Tuesday in the 21st Week of Ordinary Time, August 26, 2025

Matthew 23, 23-26

Jesus said: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. But these you should have done, without neglecting the others. Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel! Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.”

For three years the Lord Jesus has preached that the Kingdom of Heaven  had drawn near and that people needed to repent of their sins.  He had preached up and down through Galilee and Judea to the rich and the poor.  Now he has entered Jerusalem and is days away from dying on the Cross.  He turns to the Pharisees and the scribes, the very people who should have recognized him as the Savior, and rebukes them for their refusal to give up their devotion to wealth and honors.  Their place was to lead the people in penance, but all they would see in Jesus was a renegade who would wreck their good thing.  But Jesus is no rebel against the Law; in fact, he upholds it rigorously.  He says here, speaking of the tithes on mint and dill that are commanded in the Law of Moses: “But these you should have done,” that is, pay the tithes.  And he does further, that they should not have neglected judgment, mercy and fidelity.  He accuses them of neglecting judgment: the Pharisees but especially the scribes who studied the Law, acted as judges and as such their responsibility was to secure the rights of those who had been harmed in some way.  But frequently they judged only when a sufficient bribe motivated them to do so.  They neglected mercy: they failed in giving alms and in aiding their neighbors in distress when it would have cost them little.  They neglected fidelity, that is, the trust that makes contracts possible.  Instead, they looked for ways to advance their interests no matter how it hurt others.

“Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!” In warmer regions, in ancient times, wine was often full of gnats, so that one who wishes to drink had to strain it first to remove them.  The “gnats” here can be understood as venial sins and the camels (the largest land animal in that region) as mortal sins or serious vices.  The Pharisees and scribes are said to be “blind” because they ignore the grievousnessvofvtjeircwicked actions and how they affect other people.  They are blind “guides” in that they teach others that this behavior is acceptable. “You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence.”  The cup and dish are human beings.  Their “outside” is the body and the “inside” is the soul.  Cleansing the outside of the cup and dish means dedicating oneself to one’s appearance, whether physical or moral: vanity or hypocrisy.  Jesus is accusing these Jewish leaders of only wanting to seem just and law-abiding.  In ancient times, excessive attention to dress and adornment actually signaled this, in the way that wealth was thought to signal God’s favor.  But all the while, their soul was corrupting, and anything poured into the filthy cup would become corrupted as well, no matter how fine it might have once been.  Thus, they hear the Lord’s preaching and they look for inconsistencies and even blasphemies in it.

“Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.”  That is, unless the soul is free from sin and in a state of grace, it is a waste of time to clean and polish the outside appearance.

We are often deceived by appearances, or, we allow ourselves to be deceived by them because they seem to promise pleasure or freedom from the constraints of virtue.  We should keep in mind that the Son of God came as an infant wrapped in rags and laid in a trough, and departed this world bloodied and hanging on a Cross.