NOTES for Mat 23:13-22
13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. |
14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. |
15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. |
16 Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor! |
17 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold? |
18 And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. |
19 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? |
20 Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon. |
21 And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. |
22 And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon. |
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Today's bitter words of Christ about the scribes and Pharisees, who barricaded the entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven with their religious stereotypes, should be considered in parallel with the words of the Almighty, "You shall not make yourself an idol." Alas, the human being has a frightening ability to make idols out of everything. After all, everything that is so important to the scribes and Pharisees is objectively good. Prayer is vitally necessary, and so are preaching and preserving the temple... But all this can be forms in which love for God is expressed, or it can be a means of walling oneself off from God. The word "hypocrisy" in Greek means first of all pretense. Here is what matters to understand: we can pretend to love God, but we will manage to deceive only ourselves, not the All-Seeing One.
These words of Christ are given in the Gospel not only, and not so much, in order to condemn our hypocrisy. It is simply that since God sees us in truth, hypocrisy becomes meaningless, and therefore there is hope that He will help us be freed from it.
Readings for 18 August 2025
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