We’ve examined the Seven Woes found in Matthew 23 over the last two posts.

Some Summary Statements

Let’s put this all together.  I think it’s helpful for us to see all the terms and all the critiques bunched together to take this in.  Taken together as a whole, we have the following…

• Preachers…
• …But non-practicers
• Hypocrites (6 times)
• People who put burdens on others
• Focused on looking righteous
• People who steal God’s rightful place in other people’s lives
• Self-exalted
• Missionary-like / but don’t allow people to find God
• Child of Hell / twice the child of Hell
• Blind guides
• Deceitful liars
• Focusing on little things, ignoring big things
• Full of hypocrisy and lawlessness
• Prophet murderers like their forefathers, while claiming that they love the prophets
• Serpents, brood of vipers
• Sentenced to hell
• Killers, crucifiers, floggers, persecutors of Jesus and his followers

Now, it’s true that not everyone who is a religious hypocrite has every one of these qualities (oof) or actions as a part of their experience or DNA.  Of course.  Not every Pharisee murdered Jesus, or sought his murder.  But the movement as a whole was one that bred this kind of behavior, fomented these kinds of things.

Another way to summarize this is to look at a chart of the seven woes.

Seven Woes of Pharisees	Categories
1 / Pulling people away from Jesus	Effects on Others
2 / Making converts even worse	Effects on Others
3 / Lying, manipulating, word games	Critique on their content
4 / Majoring on the Minors, etc.	Critique on their content
5 / Cleaning the Externals, ignoring…	Shallowness over Substance
6 / Internal blight, External beauty	Shallowness over Substance
7 / Prophet killers, but good looking	Overall Critique

If we become people who obfuscate who we are and what we are doing, we are becoming more and more like them. If we pull people after ourselves and not after Jesus, we are becoming more and more like them.

Please use a mirror and look at yourself. I will pull out this mirrior and look at myself.

A Lament over Jerusalem

The only thing more surprising and shocking than this list of horrible corruption and abuse of religion and the people who are influenced by it is Jesus’ final statement in chapter 23.

Matthew 23:37-39 / “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ ”

After the anger has been released, Jesus doesn’t remain in that headspace.  These are brutal words and ideas he has been sharing with his disciples.  He described the scribes and Pharisees’ many sins.  He described the awful effects of their sanctimonious actions.  He talked about ruined lives.  He spoke of judgement that was sure to come.  Then, he spoke something deeper.  Something from his heart.  We see clearly the righteous Lord of heaven, but we also see the sorrowful servant of God coming to seek and save the lost.

This section is connected intentionally to the section before; it is not happenstance.  The killing of the prophets, the stoning of those sent, are mentioned here as well as in the paragraph that describes his final woe.  These were the people, the kinds of people, that Jesus was going to mention next.

Jesus says, as paraphrased by the Message:

“How often I’ve ached to embrace your children, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you wouldn’t let me.”  That tender scene can be no more; instead, the house will be desolate.  The heart of Christ for these wicked people was just as strong as the justice they deserved.  Stronger, in fact.  God would have forgiven them, but there was no repentance.

But there was some!  Nicodemus was of this group, and he came to Christ.

There was a tenderness in the judgement of this passage.  You can see and feel the longing for repentance that Jesus desires.  He desires our return to him and not our rebellion against him.  These people were on the outside “staunch believers,” but inside they were just following their own desires and doing what they wanted to do.  They wanted to look like spiritual somebodies.  They were not.

But Jesus loved them still, even in judgement.  I would encourage us all to do what Jesus said: “Love your enemies.”  This is hard.  When someone has mistreated you, it is very hard.

But this is Jesus’ heart for the worst people he met in the dusty streets of Jerusalem.  He wanted to be their guard.  Their strong tower. 

His last statement: “You were not willing.”

How willing are you?  How willing am I?

Some Questions to Consider / Applying Scripture

Now, there are people who reflect pretty well the characteristics that Jesus described to a tax collector.  But the rest of us just need to think about ourselves for a minute.  Are there any of these things the scribes and the Pharisees practiced that hit a bit closer to home than the others?  Does this describe you or me?

• Do we ever in our religiosity intimidate people with our “better than you” attitude and keep them from faith?
• Do we spread our legalism to the next generation, so the next generation is worse than us?
• Do we play games with the truth and make statements that are untrue, and then justify them?
• Do we replace the heftier sides of God’s will — justice, mercy, faithfulness — by hiding behind simpler aspects of faith?
• Do we make a big deal of the external things such as dress, position, and prestige at the expense of true inner spirituality and an honest life?
• Do we push away people who tell us true things?  Do we make them our enemies?

Take some time and think about these things.

The fix for all of this is true repentance, true confession, and a recognition that our sin has affected us all deeply — and through faith and forgiveness in Christ, and honest and true life in the Spirit of God is crucial.  No legalism.  No authoritarianism.   Just submission to Christ.