Now when He had spoken, a Pharisee asked Him to have lunch with him; and He went in, and reclined at the table. When the Pharisee saw it, he was surprised that He had not first ceremonially washed before the meal. But the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness. You foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside also? But give that which is within as charity, and then all things are clean for you. But woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of God; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the chief seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the market places. Woe to you! For you are like concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it.” One of the lawyers said to Him in reply, “Teacher, when You say this, You insult us too.” But He said, “Woe to you lawyers as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers who killed them. So you are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers; because it was they who killed them, and you build their tombs. For this reason also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute, so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.’ Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering.” When He left there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and to question Him closely on many subjects, plotting against Him to catch Him in something He might say. (11:37–54)

By the final year of our Lord’s life, His ministry consisted primarily of warning and judgment, and was marked by a constantly escalating conflict with the Jewish religious leaders. Seething with hatred because of His repeated denunciations of them and their theology, the spiritually blind, hypocritical leaders of apostate Judaism wanted Him dead (cf. John 11:53). Their hatred finally reached its climax when, against all reason and revelation, they manipulated the Romans into crucifying their own Messiah, bringing divine wrath down on their heads.

Many superficially picture the Lord’s earthly ministry as one of performing kind deeds and miracles, while gently teaching on love and peace and being surrounded by women and children. But that is only part of the story. Jesus not only graciously proclaimed the truth, but also strongly condemned those who twisted and perverted it. It is true that He promised eternal heaven to those who received Him (Matt. 19:29; John 3:15–16), but it is also true that He promised everlasting hell to those who rejected Him (Matt. 7:21–23; 25:41–46; John 3:36). Jesus, the incarnate God of truth, the living personification of the holy law of God, could not avoid conflict with sin and error.

Christ’s life and ministry illustrate the crucial significance of truth. In a sense, all people affirm truth’s importance. The routine day to day affairs of temporal life depend on people telling the truth, and without some degree of truthfulness life disintegrates and becomes chaotic. That is why liars are reviled, and sometimes held legally culpable. But truth is infinitely important in the spiritual realm, because nothing is as important as knowing the truth about salvation.

Satan, the father of lies (John 8:44), the ruler of the evil world system, opposes salvation truth (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 1 John 5:19). His kingdom of darkness spawns an endless stream of religious liars and deceivers, who have led people astray ever since Adam and Eve. Deception today is greater than ever, due to its accumulation through human history and its exposure by the widespread reach of modern media. And in an age where the promoting of tolerance and diversity as the highest virtues has left people both unable and unwilling to distinguish truth from error, deception dominates. Even many who call themselves Christians advocate tolerating false teachers in the name of love, acceptance, peace, and unity. They ignore the reality that such people are savage, ravenous wolves (Matt. 7:15; Acts 20:29) disguised as messengers of truth, who keep people from true salvation (see the discussion of v. 52 below). But Jesus taught that false spiritual teaching comes from Satan’s hell and sends people there. He aimed His most severe warnings and most stern judgments at those who outwardly seemed to be the most religious adherents to God and Scripture.

But being religious is not a virtue. False religion is not man ascending godward to the pinnacle of nobility, but descending to the lowest level of blasphemous depravity. As Paul wrote in Romans 1:18–23, religion is man foolishly abandoning the true God and creating false systems of his own making. False prophets and false teachers are in reality hypocrites, who create the illusion that they are something they are not. Instead of giving lost sinners the saving truth of the gospel, they reroute them from the narrow way of salvation onto the broad path that leads to eternal damnation (Matt. 7:13–14). Their outward display of piety is nothing but an insincere charade of godliness. Because they are devoid of true spiritual power they are to be avoided, not applauded (2 Tim. 3:5). And, when they claim to represent the true God and Jesus Christ, they are the most dangerous.

Like that of all hypocritical false teachers, the religion of the scribes and Pharisees was an empty deception. They had no real love for God, since they rejected His Son (John 8:42; 15:23; 1 John 2:23), no experience of the Holy Spirit’s power, no knowledge of the truth, no genuine righteousness, and no interest in real repentance. The Lord publicly denounced them as hypocrites (Matt. 15:7; 22:18; 23:13, 15, 23, 25, 27, 29), facing the severest judgment because of their willful rejection of Him (Matt. 23:33). His seemingly harsh rebuke of them was, at the same time, an act of mercy. Jesus’ goal was not only to warn others about the false teachers, but also to warn them of their true spiritual condition. Unless they acknowledged and repented of their hypocrisy and embraced the truth in Him, they could not be saved.

In this passage there is a clear occasion among many where Jesus exposed the Jewish religious leaders as doomed deceivers. The phrase now when He had spoken connects this passage with His message in verses 29–36. After Jesus had finished speaking a Pharisee asked Him to have lunch (the earlier of the two main meals of the day) with him. A meal with someone was the sign of friendship in Israel. The invitation is thus surprising, and even more so since Jesus had just rebuked the nation and by implication its leaders. Pharisees refused to have meals with non-Pharisees, especially those associated with sinners (cf. 5:29–32). This man may have breached Pharisaic separation rules out of curiosity, since there is no indication that he had any evil motive for inviting the Lord (cf. 7:36–50). Jesus accepted his invitation and He went in, and reclined at the table, the common position for an extended meal and conversation (7:36–37, 49; 14:15; Matt. 9:10; 26:7, 20; John 12:2; 13:12, 23, 28).

The Pharisees were one of the four main Jewish sects along with the Sadducees (the wealthy, elite priests), the Zealots (political revolutionaries who sought independence from Rome), and the Essenes (ascetic monastics). Their name likely derives from a Hebrew verb meaning “to separate.” The Pharisees viewed themselves as separated from and superior to everyone else (cf. John 7:49) because of their unmatched zeal for the Mosaic law and the rabbinic traditions.

The Pharisees originated during the intertestamental period, likely as an offshoot of the Hasidim (the “pious ones,” who opposed the Hellenizing of Jewish culture under the wicked Seleucid king Antiochus Epiphanes). Unlike the Sadducees, who tended to be wealthy priests or Levites, the Pharisees were laymen, generally from the middle class. Although few in number (there were about 6000 at the time of Herod the Great), their popularity with the people throughout the land gave them significant influence in the Sanhedrin (cf. Acts 5:34–40).

The Lord’s confrontation on this occasion reveals two defining characteristics of false religionists: what they love, and what they lack.

FALSE RELIGIONISTS ARE CHARACTERIZED BY WHAT THEY LOVE

When the Pharisee saw it, he was surprised that He had not first ceremonially washed before the meal. But the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness. You foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside also? But give that which is within as charity, and then all things are clean for you. But woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of God; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the chief seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the market places. Woe to you! For you are like concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it.” (11:38–44)

The Pharisees’ false religion was marked by five features that they loved: the symbolic, the sinful, the simplistic, the secondary, and the showy.

FALSE RELIGIONISTS LOVE THE SYMBOLIC

When the Pharisee saw it, he was surprised that He had not first ceremonially washed before the meal. (11:38)

When Jesus took His place at the table the Pharisee … was surprised that He had not first ceremonially washed before the meal (cf. Matt. 15:1–2; Mark 7:1–5). This had nothing to do with hygiene. His shock was not because the Lord’s hands were physically dirty, but because He had not performed the elaborate ritual washing to make them ceremonially clean. Such washing was not commanded in the Old Testament, but had developed as part of the extrabiblical traditions of the elders (Matt. 15:2; Mark 7:3) that would later be collected in the Mishnah (third century A.D.). It symbolized holiness and a desire to be clean from all the defilements of the world. But this was merely another empty act of symbolism that could not address the corruption of the heart. The Pharisee was amazed that Jesus ignored the tradition, and since he was the host, he no doubt felt insulted. But the Lord refused to affirm man-made regulations that violated the commandments of God (Matt. 15:3–6). He was willing to insult this man to bring him face-to-face with his spiritual bankruptcy.

FALSE RELIGIONISTS LOVE THE SINFUL

But the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness. (11:39)

Although the Pharisee said nothing, the Lord knew his mind and understood that he was troubled because his guest had ignored the ritual washing. Immediately, unapologetically and without deference, Jesus confronted the man’s superficiality and said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness.” This was an appropriate illustration for Jesus to use at a meal. Any decent host would make certain that the parts of the dishes people ate from were clean. But spiritually speaking, the Pharisees did just the opposite, and took great care to clean the outside of the cup and of the platter. In the symbolism of the Lord’s illustration, the Pharisees scrupulously cleaned the parts of the dishware that were inconsequential while leaving the eating surfaces filthy and unsanitary. The point is that despite their outward devotion to ritual, ceremony, and tradition, on the inside they were full of robbery and wickedness (cf. Matt. 23:25–28). They “loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). Their souls fed on pride, lust, and deception.

The two terms Jesus used graphically described their inner corruption. Harpagēs (robbery; “plunder,” “pillage,” “booty”) refers to something seized by violent force. In classical Greek it was sometimes used of rape. False religion ravages and plunders people’s temporal possessions and their eternal souls—and the Pharisees were guilty of doing both (20:47; Matt. 23:13, 15). Ponēria (wickedness) could also be translated “evil,” “depravity,” “malice,” or “badness,”—all of which aptly describe these hypocrites whom Jesus called sons of hell (Matt. 23:15).

The external religion of the Pharisees was a sham. They exalted symbols on the outside and cherished sin on the inside; their preoccupation with external rituals caused them to overlook the significant issue of their wicked hearts. It is a sure mark of false religion that the more symbols there are the less spiritual reality there is.

FALSE RELIGIONISTS LOVE THE SIMPLISTIC

You foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside also? But give that which is within as charity, and then all things are clean for you. (11:40–41)

Living in the compartmentalized world of their own religious system prevented the Pharisees from thinking deeply, honestly, or, in today’s expression, outside the box. To address the host and his guests as foolish ones was certainly unconventional, but nonetheless accurate. Jesus was not doing what He prohibited in Matthew 5:22; this was an accurate assessment, not a coarse epithet. Aphrones (foolish ones) describes those who are ignorant, lack common sense, and think shallowly and superficially. In the New Testament it describes those who trust in their riches (Luke 12:20), are ignorant of religious truth (Rom. 2:20), question or deny the resurrection (1 Cor. 15:36), or reject the Christian faith (1 Peter 2:15). In contrast Paul exhorted believers, “Do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is” (Eph. 5:17).

Christ’s rhetorical question, “Did not He who made the outside make the inside also?” was an unmistakable rebuke. To think that holy God would only be concerned about their observance of external rituals and not about their hearts was the height of folly. Such simplistic thinking reveals their shocking ignorance of the Old Testament (cf. Deut. 10:16; 1 Sam. 16:7; Ps. 51:6; Isa. 1:11–20; 19:13–14; Jer. 29:13; Joel 2:12–13; Amos 5:21–24; Mic. 6:7–8). The apostle Paul, himself once a Pharisee (Acts 23:6), summarized the Old Testament’s teaching when he wrote, “He is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God” (Rom. 2:29). God wants the heart.

It is best to understand the Lord’s words, But give that which is within as charity, and then all things are clean for you, as an exhortation to His hearers to demonstrate their hearts for God by giving to the poor. In that sense it is reminiscent of His words to the rich young ruler: “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me” (Matt. 19:21). All of their external religious trappings—almsgiving, prayers, fasting—were hypocritical as long as they kept plundering, pillaging, and ravaging people both physically and spiritually. Their unreasonably shallow, self-serving perspective kept them from focusing on what was in their hearts.

FALSE RELIGIONISTS LOVE THE SECONDARY

But woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of God; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. (11:42)

This is the first of three woes that Jesus directed at the Pharisees as He pronounced judgment on their foolish, sinful, simplistic approach to spiritual truth. Woe is not primarily a sentimental expression of sorrow, but a declaration of judgment (cf. Isa. 3:9, 11; 5:8, 11, 18, 20, 21, 22; 10:1; 29:15; 30:1; 45:9; Matt. 23:13, 15, 16, 23, 25, 27, 29).

What elicited this first woe was the Pharisees’ devotion to what was of secondary importance. They diligently paid their tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, even though the Old Testament commands regarding tithing (e.g., Lev. 27:30–33; Deut. 14:22–29; 26:12–15) did not extend to such trivial items. Yet their inward corruption and failure to obey the law’s two great commands, to love God and their neighbors (Matt. 22:36–40), led them to disregard justice and the love of God. Instead, they focused on the minute details of their manmade regulations. Tithing and obeying God from the heart in minor matters prescribed in the Old Testament are the things the Pharisees should have done, but without neglecting justice or failing to love God. Void of spiritual life, they were left to pursue the secondary, outward forms of religious piety in a hopeless attempt to establish their self-righteousness.

FALSE RELIGIONISTS LOVE THE SHOWY

“Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the chief seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the market places. Woe to you! For you are like concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it.” (11:43–44)

The second woe Jesus pronounced on the Pharisees reveals the underlying motive behind everything they did. Their love of the showy displays of prominence—the chief seats (the ones for dignitaries in the front facing the congregation) in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the market places, the places of honor at banquets (Matt. 23:6), wearing long robes (Mark 12:38) and being called Rabbi (Matt. 23:7)—demonstrated their insatiable desire for status. The Pharisees were hypocritical, self-righteous, proud, contemptuous of the common people (John 7:49), lacked justice and mercy, and pillaged and raped people’s possessions and souls. Nevertheless they wanted to be loved, admired, revered, respected, and placed themselves in an elevated position above everyone else.

The attitude of the Pharisees was the antithesis of true spiritual leadership. Jesus instructed His followers that humble service, not demanding pride, is the hallmark of genuine spiritual leaders:

The Pharisees, like their Old Testament counterparts, failed miserably to properly shepherd God’s flock (Isa. 56:10–12; Jer. 10:21; 23:1–2; 50:6; Ezek. 34:2–10; Zech. 10:2–3). They were so bent on seeking their own glory that they refused to believe in their own Messiah revealed to them in person (John 5:44). Their self-promotion was a form of idolatry; Christ was a threat to their well-crafted satanic system.

The Lord pronounced one final woe on the Pharisees. It reveals that not only would they be judged for their own hypocrisy, but also for their evil influence on others. Despite their outward show of holiness, Jesus likened them to concealed tombs, whom people … walk over … and are unaware of it. The Old Testament prohibited touching a corpse (Num. 19:11–22) or a grave (v. 16), and those who did so became ceremonially unclean. Therefore graves in Israel were clearly marked so people would not inadvertently touch them and defile themselves. Having led the people astray, the Pharisees were like unmarked graves, defiling the souls of those who came into contact with them.

FALSE RELIGIONISTS ARE CHARACTERIZED BY WHAT THEY LACK

One of the lawyers said to Him in reply, “Teacher, when You say this, You insult us too.” But He said, “Woe to you lawyers as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers who killed them. So you are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers; because it was they who killed them, and you build their tombs. For this reason also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute, so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.’ Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering.” When He left there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and to question Him closely on many subjects, plotting against Him to catch Him in something He might say. (11:45–54)

After Jesus finished His condemnation of the Pharisees one of the lawyers said to Him in reply, “Teacher, when You say this, You insult us too.” Also called teachers of the law (Luke 5:17) and most frequently scribes (sixty-three times in the New Testament), lawyers were experts in the interpretation and application of the Mosaic and rabbinic law. They were usually, but not always, Pharisees (they are distinguished from them by being mentioned separately; [5:21, 30; 6:7; 11:53; 15:2; Matt. 5:20; 12:38; 15:1; 23:2, 13, 14, 15, 23, 25, 27, 29; Mark 7:1, 5; John 8:3. Mark 2:16 refers to “the scribes of the Pharisees,” and Acts 23:9 to “the scribes of the Pharisaic party.”]). They were given the respectful title of rabbi (“great one”), though others who taught the word of God might also receive that title (cf. John 1:38, 49; 3:2; 6:25, where it is given to Jesus). Since the lawyers developed the religious system the Pharisees practiced, to insult the Pharisees was to insult them too.

In response to the lawyer’s protest over the insults, Jesus pronounced three woes on them (though all six woes in this passage apply to both the Pharisees and the lawyers). They reveal three things that false religionists lack: spiritual power, spiritual life, and spiritual truth.

FALSE RELIGIONISTS LACK SPIRITUAL POWER

But He said, “Woe to you lawyers as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers. (11:46)

The first woe directed to the lawyers exposes false religion’s inherent lack of power to relieve the sin-burdened heart. Even the law of Moses can only reveal to people how sinful they are (Isa. 64:6; Rom. 3:20; 7:7; Gal. 3:10; James 2:10); it has no power to change the heart. As the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:3, “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh” (cf. 3:21, 28; 10:4; Gal. 2:16, 21; 3:11; Phil. 3:9).

Thus for the lawyers to weigh men down with burdens hard to bear (the rabbinical interpretations of the law and the “traditions of the elders” [Mark 7:3]) in an impotent effort to give them the means to earn righteous standing with God was both cruel and hypocritical. Phortia (burdens) describes a massive burden, far beyond the capability of anyone to carry, such as a ship’s cargo (Acts 27:10). Having usurped the authority to interpret the law (cf. Matt. 23:2), the lawyers required people to bear burdens that no one could carry (cf. Acts 15:10).

Nor were the lawyers interested in helping them in the slightest way, not even to touch (the Greek verb translated touch has the connotation of “to touch lightly,” or “to brush”) the burdens with one of their fingers. The truth was, the lawyers could not sustain the burdens they imposed on themselves, much less the people. But they were experts in finding ways of avoiding some of the more onerous burdens imposed by their legalistic system and deceiving themselves about achieving righteousness before God. Leon Morris writes,

The lawyers had no mercy, grace, or power to offer the common people, while hopelessly struggling under the crushing burden that they had imposed on themselves. Their inability and indifference were in stark contrast to Jesus’ promise, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matt. 11:28–30).

False religion does not have the power to bring people into right relation to God. Nor do its leaders have the power to produce true spiritual life. They are blind guides of the blind (Luke 6:39), and both will end up in the eternal pit of hell. Yet it is the purpose of all false religion to carry out an elaborate deception as it gathers the damned into its influence.

FALSE RELIGIONISTS LACK SPIRITUAL LIFE

Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers who killed them. So you are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers; because it was they who killed them, and you build their tombs. For this reason also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute, so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.’ (11:47–51)

The obvious reason for false religionists’ lack of spiritual power is their lack of spiritual life; they are “dead in [their] trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1), and being “in the flesh [they] cannot please God” (Rom. 8:8). They have not received a new heart (Ezek. 36:26) and the indwelling Holy Spirit (v. 27), and hence have no capacity to honor, obey, or serve God. All who follow them are led into eternal condemnation and death.

This second woe directed specifically at the lawyers unmasks their spiritual deadness. They thought themselves superior to their ancestors because they built or embellished the tombs of the prophets while their apostate fathers had killed those very prophets (Neh. 9:26; Jer. 2:30). The scribes and Pharisees “buil[t] the tombs of the prophets and adorn[ed] the monuments of the righteous, and [said], ‘If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets’” (Matt. 23:29–30).

But despite the superficial homage they paid to the martyred prophets, the scribes and Pharisees were no different than their ancestors. In both the Old and New Testaments, apostate Israel rejected the prophets and eventually refused to believe in the Messiah who they predicted would come. Jesus turned their veneration of the prophets on its head when He declared, You are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers; because it was they who killed them, and you build their tombs. In spite of their claim to be different than their ancestors, they had the same rejection of spiritual truth as did their fathers. The only way to truly honor the prophets was not to embellish their tombs, but to obey the word of God that they proclaimed, which the scribes and Pharisees clearly did not do. Even worse, they rejected the Messiah of whom the prophets so frequently wrote, and would eventually kill Him, just as their fathers had done to the prophets. Far from being better than their ancestors, the scribes and Pharisees were in fact far worse. The attention they paid to the prophets’ tombs symbolically linked what their fathers did to what they were planning to do to the most glorious One ever promised by the prophets.

The Lord continued His rebuke, declaring in verse 49, “For this reason also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute.’” The apostate religious leaders’ future actions would prove the truth of Jesus’ assertion that they were no better than their fathers. Since the quote attributed to the wisdom of God is not found in the Old Testament, it is best to translate it with the sense of “God in His wisdom said …” The prophets and apostles whom the apostate leaders of Judaism would kill and persecute were the New Testament apostles and prophets. John the Baptist (Matt. 14:3–12), Stephen (Acts 7:58–60), the apostle James, the brother of John (Acts 12:1–2), James the Lord’s brother (whose death was recorded by the first-century Jewish historian Josephus) and others (cf. Acts 26:10) were killed, while Peter and John (Acts 4:1–3), all the apostles (Acts 5:18–41), and others (Acts 8:1) were persecuted. Their mistreatment of the gospel preachers would conclusively demonstrate Christ’s point that the scribes and Pharisees were as wicked and godless as their ancestors. In fact, they were much worse.

The Lord’s shocking declaration that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, would be charged against this generation reveals just how much worse the generation alive at that time was than those who killed the prophets. That God’s accumulated wrath would fall on one generation is not unprecedented. The generation alive at the time of the flood experienced the judgment that resulted from generations of wickedness, as will the generation alive during the final eschatological time of the tribulation (Rev. 6–19). This generation, the one alive when Jesus lived, was culpable for the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world because it had the most accumulated revelation, yet engaged in the same sins as previous generations. They had the teaching of the prophets in the Old Testament, they had heard John the Baptist, the twelve apostles, the seventy evangelists and, most significant, they had had the unprecedented privilege of hearing the profound truth of heaven from the lips of Jesus, God incarnate. And they had seen His divine power over demons, disease, death, and nature in a massive, unmistakable display of undenied miracles.

The judgment in view here is temporal, involving the death of tens of thousands of souls, as well as the destruction of the nation of Israel as an entity. Just a few decades later this generation would experience that temporal fury of God such as had not been felt since the Babylonian captivity. The revolt against Rome in A.D. 66–70 resulted in the destruction of nearly one thousand towns and villages throughout Israel. Jerusalem was taken after a siege, its buildings razed, and the temple destroyed. Tens of thousands of Jews throughout Israel were massacred, and thousands of others sold into slavery. This generation would indeed “fill up … the measure of the guilt of [its] fathers” (Matt. 23:32). And that earthly judgment obviously led to final hell.

The phrase, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God, encompasses all the Old Testament martyrs. Abel was the first person in history to be murdered, killed by his brother Cain because of his jealousy over Abel’s faithfulness in obeying God’s commandments. Some think that the Zechariah in view here is the son of Jehoiada the priest, who was stoned to death in the temple court by order of King Joash (2 Chron. 24:20–22). But his death was not near the conclusion of the Old Testament, and there were many more martyrs after him.

No speculation is needed because Jesus made clear which of the more than two dozen Zechariahs mentioned in the Old Testament He was referring to. In Matthew 23:35 He called him “Zechariah, the son of Berechiah.” This was the prophet Zechariah, the author of the book of Zechariah (Zech. 1:1) whose martyrdom, though not recorded in Scripture, took place near the close of the Old Testament. Evidently Zechariah the son of Berechiah was also killed between the altar and the house of God (cf. Joab, who was executed at the altar itself [1 Kings 2:28–34]). The collective guilt for the deaths of all those righteous martyrs would be charged against that wicked generation that had filled up God’s wrath to the top.

FALSE RELIGIONISTS LACK SPIRITUAL TRUTH

“Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering.” When He left there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and to question Him closely on many subjects, plotting against Him to catch Him in something He might say. (11:52–54)

False religion is void of spiritual power because it is void of spiritual life, and that derives from the absence of spiritual truth. The third and final woe against the lawyers, and the last of the six aimed at both them and the Pharisees, makes that explicit. They were supposed to be interpreters and teachers of the law, but in reality they had taken away the key of knowledge—accurate interpretation of Scripture under the illuminating direction of the Holy Spirit. Since they are “devoid of the Spirit” (Jude 19) and blinded by Satan (2 Cor. 4:4), false teachers inevitably twist and distort the meaning of Scripture (2 Peter 3:15–16). In effect, Jesus declares that they lock up the truths of Scripture and throw away the key!

As their rejecting Christ reveals, the scribes and Pharisees could not correctly understand the Old Testament, which pointed to Him (John 5:39; cf. Luke 24:27; Rev. 19:10). Their traditions increasingly obscured the truth contained in the Old Testament, turning it into a maze of riddles, allegories, secret meanings, and obscure interpretations, all designed to reinforce their cleverness and sell their false system of self-righteousness. Not only were they unable to enter the kingdom of God themselves, they also hindered those who were entering. That is the most severe condemnation given by our Lord, as is clear in the words of Hebrews 10:29–31:

Sadly, but predictably, the Pharisees and scribes failed to heed Jesus’ mercifully severe warnings. Instead of repenting of their sins, repudiating their false system of religion, and calling for divine mercy, they became even more aggressively hostile to Him. When He left there, Luke noted, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile. Enechō (hostile) could be translated, “hold a grudge.” It was not merely that they disagreed with Him theologically; their animosity toward Jesus was personal due to His publicly exposing them as false teachers. Their vicious hostility prompted them to question Him closely on many subjects. The Greek verbs translated plotting and catch are hunting terms. The former means “to lie in wait,” or “to ambush”; the latter describes hunting and capturing a wild animal. The vivid language reveals their desperation to trap Jesus in something He might say. Having utterly failed to do so, they eventually resorted to bringing in false, lying witnesses against Jesus at His trial (Matt. 26:59–61).

The church of Jesus Christ must in every time and place be ever vigilant against false teachers who pretend to be moral, love God, and teach truth, yet in reality are sinful, self-seeking fools, devoid of spiritual power, spiritual life, and spiritual truth. Because they are guilty of “speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them” (Acts 20:30), they are not to be welcomed in the name of tolerance, but rejected as “those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching” of the gospel of Jesus Christ (Rom. 16:17; cf. 2 Tim. 3:5; Titus 3:10; 2 John 10–11). The strong words of 2 Peter and Jude stand as the warnings to the church.