Today’s Gospel, taken from St. Luke, recounts Our Lord chastising the pride of the Pharisees in their lack of compassion for the people that they are given charge over. The Pharisees are given the task of saving souls, but they are too busy making themselves look good in front of the people.
The Lord said:
“Woe to you Pharisees!
You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb,
but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God.
These you should have done, without overlooking the others.
Woe to you Pharisees!
You love the seat of honor in synagogues
and greetings in marketplaces.
Woe to you!
You are like unseen graves over which people unknowingly walk.”
Then one of the scholars of the law said to him in reply,
“Teacher, by saying this you are insulting us too.”
And he said, “Woe also to you scholars of the law!
You impose on people burdens hard to carry,
but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them.” Luke 11:42-46.
We find a parallel text in the Gospel of St. Matthew as well.1 There we find it situated during Holy Week and being said by Our Lord in the temple. I find that setting to be a bit more likely as what is revealed by this chastisement fits with the events of Holy Week and Our Lord’s revelation of His identity as the Messiah.
To that end, I want to look at the context of this text. First, the text from Luke is a part of a larger set of seven woes or condemnations that Our Lord gives in Matthew. These seven woes indicated two very important realities. The first, is that they run contrary to covenant that was established between God and the people of Israel, and they imitate previous sets of seven woes that are found in the prophets.2 In each of these cases, the prophet is chastising the people on behalf of God for breaking the covenant. The most likely reason for the formulation as a set of seven woes is in reference to Leviticus 26 which speaks of God punishing the people for their sins sevenfold.3
Clearly, Our Lord has condemned the Pharisees of breaking the covenant and is reminding them of the just punishment that awaits them if they do not repent. But this discourse goes far deeper and cuts to the very heart of who Jesus Christ is.
The pronouncement of these seven woes is a divine action. In the Old Testament recounting of the same, God is the one pronouncing the judgments, not the prophet. Certainly, the prophet is the mediator, but this is a divine judgment brought upon the people by God Himself. In the same way, Our Lord is revealing His divine identity to all of those present. This is why I prefer the timeline as it stands in Matthew, as situated on the Tuesday of Holy Week, as the Pharisees grow more and more bold in their desire to kill Jesus. It seems more likely that such an overt declaration of His divine identity would be here, in this climax.
Either way, the declaration of these woes would not escape the notice of the Pharisees who clearly take offense at His words. Our Lord knows of their plots to hand Him over to death and so cites two immensely important things in Matthew’s account.
The first is the innocent blood of Abel and the Prophet Zechariah, both murdered:
“Therefore, I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the Sanctuary and the altar.” Matthew 23:34-36.
Our Lord counts Himself and those who come after Him as being in this line of innocent blood. He is foretelling His own death that the Pharisees are currently plotting.
The second, and I would say more important revelation found here is that of the Lord leaving the temple. He says:
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is forsaken and desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” Matthew 23:37-39.
Here, we have a very important Old Testament reference. In the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel the prophet is given a vision of the presence of God leaving the temple and going up from Jerusalem to the mountain of the east side of the city.4 This is Mount Olivet, which overlooks Jerusalem to the east. The Lord leaves His temple and does not return. Soon after, the temple is destroyed during the Babylonian Exile. Here, during Holy Week, we find God Incarnate leaving His temple and promising not to come back until He is recognized as the Son of God. Just like in the vision of Ezekiel, God Incarnate goes up to the Mount of Olives and prophecies the coming catastrophe. Not 40 years later, this temple would be destroyed by the Romans.
This event, brought about by the pronouncement we find in today’s Gospel finds as its climax the revelation of Jesus Christ that He is the Messiah and that He is God Incarnate. He purposefully uses the Old Testament foreshadowing to reveal that He is God in the flesh. This was taken seriously by the Pharisees, who, the coming days would plot to put Him to death and ultimately, condemn Him since “He made Himself equal to God.”5
For more from Dr. McGovern, visit his Substack at A Thomist, Dedicated to the Theological tradition of St. Thomas Aquinas. Exploring Thomas’ Spiritual Theology and topics in Christology and Mariology.
Cf. Matthew 23:1-39.
Cf. Isaiah 5:8-23; Ezekiel 24:6,9; and Habakkuk 2:6-20.
Cf. Leviticus 26:14-39.
Cf. Ezekiel 11:23.
See Matthew 26:63-68 and John 5:18. It is vital to understand that Christ’s condemnation to death on the part of the Jews was for Blasphemy, for making Himself equal to God. This crime is continually attested to in all four canonical Gospels. Any arguments that seek to say that Christ never claimed divinity, especially revolving around the Synoptics, lose all credibility at this solitary fact. By His own claim, He is condemned to die. All of the events of Holy Week leading up to His trial before the Sanhedrin, emphasize His divine identity.