The Seven Woes - Part 2

The Seven Woes - Part 2

Matthew 23:25-36

Introduction

Today we pick up in the discourse that Jesus gave in the temple courts concerning the seven woes against the Pharisees and scribes.

We saw in the first four woes that Jesus called out their hypocrisy in: 

failing to recognize Him as the Messiah, 

how in their zeal they did more harm than good, 

how they missed the heart of the Law through their twisting of Scripture, 

and how in their focus on trivial matters they forsook the weightier matters of the Law.

It is in this fourth woe that Jesus levels the theme of the overall message: they focused on external performance while ignoring justice, mercy, and faithfulness.

Through His calling out their hypocrisy, Jesus both warned them and those to whom He spoke, along with us today, that we must take care not to fall into the same trap.

We tend to think in extremes when it comes to the ideas of hypocrisy and legalism. 

But for true believers, we can not be absolute hypocrites or legalists - not because of any good in us, but because of the grace of God. 

For even though we struggle with both categories, we recognize our own sinfulness in our confession of faith - that we fall short of God’s glory and can never earn our salvation. 

Because of God’s grace, we can both see these areas of struggle and battle against both hypocrisy and legalism in our own hearts.

What the seven woes should do for us is continually correct our hearts to see that the origin and foundation of God’s Law is love. 

In love He has revealed who He is and what He requires in the Law. 

In love He has given us His law to call us to faith in Him as the only hope of being forgiven of our trespasses against His law. 

We discover that it is through love that we find His law is fulfilled.

That is, Jesus has come in love to live perfectly for us and die in our place that our sins may be forgiven. 

As a redeemed people, it is through loving God with all that we are, and loving our neighbor as ourselves, that He graciously sanctifies us according to His law.

For as Jesus said, “” (Mt 22:37–40) You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.

So may we hear the words of warning with hope and assurance, that in love and through grace, God has made us children that we should walk in love, and… …. (Col 2:6–7) as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving

II.The Fifth Woe (25-26)

Looking now at verse 25, we read, “” (25-26) Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

In this fifth woe, Jesus again calls out the scribes and Pharisees for their hypocrisy, addressing their practice of purity.

As was their habit, they spent countless hours discussing the practices of purity including how they should clean the vessels from which they ate and drank.

Much was written about these procedures.

They discussed washing the inside and the outside of the two primary vessels used in eating - the plate and the cup.

Any time we wash dishes, we understand that most of the work should be on the inner part where the food and drink sit.

For we know that it would be pointless to wash the outside of a bowl caked with dried chili, and leave all the remains on the inside.

For it is the inside where the next meal will go - where contaminants must be removed so as not to affect both the taste and the cleanliness of our dishes. 

How off-putting it is to drink down the last of our coffee only to discover something caked on the bottom of the mug.

This is how Jesus illustrates how these religious leaders have been living. 

They do everything to be seen by others.

Outwardly, they follow the steps to look righteous.

They read the Scriptures, attend the synagogue services, tithe even their garden herbs, and do all their ceremonial washings.

They do all these things so that others will believe they are righteous. 

But on the inside - that is, in their hearts - they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

What motivates all that they do is their own insatiable desire to get for themselves. 

(1)The word translated “greed” is actually the word for robbery or plunder.

(2)Greed motivated their actions so that they took what was not theirs.

(3)These religious leaders were like spiritual pirates who were motivated by greed to rob the people whom they were to shepherd and love.

What drives their actions is their own gain, satisfaction, and pleasure.

(1)Their self-indulgence was a lack of self-control.

(2)There was no fruit of God’s Spirit living within them.

(3)Whatever they did outwardly that appeared religious was motivated by a desire for their own gain.

One example that we have encountered in Matthew’s gospel was the practice of “corban.”

This was where they dedicated their financial resources to the work of God so they did not have to support their parents in their old age.

They did this not to be generous, but to keep their own money for themselves.

Jesus said to them in Matthew 15, “” (Mt 15:3–7) And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites!

To this practice and so many others, Jesus says here in verse 26, “” You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

In other words, confess your greed and self-indulgence that you may not rob others.

Put off your practice of trying to gain for yourselves at the expense of others.

III.The Sixth Woe (27-28)

In verse 27, we read the sixth woe, “” Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.

Similarly to the fifth, Jesus is addressing the heart motivation for why they did what they did.

Here he describes them as whitewashed tombs - a metaphor that was especially timely as the crowds gathered in Jerusalem for the Passover.

For it was in the month of the high feast each year that the people would paint or plaster tombs white.

They did this because coming into contact with dead remains would make a person ceremonially unclean.

Since people were buried in various places - not everyone was buried in cemeteries at this time - such a practice was performed to protect others from unknowingly becoming ceremonially contaminated. 

This practice served as a metaphor that Jesus used to describe what the scribes and Pharisees did.

They practiced an outward righteousness that appeared beautiful - but in their hearts they were full of death and decay.

Inside, in their hearts, they were full of uncleanness. 

This brings to mind the words of the Lord to Samuel when he first thought one of David’s older brothers appeared suited to be king, “” (1 Sam 16:7) But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.

From this metaphor, Jesus adds in verse 28, “” So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

They projected righteousness, but in their hearts was only hypocrisy and lawlessness. 

How ironic it is, but not surprising given our understanding of our own hearts, that a person can act like a law-abiding citizen while within they hate the law.

Lawlessness describes the rebellious nature of the heart.

Apart from the grace of God, our hearts are corrupt and we seek only own benefit.

This is how the scribes and Pharisees functioned - and as the psalmist described - they ate up the people as one eats up bread.

Or to use the words Jesus spoke against them in Mark 12, they “devour widows’ houses” - that is, they took advantage of the least of these.

IV.The Seventh Woe (29-32)

Turning now to the seventh woe in verse 29, “” Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’

In this final woe, Jesus describes the practice of the religious leaders in building monuments at the tombs of the prophets and the fathers.

There had been a resurgence in this practice at this time in history that is recorded by historians.

It had the appearance of honoring those from the past, and likely included mixed motivations. 

Yet what Jesus goes after here is the hypocritical acts of the Pharisees and scribes, for as they built these monuments, they claimed that they would never have killed the previous prophets.

Their outward acts appeared righteous, but this claim they made demonstrated that their heart motivation was to be seen for what they did.

Think of the irony of this claim in the context of what was happening this week in Jerusalem.

(1)In chapter 22, we witnessed the multiple attempts of these leaders in trying to trap Jesus in His words.

(2)Previously, they had opposed John the Baptist.

(3)They were literally destroying the prophets sent by God, and were planning the destruction of The Prophet, Jesus himself.

(4)But with their words, they claimed, “We would never do such a thing!”

(5)In this, their hypocrisy is obvious.  

The history of God’s people rejecting those He sent to proclaim His word is abundant throughout the OT.

In Nehemiah 9, we read,. (Neh 9:26) Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you and cast your law behind their back and killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you, and they committed great blasphemies

And in 1 Kings 19, we read the words of Elijah who said, “” (1 Ki 19:10) I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.

This pattern continued among the religious leaders, and was again at work amongst them as they plotted against Jesus.

So, Jesus says in verse 31, “” Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.

Here, Jesus is saying that their actions testify against their words.

As Leon Morris writes, “” Their very preoccupation with the tombs shows that their real interest is in the interment of those men who spoke from God, not in heeding the messages they gave. Their actions show that they are the true sons of the murderers of God’s messengers. There is a solidarity between the killers of the messengers and those who attended to their tombs.

Their actions spoke louder than their words, demonstrating their hypocrisy. 

Their forefathers who murdered God’s prophets, and now they who were plotting against God’s anointed, were like-minded in their opposition against God Himself.

They are the sons of those who acted similarly in ages past.

So Jesus says, “.”Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers

This speaks of judgment. 

It is in a sense a way of saying, “Finish what you have started.” 

And if they do this, and refuse to repent, they will receive their just reward. 

The mounting measure of God’s judgment will come against their generation. 

Final Warning (33-36)

This is clear, then, as Jesus continues in His final warning, saying, “” (33) You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?

Calling them snakes is the same description John the Baptist used of this group in Matthew 3, where we read,” (Mt 3:7–10) But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Jesus now uses the same imagery to both warn them of the judgment of hell and to likewise call them to repent.

He then goes on to say in verse 34, “” Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town…

Here, Jesus prophecies of the apostles and their continuing work through His Church in proclaiming the Gospel.

The apostles would be sent out by Jesus as prophets and wise men and scribes - meaning that they would proclaim the Word of the Gospel, shepherd the flock in wisdom, and teach the Scriptures that they would be obeyed.

But they too, like the prophets of old, and more recently John the Baptist, and now Jesus - would be treated the same by these leaders.

Some would be killed - even crucified - pointing specifically to the plan they were working on against Jesus Himself.

Others would be persecuted and flogged in their synagogues - the pattern of rebellion against God would continue. 

And through the record in the NT, we read of these things happening.

Paul records the fulfillment of this prophecy in his own life in 2 Corinthians 11, “…” (2 Cor 11:23–25) with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned.

Throughout church history, the patterns of persecution have continued, from town to town, and throughout the world.

The fulfillment of judgment was to come upon this generation, as Jesus describes in verse 35, “….” so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar

According to God’s sovereign plan, the cup of His wrath would come in a unique way against the contemporaries of Jesus who carried on the same practices of rejecting God’s messengers.

“All the righteous blood,” Jesus says - pointing to the obedient work of His prophets.

Then He specifies from the first example in Scripture - the murder of Abel - the last account in the OT - the murder of Zechariah. 

By speaking of this span, Jesus addresses the whole of the pattern up to that point in history. 

These, who rejected the unique Messenger - the Messiah - would receive the full cup of God’s wrath.

And in the coming years, that judgment would reach its climax in the destruction of the temple in 70 AD.

This is what Jesus addresses in verse 36, “” Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. 

This culmination of the seven woes demonstrates God has stored up His judgment, which would now fall on this generation. 

And in the following chapter, we will see Jesus go into greater detail of the coming judgment. 

VI.Conclusion

But this is not the final judgment, but a foreshadowing of that final act that is yet to come.

All who reject God’s Messiah will face justice for their sins.

This includes all people throughout history, including us.

Scripture is clear that all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.

You and I are unable to make right the many ways we have transgressed His holy law. 

We are unable to fix the brokenness that has culminated as a result of our sinfulness. 

We need someone else to do this - we need a Savior. 

And this is why Jesus came. 

He came to justify us, through faith in Him.

He came to redeem us from the Fall - to save us from every sin we have ever committed. 

You and I have only to fall on His mercy and trust in His finished work on our behalf - to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that we may be saved.

And as His children, we now walk by faith, continually trusting Him as our righteousness.

This means that we do follow the pattern of the scribes and Pharisees, who did their so-called righteous acts to be seen by others. 

We do not continue in hypocrisy, preaching but not putting into practice what His Word teaches us.

We do not neglect the weightier matters of the law: justice, and mercy, and faithfulness. 

Instead, as we wholeheartedly trust in the Savior, we love God with all our heart, mind, and strength - and we love our neighbor as ourselves. 

To that end, may we be assured of the Gospel hope we have in Jesus, …. (Eph 3:16–19) that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God