Friday after the Eighth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on August 4, 2023 by under
Scripture: St. Matthew 23:23-36 (NKJV)
23:23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. 24 Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.
27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, 30 and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’
31 “Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. 33 Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? 34 Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, 35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.”
Devotion
Woe! … Woe! … Woe! … Woe! … Woah! Time to stop and listen carefully to Jesus’ words. Jesus reveals the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. With each “Woe,” Jesus bears down on them, as it were. Each time, Jesus shows how the Pharisees’ outward actions were simply a cover for their inward deficiency. While such outward appearances may have fooled some of the people, none of them fooled God, and Jesus was letting them know that.
Jesus’ first “Woe” shows the underlying problem of the Pharisees. They did not understand that God was a God of mercy and grace. They were so caught up in trying to keep the Law they missed its point. God will never be pleased with sinners’ efforts at keeping the Law. Sinners, by definition, do not keep the Law. Sinners are sinners. It is through God’s mercy that sinners see the answer to their problem of being sinners.
Today’s lesson shows not only the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, but gives an insight as to how easy it is to be a hypocrite. We can find ourselves rooting for Jesus as He dishes it out, but forgetting that we are no better than the Pharisees. “Woe to you!” With that “Woe!” ringing in our ears, the collect for last Sunday is fitting. Indeed, without God’s mercy and grace, we are totally lost and can do no good thing.
Prayer: Grant to us, Lord, we beseech Thee, the Spirit to think and do always such things as are right; that we, who cannot do anything that is good without Thee, may by Thee be enabled to live according to Thy will; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
