WHAT follows is of a very different character from that which we had before. It is not now the setting aside of Jewish expectations for the word of God, which the Holy Spirit makes efficacious by judging self, and thus the eye is made single and the whole body full of light. There is no substitution here of God's word and spiritual blessing for the Messiah; and all the natural mercies and external glory that Israel looked for then and shall look for by and by. Now it is the moral judgment of Israel in their present state; and for this occasion was given, by a certain Pharisee asking the Lord to dine with him. He goes at once. He in no way chooses what was pleasing to Himself. As He entered into the house of a publican, and refused none of the company there, so also He declines not to seat Himself at table with a Pharisee. When He went into the tax-gatherer's house, the wonder was how He could eat with sinners; the wonder with the Pharisee now is, “that he had not first washed before dinner.” Such was their religion. Yet the truth, on the face of things, is that washing is for those that are unclean: He that was pure and holy did not need it. The Pharisee therefore condemns himself doubly. There is a vague sense that he needed cleansing. He shows also his blindness to the personal glory of the Lord Jesus, the only One that needed nothing from without—the Holy One of Israel, the Holy One of God.
The Lord takes this accordingly as the ground of appeal. He “said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness.” Their religion, all protest to the contrary notwithstanding, was essentially of the outside; and, far from being clean, they were full of plunder and wickedness, plundering others and wicked themselves. Although they had the highest reputation among the people, the Lord pronounces them fools; and what His word censures now His judgment will act on by and by. The judgment of God is always according to the word of God. What is condemned by the word of God now will certainly be condemned by the Lord Jesus when He takes the judicial throne. But it was the same God that made both the outside and the inside. “Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also?” They had forgotten Him; they were anxious only for what was seen of men. The Lord looks upon the heart. They did not think of this. Unbelief is always blind, and fixes, if there be a difference, on things the least important. The reason is manifest: it seeks the praise of men and not that of God. The Lord Jesus however bids them “rather give alms of such things as ye have: and, behold, all things are clean unto you.” He knew well that a Pharisee would do nothing less than this—that intense selfishness characterized the whole party. They were faithless and covetous. Him whom God gave they despised; what they had they kept for themselves. All things therefore were unclean to them.
But there is much more than this. The Lord pronounces successive woes upon them for their zeal about trifles, their love of religious distinction, and their hypocrisy. “Woe unto you, Pharisees! for [beginning with that which was seemingly the least evil] ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” It was really the same root of self, fallen human nature under a religious veil. Why did they thus seek to be distinguished from others? Others gave tithes honestly due to God; the Pharisees laid hold of the most minute points which did not cost much and gave themselves credit in the eyes of men not wiser than themselves, but they slighted judgment and the love of God. Righteousness is a due sense of our relationship to God and man; of it they had no adequate measure whatever before them. The love of God was the last thing that came before or from their hearts. “These things ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” Let them value their infinitesimals, if they would, but let them not neglect the greatest duties.
But it was not merely this God-dishonoring pettiness. “Woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets.” Now we come not so much to personal conduct and pretension to the strictest conscientiousness, but to their love of public reputation for sanctity and of honor in the religious world.
Another ground detected was lower still. “Woe unto you, scribes, and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them.” Now they are put with the scribes—people learned in the law, who had the character of being the most punctilious in their conduct: both are alike treated as hypocrites—as sepulchers which appear not. Unremoved death, all uncleanness and corruption, was under these fair-seeming religionists.
One of the lawyers was offended “and said unto him, Master, thus saying thou reproachest us also.” Then the Lord answers them, “Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.” They were notorious for their contempt of the very people from whom they derived their importance. It is an easy thing to lay burdens upon others; it is hard to bear them. Christianity is the exact opposite of this. Christ comes down first of all and takes the sorest of all burdens, the judgment of our sin and guilt, our condemnation from God; then He leaves us, under the gospel, without that burden. It is true that, till He comes again, we are groaning in the body, waiting not uncertainly but in confidence for Christ to change us even into the likeness of His glorious body. Hence it is that the practical exorcise of Christianity is in liberty and joy. No doubt grace brings with it the highest obligations, but they are those of men who are free and who use their liberty for the One whom they love. It was not so with these doctors of the law. They laid burdens upon men that were grievous to be borne, but they themselves did not touch the burdens with one of their fingers. It is only grace that enables one to manifest what the law required. The doctors of the law were precisely those who showed the least conscience. They thundered the law at others; they did not subject themselves to any of its precepts, except where it suited them. It is grace which purifies the conscience by faith and strengthens it in the will of God.
But if they did not touch any of the burdens that they laid on others, they built the sepulchers of the prophets. This sounded well and holy. What could be more laudable than that they should honor the ancient sufferers and prophets by building their sepulchers? It was really the spirit of the world. First of all they proved that they were the successors of those that killed them, not the successors of the martyrs but of their murderers. Although it seemed the opposite of what their fathers had done, it was the same love of the world which then slew the martyrs in that day, and now led men to build their sepulchers in order to make religious capital out of this pious honor. They would fain have the halo that surrounded those men of God thereby to shine upon themselves. It was the love of the world that made the fathers slay them; and the love of the world it was that led their sons to build these sepulchers over them. There was of course nothing of Christ in those that persecuted the martyrs. Was there a whit more in these men bent on empty self-glorification under cover of the righteous victims of old? Therefore, says the Lord, “Ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchers.” And to prove that they were the lineal successors of the murderers of the old martyrs, the Lord adds, “Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute.” It is expressly put as the wisdom of God, because it is not what would appear to man. The builders of the sepulchers of the sufferers might seem to be the farthest removed from the persecuting violence of the fathers; but not so. The contrary would soon appear. God would test them soon by sending prophets and apostles, some of whom they would slay, and some they would persecute, getting rid of them all in one way or another, “That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.” This is a searching and solemn principle. Man fails from the first, and God pronounces on it. But it is always the last who is the most guilty, because the cases of former slaying of the prophets ought to have aroused their consciences. Their building of sepulchers for the saints whom their fathers slew proved that they knew how wrong it was. But the heart was unchanged; and hence a similar testimony produced no less results, but more evil. God's testimony at the present day arouses quite as much hatred as His warnings of old. Hence, little as the Jews thought it (for they had been long without prophets), now that the truth was sent out in power, the same murderous spirit would be manifested, and God would hold the people guilty of all the blood that had been shed from the foundation of the world. Instead of using the example of their fathers to deter them, they followed their guilty footsteps. They were more guilty, because they despised so solemn a warning.
So it will be in the latter day. There will be a violent outbreak against the witnesses of Jesus whose blood will be shed like water—a persecution all the more guilty, because men will have known it before hand, they will have owned the guilt of those who did it, and yet they will fall into the same rut themselves. Alas! unbelief is most of all blind to self.
The Lord pronounces finally one more woe. “Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves and them that were entering in ye hindered.” So they were doing then as others at this present time. Wisdom was there, truth was there, Christ was there: all that the doctors of the law did was to hinder people from profiting by it, in order to maintain their own importance. “And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many things.” They wanted Him to commit Himself—that the Lord might utter something for which they could drag Him to their tribunal, “laying wait for him and seeking to catch something out of his mouth, that they might accuse him.” Their hearts were filled not only with plunder, but with wickedness that would take the shape of violence against the truth and those who bore it, just like their fathers. The first Adam is never changed for the better: he is only evil continually: the more good is shown him, the more evil he proves himself to be.