Good morning Lord Jesus, speak to me, your servant is listening.
This morning we have a convicting chapter to read. No passage in the Bible is more biting, more pointed, and more severe than these seven “Woes” in Matthew 23 spoken by Jesus Christ upon the Pharisees. The Pharisees, while attempting to honor the Word of God and manifest an extreme form of religious observance, were actually the farthest from God. The theme of the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount was righteousness. The theme of the teachings of these woes is hypocrisy. There is a common strong emphasis in both teachings on the religious leaders’ failure to understand and submit to the Scriptures. Jesus gave both addresses to contrast the true meaning of Scripture with the Pharisees’ interpretation and application of it. The Pharisees professed to teach the Scriptures accurately but did not do so. They were therefore hypocrites.
Every one of the seven ‘woes’ is an exclamation like the nine ‘blesseds’ of the Beatitudes. They do not state an opinion, but a fact. The woes are not a curse that calls down calamity but a calm, true judgment and verdict rendered by the supreme Judge himself, Jesus. Six of these judgments have the evidence attached by means of a “because” which illustrates the full reason for the verdict ‘Woe’” and in the remaining judgment.
There is today only one proper Christian use of the “Woe” sayings of this chapter. It is found not primarily in the application of the passage to the historical Pharisees, and even less to modern Judaism as a religion. The proper application of this passage is for those reading it today, the Christian members of The Church today. Hypocrisy is the real enemy of these woes, not the scribes, the Pharisees, or the Jews. If, on the application of these woes, a finger is to be pointed, a bitter woe is to be pronounced against anyone today, it must be directed solely against we Christians and the hypocrisy found in our churches today. Here is a translation of a “Woe” from this chapter from the GRV Bible (Gary’s Reflective Version).
Woe to you Christians! For they go to church so that their faith may be seen and approved by people. They love to be greeted as “brother” or “sister” as they fellowship before the service with a cup of coffee in their hand and Hillsong playing in the background. They wear crosses around their necks, and put crosses and Icthus fishes on the back of their cars that they ride in comfort to their churches with windows rolled up as they drive past the homeless, poor, the widows and orphans. After church, they fatten themselves at lunch and have struggling single-mom waitresses who have to work on Sundays to make ends meet serve them. The only sharing if any of their faith all day with others is when they show their church bulletin at lunch check out to get 10% off their meal. They then pull into safe garages who’s door close out their neighbors they are called to go out and serve. But instead they walk into comfortable living rooms with a picture on the wall that says, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Woe to you! You Christians, you hypocrites!
Hypocrisy in the life of the church and Christians is one of, if not the main source of negative criticism directed towards the church and Christians and the main reason people do not walk into a church, or attend a walk out of the church, and the church is declining. They read the words of Jesus, Look at the way Christians live out their lives, give of their resources, post on social media, and the hypocrisy makes them say “Hell no.”