+ Two things that Jesus could not tolerate were lack of charity, and hypocrisy. He detested both. We are here on this earth to be helpful to one another; and to be true to ourselves and to others. Today he speaks of hypocrisy in the gospel passage. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees: you who ought to know better, being the teachers of religion that you are: your outsides do not match your insides: externally your body performs all kinds of righteous acts, while on the inside your heart is full of the dead bones and filth of conniving with the enemy: the spirit of evil in the world. You cut corners, make excuses for unkind, immoral and uncharitable behavior and do it in the name of religion! You are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing!
The second example has to do with how the scribes and Pharisees adorn and beautify the tombs of the prophets and the righteous; you even go so far as to say "if we were living at the time, we would not have contributed to shedding the prophets' blood;" hypocrites: by your acts of evil doing and unrighteousness you are simply proving that you are children of those who murdered the prophets: and now you must take what comes around!
Let us always remember that the Lord knows our hearts! He knows those who are truly seeking perfection! He knows those who are trying to deceive not only him, but everyone else by their fancy outward show of righteous deeds! While our outsides will probably never match our insides entirely in this lifetime: so long as we are sincerely and honestly trying to make them so, more and more each day, with the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit, then we have nothing to fear, we are not hypocrites, we are simply sinful pilgrims on our way to our Father's house – each trying to help others out along the way: and God will be pleased with us! Whoever tries his best to keep the word of Christ has the love of God in him! God bless you!
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