Verses 37-38 Jesus accepts an invitation from a Pharisee for a meal. When Jesus didn’t do the customary washing of hands like everyone else before the meal, the Pharisee was shocked.

Verses 39-40 So Jesus used the opportunity to show the Jewish leaders that their priorities are out of place. They focus so much on the outside and what is seen by man and they neglect what’s going on the inside or what is only seen by God. Their spiritual focus was wrongly placed and dishonored God. They were caught up in cleansing the outside of their cup or dish, but they weren’t concerned with the cleansing of the greed, evil, and wickedness within their own hearts.

Since God made the body and soul of man, we should wash both the external (the hands) and the internal (the spirit). Obedience needs to be internal and external.

Verse 41 Proof that we are clean on the inside is demonstrated through our giving and service to others, like giving to those who can do nothing in return. How we handle the things we’ve been given from God, our possessions, our time, our resources, reveals major truth about our inner life.

Verses 42 This situation set off a whole chain of condemnation that Jesus pronounces on the Pharisees. Jesus criticizes them for their commitment to the externals and the appearance of righteousness. They diligently tithed everything, including on their garden vegetables and herbs they produced. That’s admirable to be so exact on tithing. But the Pharisees would be so focused on one law as a way to make up for their neglect in other laws that people couldn’t see.

Verse 43 The Pharisees loved the front seat in the synagogues and were ambitious for them. They were proud to be in the uppermost seats. And the Pharisees loved the compliments and flattery they received in the marketplaces. Their love was all pride and vanity. These religious leaders failed to show justice to their neighbors and love for God.

Verse 44 Their lives are hypocritical. Instead of serving as safe spiritual guides for people, the Pharisees caused others to be contaminated. They were like graves overgrown with grass that cannot be seen by the eye. And yet when a Jew walks over it unknowingly, he would become defiled by stepping on an unmarked grave. Now, this Jew is polluted though he doesn’t even know it. The point is that followers of the Pharisees are being polluted unknowingly by following these religious leaders who are full of envy, greed, corruption, bad morals, and wrong intentions yet conceal it so well with their public displays of devotion.

Verses 45-46 One of the experts of the law jumps in on the conversation to back his buddy up and tells Jesus that what is being said about them is an insult.

This is interesting because we should always apply what is being said and question our own hearts for any sin that stains our spirits. This is wisdom and humility. If we apply the rebuke and find no sin then we can move on. We should always want our inner lives cleaned up. Psalm 139:23 says “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!” We should continually lay the Word of God upon our hearts and ask for sin to be revealed so that we can deal with it and become just a little purer than before. We can make good use of a person’s words even if they were not meant for good. We should open our ears to our faults and ask the Holy Spirit to help us fix them. The Bible says it’s folly to be wedded to our sin and resolved not to part with them. Or to make poor use of the faithful and friendly warnings given to us out of love. Some have their passions provoked by any expression of disapproval and this will be counted against them one day. They justify themselves in rejecting the disapproval. The prophet Jeremiah complained in Jeremiah 6:10 of this very thing. “To whom can I give warning? Who will listen when I speak? Their ears are closed, and they cannot hear. They scorn the word of the Lord. They don’t want to listen at all.” Jeremiah‬ ‭6:10‬ ‭NLT‬‬

For these people, the word of the Lord is to them an expression of disapproval; they hear God’s Word and have no delight in it.

So Jesus turns to all the experts of the Mosaic law (Old Testament law) and tells them that their legal prescriptions went far beyond the Old Testament commandments and end up loading people down with burdens and strict laws too heavy to bear. All the while making the laws easier for themselves than God had intended. Did the lawyers make things more difficult for the people to show some authority? To make people look at them in awe? Jesus tells these experts that they not only neglected the law that they studied but in fact, contributed to moving people further from God rather than closer to him.

Verses 47-52 While these men were happy to build monuments for dead prophets who once taught repentance and pointed to the Messiah, they have a big problem with the living ones who are now teaching repentance, like John the Baptist and Jesus. These religious leaders don’t appreciate these so-called prophets of their day coming in the spirit and power of these dead prophets. In general, people often don’t appreciate a person until they are gone.

Jesus tells these religious leaders that just as their ancestors killed Old Testament prophets (Abel and Zechariah are two mentioned here), so the Jewish religious leaders would kill the very prophets and apostles that were sent to them to expose sin and warn of impending judgment, including the Messiah. These prophets and apostles prove themselves with signs from heaven, miracles, and gifts from the Holy Spirit but it doesn’t sink in for the religious leaders.

In reality, these experts of the law were anything but experts. They opposed the gospel that Jesus brought and were doing everything they could to stand in the way of it succeeding. They clearly were not sharing Old Testament scriptures about the coming of the Messiah or otherwise, the people would have embraced Jesus. They would have known that the prophecies were being fulfilled and the kingdom of God was at hand.

Instead, these religious leaders were glossing over the text about the Messiah. They hid it from the people. And by doing that, these leaders had taken away the key to knowledge. The people had no idea these prophecies of the Messiah were being fulfilled by Jesus. The leaders lacked true knowledge of God, and they denied others access to the truth as well.

Verses 53-54 The scribes and Pharisees could not stand to be criticized this way and yet there was very little they could do about it. So they verbally push back and start to question Jesus, provoking him to talk more in hopes that they will catch him in conflicting truth. They try to trap Jesus in his answers.

Prayer: Jesus, Your Word tunes our ears and mind to hear you and receive you through the noise. We pray for those who are trapped in darkness right now. (Speak their names in this prayer). We pray for their eyes to be opened, their ears to hear clearly the Truth and for their minds to receive Your will for their lives, God. Help their unbelief accept Your liberty in this life through repentance and walking in a new way. Help us to be a help and not a hindrance to those searching for You, Jesus. Help us not get caught up in the minor things that we miss the majors, like loving all people, serving and giving to those in need, forgiving to release the heavy burdens. What good is it to know Your Word, Jesus, and not live it? Help us, Holy Spirit. We want our external life to reflect a changed internal life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.