Censure of Scribes and Pharisees.

(Mat. 23:1-39 and Luke 11:37-54).

The two condemnatory sermons to the Scribes and Pharisees, which are very analogous in both content and expression, are brought by both Evangelists Matthew and Luke, but with a difference. The censure presented by Saint Luke, was expressed by the Lord at dinner to which He was invited by a certain Pharisee, and was in relation to the washing of hands. On the other hand, the reproving sermon as narrated by Matthew, was uttered by the Lord in the Temple of Jerusalem, shortly before His cruciferous sufferings. It has to be assumed that the Lord repeatedly articulated similar denouncements in a similar vein. It is quite probable that, while not relating the Lord’s grim sermon that was narrated by Saint Matthew, Saint Luke applied a few pronouncements from it, which he attributes to the Lord when he was censuring the Pharisees during the meal — and which he alone narrated. In both sermons, the Pharisees are censured for undue attention to “outer” cleanliness, while neglecting their “inner” cleanliness i.e. cleansing their souls of sinful passions and vices.

In both sermons, the Lord likens the Pharisees with coffins, “which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanliness.” As well, the Lord condemns the Pharisees for their love of being esteemed, that they apply unbearable burdens on men’s shoulders, while they themselves “will not move them with one of their fingers,” that they formally and punctually fulfill the outward requirements of the law on “tithes,” “but have neglected the weightier matters of the law”: justice, mercy and faith, i.e. being true to God and His moral laws. The Lord also censures the lawyers because they “have taken away the key of knowledge i.e. as though they have taken complete possession of the Old Testament law, which was supposed to lead people toward Christ. And having taken possession of this key, do not enter Christ’s Kingdom and do not allow others to enter by falsely interpreting the law. The Lord also accuses the Pharisees in stoning God’s Prophets, sent to them by the “Wisdom of God” i.e. by He Himself, as He is the Hypostasis Wisdom of God, as represented under this name in the 8^th chapter of Proverbs.

In conclusion, the Lord calls upon them the blood of all the righteous, beginning with Abel, slain by his brother Cain, to the blood of Zechariah, killed between the altar and the temple. Apparently, this was the same Zechariah who by order of Joash, was stoned in the courtyard of the Lord’s house. Others surmise that this was Zechariah — father of John the Baptist.