SAINT LOUIS (OPTIONAL MEMORIAL)

You are like whitewashed tombs. 

Why would Jesus compare the scribes and Pharisees to whitewashed tombs? It wasn’t just because of the disconnect between a nice outward appearance and what was really inside. The answer also lies in Jewish tradition and ritual impurity.

According to Mosaic law, Jews could make themselves ritually impure—and require a weeklong purification process—if they came too close to a grave. In an attempt to keep this from happening, each year before Temple pilgrimages began, tombs around Jerusalem were whitewashed. More than just a beautification project, the whitewashing served as a warning for the pilgrims to stay clear of something that would impede their worship.

So yes, Jesus chose this image partly to give a graphic picture of the nature of these men’s hypocrisy—a beautiful exterior filled with hidden corruption. But he also chose it as a strong warning about what to stay away from, both for his disciples and for us today.

You could almost say that Jesus was himself applying whitewash to the Pharisees and scribes. It was as if he was exposing their religious hypocrisy for everyone—including us—to see.

Jesus knows how easy it is to fall into a trap similar to the one that ensnared these religious leaders. He knows how much we try to look as if we have it all together, like the way we may put on a serene face even though we’re seething about an argument we had in the car on the way to church. He also knows we might say or do things just to appear righteous when we know we’re hiding some kind of sin. So he marked the “tombs” of his opponents’ hypocrisy to make sure we don’t veer too close to the same thing.

Take a lesson, then, from the whitewash Jesus put on the Pharisees and scribes. Listen for God’s voice in your conscience and pay attention to the warnings he gives you. Bring your heart to the one who can clean you from the inside. Then the outside will take care of itself.

“Lord, help me to be on the alert for your warnings so that I can see and avoid hypocrisy in myself.”

1 Thessalonians 2:9-13
Psalm 139:7-12
Matthew 23:27-32

WORD AMONG US