Jesus · c. AD 30
Chapter 50
Woe to You
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!
For parents
Most of this chapter is Jesus’ own words against the scribes and Pharisees: he calls them hypocrites, blind guides, snakes and offspring of vipers, and asks how they will escape the judgment of Gehenna (Matthew 23:13–33). He says they will kill and crucify some of the prophets, wise men and scribes he sends, and whip others and chase them from city to city, so that all the righteous blood shed on earth may come on them, from Abel to Zachariah son of Barachiah (23:34–36). He also says that Jerusalem kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, and that its house is left to it desolate (23:37–38).
was teaching in the temple, and the common people were glad to hear him. No one had been able to say a word back to him, and from then on nobody dared ask him any more questions.
Then Jesus spoke to the crowds of people and to his . “The and the ,” he said, “sit on ’ seat. So whatever they tell you to keep, keep it and do it. But don’t do as they do, because they don’t do what they say.
“They tie up heavy bundles that are painful to carry and load them onto people’s shoulders, but they themselves won’t lift a finger to help them.
“Everything they do, they do to be seen by people. They make their broad, and they make the tassels on their clothes bigger. At feasts they love the place of honor, and in the the best seats. They love being greeted in the marketplaces and being called ‘, Rabbi’ by people.
“But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi.’ You have one teacher, the , and you are all brothers. Don’t call anyone on earth your father. You have one Father, the one who is in heaven. And don’t be called masters, because you have one master, the Christ.
“But the one who is greatest among you will be your servant. Whoever lifts himself up will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be lifted up.”
Mark and Luke tell of a warning Jesus gave about the scribes. Mark says he gave it as he taught; Luke says he spoke to his disciples, with all the people listening. “Beware of the scribes,” he said. “They like to walk in long robes and to have people greet them in the marketplaces. They like to get the best seats in the synagogues and the best places at feasts. These men eat up widows’ houses, and for show they make long prayers. They will be condemned all the more.”
Jesus went on. “ to you, scribes and Pharisees, ! You eat up widows’ houses, and for show you make long prayers. So you will be condemned all the more.
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You shut people out of the Kingdom of Heaven. You don’t go in yourselves, and you won’t let in the people who are on their way in.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You travel around by sea and by land to make one person a , and once he has become one, you make him twice as much a son of as you are.
“Woe to you, you blind guides! You say, ‘If someone swears an oath by the temple, that counts for nothing. But if someone swears by the gold of the temple, he has to keep his oath.’
“You blind fools! Which counts for more, the gold, or the temple, which is what makes the gold holy?
“And you say, ‘If someone swears by the , that counts for nothing. But if someone swears by the gift lying on it, he has to keep his oath.’ You blind fools! Which counts for more, the gift, or the altar, which is what makes the gift holy?
“So anyone who swears by the altar is swearing by it and by everything on it. Anyone who swears by the temple is swearing by it and by the one who has been living in it. And anyone who swears by heaven is swearing by the throne of God and by the one sitting on it.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You give a of your mint, your dill and your , but you have left out the things in the law that matter more: justice, mercy and faith. You should have done these, and not left out the others.
“You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You wash the cup and the dish on the outside, but inside, they are full of robbery and wrongdoing.
“You blind Pharisee! First clean the cup and the dish on the inside, so that the outside may become clean too.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You’re like tombs that have been painted white. Outside they look beautiful, but inside they are full of dead people’s bones and of everything .
“So it is with you. On the outside you look righteous to people, but inside, you’re full of hypocrisy and evil.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You put up tombs for the and decorate the tombs of the righteous. And you say, ‘If we’d been alive in our ancestors’ days, we would have had no part with them in the blood of the prophets.’
“So you testify about yourselves: you are children of those who killed the prophets. Then fill up your ancestors’ measure to the top!
“You snakes, you offspring of vipers! How will you escape the judgment of Gehenna?
“So look: I am sending you prophets, wise men and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will whip in your synagogues and chase from city to city. This is so that all the righteous blood shed on the earth will come on you, from righteous ’s blood to the blood of , whom you killed between the and the altar.
“I tell you for certain, all these things will come upon this generation.
“, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How many times I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!
“Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me from now on until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
Jesus sat down across from the , Mark says, and saw how the crowd was putting money into it. Many who were rich put in a great deal. Luke says that he looked up and saw the rich people who were putting their gifts into the treasury.
Then a poor widow came, a woman whose husband had died. She put in two small brass coins, the kind called lepta. Mark says that together they made a quadrans, a coin worth about a sixty-fourth of a day’s pay for a farm worker.
Jesus called his disciples over to him. “I tell you for certain,” he said, “this poor widow gave more than all those who are giving to the treasury. They all gave out of the plenty they had, but out of her poverty she gave all she had to live on.” In Luke, Jesus says that the others put in gifts for God out of their plenty.