Appearances Can Be Deceiving

To make sure the disciples remembered a point, Jesus would repeat it in different ways.  The scribes and Pharisees made frequent unprovoked and illogical attacks on Jesus that exposed their lack of spiritual development, and in responding, Jesus was able to emphasize spiritual lessons to his disciples.  He had just made the point that it is far more important that the inside of the dish be clean than that the outside be clean.  He reinforces that point with another example in Matthew 23:27-28.  “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.” 

A visit to Forest lawn Cemetery and Memorial gardens in in California is like going to a fabulous art museum.  Everything is made of polished marble or granite, and everywhere you look are beautiful paintings, and sculptures.  However, as you look closer, you begin to realize all the slabs of stone are engraved with the names of the individuals who are interred behind them.  If you were to remove the slabs of stone you would be looking at urns of ashes and piles of decayed flesh.  The beauty is in reality an illusion to distract one from what the whole thing is about.  Who knows what toxic materials or pathogens may still linger behind the beautiful façade? Jesus accused the religious leaders of giving a similar illusion of peace and beauty, while hiding the reality that what was really there was far less pleasant.  Unfortunately, in many modern churches, the focus is on changing the outward behavior to make it more acceptable without worrying about changing the underlying attitudes and nature.  Though it may seem very nice, it is still lost and hell bound.   

He went on rebuking them in Matthew 23:29-32.  “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.  Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.  Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.”  The fact that they went to the trouble of memorializing men of God that their ancestors had killed only revealed the hypocrisy of their own position.  They were simply trying to incorporate the beliefs their ancestors had rejected without getting rid of what was not right.  In doing so, they revealed they were no more interested in pleasing God than their ancestors.  Today, we see a similar attitude in the religious world, with people wanting to be more inclusive and not wanting to take strong doctrinal positions.    They ought not to expect God to honor their practices. 

Matthew 23:33-36 warns, “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?  Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.   Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.” 

Jesus would send teachers and pastors who would try to teach them the truth, but they would reject them, as Paul describes in II Timothy 4:3-4.   “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”    They will be more interested in making themselves seem good than in pleasing God.