Ep. 98: The Seven woes

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MATTHEW 23

To begin with, Jesus warned them of the incompetence of Israel’s teachers. He neither wished for himself nor his disciples the place of authority which they claimed. On the contrary, so long as they held the place of authority they were to be regarded as sitting in Moses’ seat and were to be obeyed, so far as merely outward observances were concerned.

Of the opening accusation about the binding of heavy burdens and laying them on men’s shoulders, Rabbinism placed the rules of tradition above those of the Law and that, whereas the words of the Law contained what ‘lightened’ and what ‘made heavy’, the words of the Scribes contained only what ‘made heavy’.

It was not a break in the teaching, rather an intensification of it, when Jesus now turned to make his final denunciation of Pharisaism in its sin and hypocrisy. Corresponding to the eight Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount with which his public ministry began. He now closed it with eight denunciations of woe. This is the pouring out of his holy wrath, the last and fullest testimony against those whose guilt would involve Jerusalem in common sin and common judgement. Step by step came the accusations and with it the woe of Divine wrath announced!

The first woe was on their withholding the Kingdom of God from men by their opposition to the Christ. The second woe was on their covetousness and hypocrisy. The third woe was on their proselytism, which issued only in making their converts twofold more the children of hell than themselves. The fourth woe expresses the moral blindness of these guides rather than their hypocrisy. The fifth woe referred to one of the best-known and strangest Jewish ordinances, which extended the Mosaic Law of tithing, in most burdensome detail.

From tithing to purification, the transition was natural. It constituted the second grand characteristic of Pharisaic piety. Woe to the hypocrisy which only cared for the outside or of outward appearances of righteousness, while heart and mind were full of iniquity. Woe to that hypocrisy that built and decorated tombs of prophets and righteous men to deflect from the guilt of those who had killed them. It was not spiritual repentance but national pride which drove them in this, the same spirit of self-sufficiency, pride, and unforgiveness which had led their fathers to commit the murders.

And yet it would not have been Jesus, if, while judging them for following the crimes of their fathers. He had not also added to it the passionate lament of a love which, even when spurned, lingered with regretful longing over the lost. And he left the Temple with these words, that they of Israel should not see him again until, the night of their unbelief past, they would welcome his return with a better Hosanna than that which greeted his royal entry three days before. And this was the ‘Farewell’ and the parting of Israel’s Messiah from Israel and its Temple. Yet a Farewell which promised a coming again and a parting which implied a welcome in the future from a believing people to a gracious, pardoning King!

This is an extract from the book, Jesus : Life and Times, available for £10 here (Finalist for Academic Book of the year at 2023 CRT awards)