Woe Unto You

Matthew 23 13-36

In verses 13-33 we see a series of eight “Woes” that the Lord pronounces upon the scribes and Pharisees. The term is a warning of judgment. Not that Christ desires these men to experience the wrath of God, but it is just the reality. By their actions these men have placed themselves beneath God’s wrath. Jesus words here are particularly harsh. He speaks directly to the religious leaders, note verse 13. In verses 1-12 He had spoken about them. There is no other place in Scripture in which Jesus speaks so harshly and extensively to a group of people. His actions remind us of an Old Testament prophet. He uses pretty vivid language as well. He calls them “hypocrites” (13, 14, 15, 3, 25, 27, 28, & 29. This was a Greek term that came to be used of actors. It was used to describe duplicitous persons; people that assumed another role. That was exactly what the religious leaders were doing. They wore the mask of religion, but inwardly they had no real love of God. He also calls them blind. We see that in verses 16, 17, 19, 24, & 26. They could not see their own sin or the worth of Christ. The eight “woes” reveal eight different areas of hypocrisy. That is what we will look at.

They were keeping people from entering heaven. We see that in verse 13. They were supposed to be helping people enter heaven. Instead they were slamming the door of heaven in their faces. Jesus tells them that they haven’t entered the door of heaven and they are keeping others from doing so. Jesus Himself is the door to heaven (John 10:9). The religious leaders made it a point to discredit Christ and turn people away from Him. For this they would receive God’s judgment. It is important we realize that every false teacher is turning people away from Christ. There is no virtue in being religious if you are not pointing people to Christ. Such religion is in fact vile in God’s eyes. It leads lost souls to the broad road that ends in destruction.

They were taking advantage of the vulnerable. We see that in verse 14. Widows were at risk in Jesus day. God made provision for them both in the Old and New Testament to be carted for. These religious leaders were taking advantage of the widows. They ‘devoured their houses” which probably means they were taking some sort of financial advantage of them. Of course they would pray with them. We see that today in false teachers. Widows are often swindled out of their money and possessions by so called men of God. The hypocrisy was that these religious leaders pretended to care for the widows but all they cared about was how these widows could benefit them. Jesus promises a greater damnation for them (James 3:1).

They were making false converts. Verse 15 is an interesting verse. It shows us that there was a missionary zeal among the scribes and Pharisees. They would cross land and sea to make a convert. The convert would be a Gentile converting to the dead Judaism the religious leaders were propagating. To many of the Scribes and Pharisees converting a Gentile to Judaism was like a trophy. There were two types of converts. The first was a Gentile that would merely begin attending Jewish services in the synagogue and visit the permissible parts of the Temple. The second was a Gentile that would completely engulf Judaism with all of its rituals, even being circumcised if he was a male. Such a convert was called a “proselyte of righteousness”. That was considered a real accomplishment among the scribes and Pharisees. They would glory in it. Jesus puts an end to their glorying by telling them that their converts are twice the child of hell they were before they converted them. In other words, all of your hard work accomplished nothing for God but much for Satan. Therefore, even their evangelism was hypocritical. Many cults are zealous in evangelism. If Jesus were here today he would say the same thing about to those cults that He did to the false teachers. We ought not admire the zeal of false evangelism we ought to abhor it as Jesus did.

Verses 16-22 expose the lack of integrity among the religious leaders. They show that the religious elite appeared to be righteous but continually made excuses for their sin. They had found loopholes to get by with lying. Their logic was ridiculous. If you were not sure about an oath you were going to make you could just swear by the temple or the altar. Because it was the gold of the Temple and the gift on the altar that was holy, they reasoned. Jesus dealt with this in 5:33-37 as well. So it must have been a serious problem. Jesus makes the same point here that He made in Matthew 5, if you swear by the temple or anything in it you are swearing to God. An oath is an oath. Believers should not qualify their language to give them a loophole for lying. Swearing makes a person appear sincere and righteous. The appearance they gave was hypocritical because the oaths they made would be broken if it benefited them. There is a lesson for us here. Our speech should be very clear. We should be people of our word. We should not speak in such a way in which we are communicating two different things. We should know what we say when we are saying it and mean what we are saying.

They were hypocritical in their giving. In verse 23 we see that the religious leaders paid their tithes even of things as small as anise, mint and cumin. These were plants generally grown for personal use. They were simply spices. Jews paid many different tithes. They paid a tithe of the crops they grew (Lev. 27:30). They paid a worship tithe (Deut. 12:11,17) and they paid another tithe every three years that supported Levites, aliens, orphans, and widows (Deut.14:28-29). The scribes and Pharisees were meticulous about paying the tithes off of things as small as spice plants. But there were ‘weightier” matters they ignored. They ignored the commandments on character. Justice, mercy and faith were more important than giving one spice leaf for every ten to the Lord. Jesus reveals the foolishness of their actions in verse 24. He says they strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. These two creatures represented the smallest and the largest of creatures listed as unclean in the Law (Lev. 11:4 & 42). Much less messy to butcher a gnat than to butcher a camel! But they were butchering camels and straining to make sure they saved the gnats. Jesus is telling them that it makes no sense to be so obsessive over something small and ignore something so large. Giving an offering to the Lord is good but it is useless if you have treated others sinfully. Leave your gift and go correct the bigger sin, then come back and offer your little leaf to the Lord! We see that today in the church. Some people will not miss paying their tithe but they will ignore the broken relationships and attitudes they have with others in the church. That is hypocritical living and giving!

They were hypocritical in their holiness. In verses 25-26 Jesus tells them that they are like dishes that are clean on the outside but the inside is filled with rotten food. It doesn’t matter how clean a dish is if rotten food is served on it. The Pharisees scrubbed their outside. They appeared clean. But their inside was rotten with sin. This was especially dangerous because a clean dish may give someone the idea that the food is good. By partaking of the food they would become sick. The religious leaders appeared clean so people partook of what they taught. They ingested their teaching. This brought spiritual sickness to the partakers. Jesus tells them to quit worrying about the outside so much. Cleanse the inside through repentance and faith and the outside would then naturally become clean.

Verses 27-28 basically teach the same principle as 25-26 do. The people around Jerusalem would wash the tombs that were in the area. They did this before Passover. It could have been for a couple of reasons. First, it was to make the Holy City more beautiful during this important time. But it also identified the tombs so that people would not touch them, having them shine with a brilliant whit would make them obvious. If a Jew touched a tomb they were ceremonially unclean for seven days and could not enter the Temple (Num. 19:11). Jesus is saying that the religious leaders were like those tombs. They were nice and clean on the outside but on the inside they were rotting corpses. They were dead in their sin (Eph. 2:1).

They were hypocritical in their allegiance. Look at verses 29-33. They honored the graves of the great men of God that had died. They publicly cry out that they would not have treated the prophets like the religious leaders in the Old Testament did. They would have been on Jeremiah’s side. They would have listened to Amos and Isaiah. Jesus tells them that they are the children of the prophets murderers, In other words, they act just like the false teachers that killed the prophets. In fact they are a witness against themselves. By rejecting Christ, the messiah those prophets prophesied of, they were a witness against themselves. He tells them in verse 32 that they are simply completing what their fathers started. And in doing so they have ensured that they will go to hell. Look at verse 33. That is some strong language. Jesus says “How can you escape hell?” Of course he knows how but the point is that they will not escape hell because they reject the only escape from it. They wanted the people to think they were on the side of god and the prophets but they were not. Their allegiance with their lips was simply that and nothing more.

v.34 In this verse we see both God’s grace and His judgment. Note that Jesus says that “He” will send some people to the Jews. That is, after Christ is dead He will send people to continue to warn the Jewish people to turn from their sin and trust Christ. He will send prophets, wisemen and scribes. “Wisemen” is the Greek word “Sophos” which probably came from the Hebrew word “Sophim” meaning “watchmen”. Watchmen were used in the Old Testament to keep an eye out for enemy invaders. It was their responsibility to sound the warning when an army approached.

Notice how the Jews would respond to the messengers the Lord would send their way. They would kill and crucify them. This is probably a reference to both the Jewish and Roman persecution of Christians. Jews did not have the authority to crucify anyone. They would also scourge some. They would drive the believers from city to city. As we read the book of Acts we see just how correct the Lord was. Acts is full of persecution at the hand of Jews and Gentiles.

v.35 As a result of the rejection of these preachers of righteousness great condemnation would fall upon the Jewish leaders. Note Jesus says in verse 35 “that upon you may come all the righteous blood”. In other words, these men would be held accountable for the persecution and death of God’s messengers. Jesus mentions the deaths of Abel, the first martyr and the death of Zechariah. Both of these were righteous men killed by unrighteous people. There are more than 20 people in the Bible named Zechariah. There was a Zechariah in 2 Chronicles 24:20-21 that was stoned because of his preaching against idolatry. It is probably more likely that Jesus is speaking of the prophet Zechariah. The prophet Zechariah’s fathers name was Berechiah 9Zech. 11) The Old Testament does not tell us how this prophet was killed. However, Zechariah’s book is full of references to the Messiah. The killing of Zechariah because of his preaching about the Messiah would fit the context of the killing of Jesus followers because of their preaching about the Messiah. Zechariah would have been killed more than 500 years earlier. However, between the murder of Abel and Zechariah there were countless righteous men killed because they preached the truth.

v. 36 “All these things” probably refers to the “woes” and the judgment Jesus mentions in this chapter. “This generation” obviously refers to the generation Jesus was personally speaking to. They would see the destruction of the Temple in AD 70 and experience serious persecution from Rome. There would also be a spiritual judgment. Those that rejected Christ would stand accountable. They would be more accountable than the average person. They had the OT Scriptures, the heritage of Judaism, John the Baptist, Jesus Himself, and His followers. Yet they closed their eyes to the truth. For that reason their judgment would be heavy.

Thoughts to Consider

1. Not all religious people are righteous people.

2. A sure warning sign of hypocrisy is when we make loopholes for ourselves to sin.

3. The heart is more important than the hand.

4. The more truth we receive the more accountable we become.