Lent: Day 12

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You shut up the kingdom of God against others because you are unwilling to enter in yourselves or lend a hand to those who want to enter. 

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You travel around by sea and land to make one convert, and whoever becomes one is twice the child of hell you are.

“Woe to you, you blind guides, who say, ‘Swearing by the temple is nothing, but swearing by the gold of the temple is binding.’ You blind fools! Which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold? 

Or ‘Swearing by the altar is nothing, but swearing by the gift on it is binding?’ You blind fools! Which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift? Whoever swears by the altar, swears by it, and by everything on it. Whoever swears by the temple, swears by it, and by God who is in it. Whoever swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God, and by the one who sits on it.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. You ought to have done the latter, without leaving the former undone. You blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel!

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but within you are full of extortion and unrighteousness. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the platter, that its outside may become clean also.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitened tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of skeletons, and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and decorate the tombs of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we wouldn’t have acted with them in spilling the blood of the prophets.’ You admit you are children of those who killed the prophets. And you live up to the heritage of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of hell? 

I will send to you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify; some you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the innocent blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar. I tell you plainly, all these things will come upon this generation.

Reflection

 

Jesus was known for his embrace of the poor and outcast, and for his harsh words toward the religious leaders of his day. He was not so much upset with what they chose for themselves, but with the harm they did to others. Have you seen people in churches leave a path of destruction behind them? Do you find it difficult to confront those who hurt others in what they say and do? 

Prayer: Help me be sensitive to the needs of those around me, Lord, and bold to confront those who do others harm.