23:25,26
The next woe is the focus on outward appearances by the Pharisees and teachers of the Law. Notice that this is not just a general criticism of them saying that the inside matters more than the outside, but two specific sins are mentioned: greed and self-indulgence. So there are two main points that Jesus is making. First, that they concentrated on the outside, on appearances, while on the inside things were rotten. The second is that the way to true holiness is to clean the inside. If the inside is clean then the outward appearance will follow. The gospel gets to the heart of the matter, it gets to the heart of who and what we are.
23:27,28
Now they are told they are like whitewashed tombs. Under the Law if a person stepped on a tomb he became unclean (Numbers 19:16). Therefore graves were whitewashed so that they were clearly visible and people would not inadvertently step on them. So outwardly the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees looked like holy people, but inwardly were full of death and uncleanness. They were full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
Focusing on outward appearances is very dangerous. First, it won’t work, and eventually this will be evident to all. Secondly, and more dangerously, we may fool ourselves for a time that it is having a useful effect, but all it will do is allow evil to fester on the inside.
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