blood of the prophets.' Therefore you testify to yourselves that you are
children of those who killed the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your
fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the judgment
of Hell?"

Jesus was a hater of hypocricy

Jesus was a hater of hypocricy

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to Jesus was a hater of hypocricy

Similar to Jesus was a hater of hypocricy (20)

More from GLENN PEASE

More from GLENN PEASE (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Jesus was a hater of hypocricy