To read the texts click on the texts:1 Thess 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.
The third woe (23,16-22) accuses the
Pharisees of trying to find loopholes in the law in order to suit themselves.
They interpret the law to suit their convenience.
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