NOTES for Isa 29:17-24
When the Pharisees and scribes reproach Christ because His disciples do not observe the ancient rites (Matt. 15:1-20), He quotes the first verse of today's reading from the prophet Isaiah: "This people draws near to Me with their mouth, and honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me." For the Pharisees, who knew Sacred Scripture well, these words sound like a severe rebuke: they immediately remember the continuation of the prophet's words, which the evangelists did not include in their account. And the prophet says: "and their fear of Me is a commandment of men learned by rote." This is the whole point: instead of reverence before God, we can transfer our reverent attitude to what people think about Him, and these are far from the same thing.
Meanwhile, the continuation of the Lord's words is striking. It is important to pay attention to this prophecy of Isaiah already because it will give us the opportunity to understand Christ better. The Lord says through the prophet that His people, instead of worshiping with the heart, worshiping in Spirit and truth, honor Him with their lips and prefer human limitation. Our instinct then expects a warning about the severe punishment that will overtake people for such a substitution. But the Lord says: "in a very little while... the deaf shall hear... and the eyes of the blind shall see..." He says that He will redeem Abraham, and his descendants will revere the God of Jacob. In the Lord's eyes, what matters is that He Himself will correct our errors, that we will be able to draw near to Him with the heart. Therefore this whole word is a prophecy about Christ.