To read the texts click on the texts: 1Thess 1:1-5,8-10; Mt 23:13-22
The text of
today contains the first three of the seven Woes that Jesus pronounces against
the Pharisees of his time, because they gave more importance to human laws,
rules and regulations than to the law of God, which was the Law of Love. The
polemic is against placing too much value on the way one appears to others,
which can be a form of idolatry. So understood, hypocrisy is not merely a
transgression, but represents a lack of trust in God, a turning away from God
toward what others think as the point of orientation of one’s life. This was
the reason for their single-minded focus on the law and it blinded them to all
else that really mattered. Consequently, the human person was relegated to the
far extreme. Jesus seeks to correct their understanding and ours, by asking
them and us to focus not so much on law but on love, not so much on self but on
God.
The first of
the three woes (23:13) is also found in Luke 11:52, but whereas the Lucan Jesus
pronounces the owe because the Pharisees “take away the key of knowledge”, The
Matthean Jesus pronounces the woe because they “shut the kingdom of heaven
against men”. They do not enter themselves, nor do they allow others to enter.
The second woe
(23:15) is exclusive to Matthew, and continues the imagery of the first woe.
Here the Pharisees are accused of converting others to their beliefs, but this
results in the converted being worse than they were before.
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