Matthew 23:27 Commentary and Bible Study

Christ’s strongest words reserved for the scribes and Pharisees. God hates heart sins more than any other sins, and particularly hypocrisy. On another occasion the disciples came to Christ and said, ‘Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying?’ (Matthew 15:12). He had been speaking of what defiles a man – not what goes into the mouth, but that which comes out of the mouth, out of the heart. If the Pharisees were offended at this, they would certainly be offended at what Christ says here – perhaps the most cutting statement he ever made about them. But Christ dismissed this. To take offence suggests that a man has some just complaint, but no one can complain at the judgment of God, and the Lord says, they are about to be judged – ‘Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up’ (Matthew 15:13).Have you ever thought what you are looking at when you look at a graveyard full of tombs? It may look orderly, clean, cared for, but what are you really looking at? At the end of life, the body has to be put out of sight and out of reach, because the decay process makes the remains, even of those we loved most, to be repulsive. Nevertheless all know, if they choose to think about it, what is contained in that tomb, that grave. For Christ, this is an apt illustration of hypocrisy. Can you turn such a foul thing as a rotting carcass into something attractive? Men try to do so. They wish to visit the place where their loved ones are buried, but they do not really want to come an see a rotting corpse. Some effort to disguise what they are looking at is therefore required for the sake of decorum. That effort is understandable, acceptable, when it comes to the dead, but the Pharisees did something equivalent with the living. The Lord is not taken in by appearances, but his gaze penetrates right through to the reality, which is also there to teach us. The painting of graves is not an act of deception because all know what is inside, but the artifice of the scribes was clearly a deception for they intended to deny that any such uncleanness existed within them. They act like those who paint the tombs, only they do it with their own lives. They present to the world an appearance of charm, respect, dignity, learning, but God is not fooled by this as men are. He sees what is in the heart, and it is like the hidden contents of a grave – rotting self-righteousness, adultery, pride, envy, and hatred. That is the reality, and God deals in realities.