23:13,(14)
Seven woes are now directed at the religious leaders, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law. Luke 11:42-52 has six woes, woes against the religious leaders are also found in Isaiah 5:8-25 and Habbakuk 2:6-29. “You hypocrites!” sums up the primary charge against them, with the various woes elaborating this. Before we get into the details let me say something in favour of hypocrisy! (Not really in favour :-)) At least with hypocrisy there is some recognition of what is good, of how we should behave. In the west we are now in a far worse situation where what is good is called evil, and what is evil is called good. The religious leaders were supposed to guide and help people towards the kingdom of heaven. Instead they shut the door in people’s faces. They would not get in themselves, and they worked to stop anyone else getting in. In NKJV and KJV you will find v14, but this is not found in the earlier manuscripts.
23:15
Again the teachers and Pharisees are lambasted as hypocrites. Jesus was not giving a gentle academic rebuke, but an impassioned judgement upon them. Why so passionate? Because it mattered, their hypocrisy affected their own future, and the lives and futures of others. All of us should take note. What we do with our lives affects both ourselves and others. They made a great show of seeking converts, going to great lengths to get one. When they got their convert they made him a “child of hell”, literally a “child of Gehenna”, the rubbish tip outside Jerusalem. In fact, they made him worse than they were. We are meant to be life bringers, not death bringers!
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