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Jesus-Woe Unto You Scribes and Pharisees
June 13, 2020

On His way to the Passover in Jerusalem, Jesus stopped at Bethany where Lazarus had been raised from the dead. A huge feast was served by Lazarus’ sister Martha and his other sister Mary used an expensive ointment on the feet of Jesus which irritated Judas Iscariot. Though he claimed to care about the poor and how the money could be used for the poor, he really was hoping to pocket the money from the sale of the ointment. Even though Jesus was enjoying a meal with his friend Lazarus, Martha, and Mary, Jesus was being watched and the chief priests had concerns about Lazarus because many people began believing on Jesus because Lazarus was raised from the dead.

John 12:1-11
Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him, Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein. Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this. For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always. Much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there: and they came not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead. But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death; Because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus.

The Pharisees, scribes, and chief priests were becoming increasingly desperate to trap Jesus. They were seeking a legal reason according to their faith to put Jesus to death. The religious leaders who were cowards, sought the assistance of the Pharisees and Herodians in an attempt to entrap Jesus in His words. The first group came and tried to trap Jesus between God and man asking if it was lawful to pay taxes to the Roman government. Jesus asked these people to show Him a coin and when they showed Him the coin He asked whose image and name was on the coin, and they replied that is was Caesar’s. Jesus explained that they should render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.

Next came the Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection and strangely asked Jesus a question about the resurrection using the Old Testament practice of a surviving brother. In the Old Testament, if a brother who was married died without providing an heir, it was the duty of the brother to marry his brother’s widow and provide that heir so the property could stay within the family. The Sadducees gave an example of a widow and seven brothers wanting to know in the Kingdom of God to which brother the widow would be married. Jesus explained that in the resurrection people are no longer married or given in marriage. He also explained that when through the burning bush when God spoke to Moses, that God described Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the present tense, not was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the past tense.

Mark 12:13-27
And they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words. And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man: for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not? Shall we give, or shall we not give? But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? bring me a penny, that I may see it. And they brought it. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Caesar's. And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And they marvelled at him. Then come unto him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection; and they asked him, saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man's brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed. And the second took her, and died, neither left he any seed: and the third likewise. And the seven had her, and left no seed: last of all the woman died also. In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? for the seven had her to wife. And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God? For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven. And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err.

Jesus had many encounters with the scribes and Pharisees who saw themselves as righteous. Yet these same people through their words and actions locked people out of the Kingdom of God by setting the people against the Kingdom of God. He also said that because they only had the optics of being religious when they were greedy taking the widows’ houses would lead to their damnation, and that in making a person a follower of the scribes and Pharisees these followers were well on the road to hell. Jesus added that these same scribes and Pharisees were spiritually blind valuing money more than the truth of God, that they would routinely affirm the need to swear by the gold of the temple rather than the temple, never realizing that the temple was of more importance than the gold. Jesus was pointing out the multitude of their errors in logic and thinking.

Jesus again referred to the scribes and Pharisees as hypocrites because they focused on very small matters of the law, like tithing, and ignored judgment, mercy, and faith, being foolish to focus on tiny matters while avoiding large areas of faith. Jesus compared the scribes and Pharisees to people who outwardly looked beautiful, but who inwardly were dead just as much as outwardly they appeared to be righteous but inwardly they were filled with hypocrisy and iniquity.

Matthew 23:13-28
But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor! Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold? And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon. And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

The time of His crucifixion was nearing, and soon Jesus would give prophecies about the end time and what we can do to be counted among the righteous.

All verses are from the King James Version.
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