BLINDNESS OF THE “BEST”

 

 

The scribes and Pharisees had been regarded as the best in terms of piety, education,  and wisdom. However, in Matthew 23:13-29, Jesus called them “blind” five times and “hypocrites” seven times. His final denunciation also described them as blind hypocrites:

 

·       “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town,” (Matthew 23:29-34)

 

Why did Jesus call them “hypocrites?”

 

·       They had honored the martyred prophets by building them tombs.

·       They claimed that they would never kill the prophets.

·       But, this was the very thing they had been doing and would do to Jesus.

 

How could they have been so blind to their hypocrisy? The deceptive power of sin, an abomination before God:

 

·       And he [Jesus] said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” (Luke 16:15)

 

Why an abomination?” It is a refusal to come the truths of God’s light and a rejection by His creation to love their Creator.

 

What then does God expect of His children? In His prayer to the Father, Jesus gave us a  preview of how He felt about His beloved but stumbling disciples:

 

·       “…they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.” (John 17:6–8)

They had believed and had kept His Word. However, as our eye sees, it seems that they had consistently failed. Nevertheless, out Lord saw something else in them, and what He saw made all the difference.