What does Christ’s phrase “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees” mean?

At the liturgy on Monday of the 11th week after Pentecost, a passage from the Gospel is read in which Jesus Christ utters the words: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.” He addresses these words to those who are known among the people as very righteous and observant of the Law of God. But these people are only outwardly like this, but in essence, on the contrary, they are so depraved and corrupt that the Lord predicts grief for them. He does not curse them, but prophesies that if they do not change, a terrible fate awaits them ahead.

And those who knew that Jesus Christ, usually meek and humble, fell into anger and were horrified by these prophecies. This means that there were special reasons for the wrath of the Lord.

Pharisees are hypocrites

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A hypocrite, in today's sense, can be said to be an artist. That is, a person playing a role that has nothing to do with his personal character and personal preferences. Such were the Pharisees. They outwardly seemed disinterested, but in fact, they used their position to enrich themselves at the expense of the people most offended by fate and widows. Instead of easing their lot by righteously dividing gifts from the rich, the Pharisees sought to convert the property of the poor into the possession of their own circle. As a result, poverty only increased, and the rich became even richer. And all this was done under the guise of piety. Seeing such injustice, which was made into law, the Lord experienced righteous anger.

He saw that the Pharisees strictly observed the Law in small things and widely advertised their holiness, but in the main thing they neglected the rule of law, but they hid this from the people, without focusing their attention. After all, people learn about the legality from them, without being able to obtain information in any other way. But it is impossible to hide these facts from God. That is why Jesus rebukes them, removing the veil of piety from them and exposing all the rottenness of their essence.

Appeal in the name of... who?

So it turns out that an immature preacher preaches in his own name his immaturity, his superficial understanding of Christianity. The Apostle Paul also encountered this and was very sad about it. The third chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians is almost entirely devoted to the sorrowful reasoning of the Apostle Paul that those who declare their devotion to the ideas of this or that missionary preacher (including himself) cannot be considered spiritual; This is a property of carnal people, and spirituality is formed when a person confesses that he is Christ’s.

A brilliant illustration of the assertion that both externality and the desire to establish one's own understanding of Christianity, and not the spirit of Christ, are rooted in Pharisaism, is the 15th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, which describes how the Apostles in Jerusalem judged the discord imposed on Paul . Who was against him? - Those who believed from the Pharisaic heresy (Acts 15:5). What did they want? — Circumcision for pagan believers, that is, essentially a “two-step” introduction into the New Testament Church through the rules and rituals of the Old Testament. By the grace of God and to our great happiness, the Apostles rejected this.

Times are different now, and there is no longer any talk about circumcision. But the trend towards “individual methods” continues. And what, I even had to read that converts should be kept from the Scriptures... as if something would happen, as Chekhov’s man in a case used to say. What then, excuse me, should I preach? It turns out, again, that myself.

In general, it should be said that creative methods of circulation are very diverse, and it is not easy to classify them. True, there is one criterion for classification, and this is the attitude to the personality of the person being converted. According to this criterion, the methods range from indicating the need for complete destruction of the personality (that is, how the Lord intended a given person does not count; he needs to be remade in the image and likeness of the preacher) to a careful desire to preserve all the features of his personality, even the obviously unhealthy ones, which is also certainly reflects the personality of the preacher. The central position on this scale is occupied by a simple instruction with an advertising premise: such and such people, known to everyone (they are shown on TV!) are believers, therefore, there is nothing wrong with that, join us!

Sometimes, to be honest, I really want to mentally agree that we need to be more careful with Scripture. So, I had to hear that since Christ commanded the Apostles to be fishers of men, you need to remember that you are supposed to put something tasty on the hook, like VIPs. The image is absolutely disgusting. Attempts to explain that the Gospel speaks of a net, and not a fishing rod at all, are met with... complete inattention: do not confuse a person who is passionate about a good goal.

Next, the actual instructions are set out: how to enter the church, how to make the sign of the cross and bow, how to light candles, how to fast before communion, what to read, don’t forget to kiss the cross and the Gospel, after communion not to venerate icons... And so on in the same vein. Well, and one more thing - what bad people are sectarians, heterodox and non-Orthodox people. Why? - Because they are against us; As a rule, there is no talk about their faith.

I remember that under Soviet rule, in a large Moscow church, when asked what was needed to be baptized, they answered: a white shirt, a towel, buy crosses and candles. Moreover, if we were talking about the baptism of a baby, then it was emphasized: five crosses, because there was complete confidence that both parents and recipients did not wear crosses. Are we really going back to this?

Warn the people against imitating the Pharisees

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Jesus Christ also understood that the people who follow the Pharisees, who say that you need to pray a lot, like them, and keep the Law, like them, imitate the hypocrites. Therefore, with his prophecies “Woe to you,” the Son of God makes it clear to people that imitation will lead to an abyss.

Everyone who does evil deserves punishment. But whoever does evil under the guise of piety will be consigned to hell. The Pharisees say that you need to pray a lot, as they pray. But their prayers are formal. These endless prayers are just a way to let the people know who is the most righteous and who deserves honor and admiration. That is, they pretended to offer prayers, but in reality they did not do this.

And now someone has come who sees them through and through, who himself is ready to accept their prayers and give an answer to them, seeing faith and trust in the Lord. But He does not see this faith in them, because it is absent. There is only a desire to receive benefits and advantages from one’s position.

This is what Jesus warns people about, promising woe to those who do this.

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When the Lord brought the Pharisees into silence and discovered their incurable illness, then He begins to speak about them, about their life and behavior. He instructs his listeners not to neglect legal teachers, even if they were of a vicious life. At the same time, the Lord shows that He is not only not an opponent of the law of Moses, but, on the contrary, wants the requirements of this law to be fulfilled, although the teachers are unworthy people . He says: take the words of the teachers as the words of Moses, or rather, of God Himself. You ask: is it really necessary to fulfill everything they say, even the bad ones? To this I will say: firstly, a teacher will never dare to incline another person to evil. And then, even if we assume that some teacher decides to incline people to a vicious life, then such a one will begin to teach this, of course, not from the “Seat of Moses,” that is, not in the name of the law. But the Lord is speaking about those who sit in Moses’ seat, that is, about those who teach the law. So, we must listen to those who teach the law of God, although they themselves do not act according to it.

They tie heavy and unbearable burdens and place them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves do not want to move them. Yet they do their deeds so that people can see them: they expand their storehouses and increase the size of their clothes.

The Pharisees imposed heavy burdens in that they forced people to fulfill petty and difficult to fulfill regulations of the law, and they also increased the severity of legal decrees with some of their own traditions that were not in the law. They themselves “did not move a finger,” that is, they did not do anything themselves, they did not even come close to these heavy burdens. When the teacher himself does what he teaches, then at the same time he is also a student: he bears the burden along with those being taught. But when the teacher, imposing a burden on the student, does not act himself, then he thereby further aggravates the burden for the student, by his inaction showing the impossibility of fulfilling what he says. So, the Lord convicts the Pharisees that they do not want to take part in bearing the burden, that is, they do not want to act themselves. But, without doing good, they at the same time pretend to do it. Since everything they ever did was done for show, the reward was taken away from them. What are they doing? They "enlarge their storehouses and increase the cost of their garments." It was as follows. The law prescribed: “bind it on your hand, and let it be steadfast in your sight.” Accordingly, the Jews engraved the ten commandments of the law on two charters, and one of these charters was attached to the forehead, and the other was hung on the right hand. Voskriliya was the name given to embroidery made of dark red or crimson threads in the form of a pattern, which was arranged on the edges of outer clothing. The Pharisees did this because it was prescribed in the law. It was prescribed so that, seeing this, the Jews would not deviate from the commandments of God. But God did not want such a literal fulfillment: no, having a storehouse meant fulfilling the commandments; and the red stripes symbolized that we, people, should one day be sealed with the blood of Christ. The Pharisees made large storehouses and vaults, so that they would appear to everyone to whom they would be noticed as guardians of the law.

They also love to be presented at feasts, and to preside in synagogues, and to be greeted in public assemblies, and for people to call them: teacher! teacher!

Alas! What does the Lord say! They are subject to condemnation for the mere fact that they love to sit at the table at feasts and preside in the synagogues. What is worthy of someone who does everything bad beyond this? “They love synagogue chairs.” Where the Pharisees should have taught others humility, there they show their depravity: they do everything for glory and, doing with such motives, are not ashamed, but, on the contrary, want to be called: rabbi, rabbi, that is, teachers!

But do not call yourself teachers, for you have only one Teacher, Christ, and yet you are brothers. And do not call anyone on earth your father, for you have one Father, who is in heaven; and do not be called instructors, for you have only one Teacher, Christ. The greatest of you shall be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled; and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Christ does not forbid being called teachers, but he forbids passionately desiring this title and trying in every possible way to acquire it. The dignity of a teacher in the proper sense belongs only to God. Also, the words: “don’t call me father” do not prohibit honoring your parents; on the contrary, He wants us to honor our parents and especially our spiritual fathers. With these words, Christ leads us to the knowledge of the true Father, that is, God, since the Father in the proper sense is God, while carnal parents are not the culprits of our existence, but only co-conspirators and instruments of God. Showing the benefits of humility, Christ says that the greatest of us should be a servant and last. Whoever exalts himself, considering himself something great, will be abandoned by God and humiliated.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you devour the houses of widows and hypocritically pray for a long time: for this you will receive all the more condemnation.

Calls the Pharisees hypocrites, since they showed piety, and yet did not do anything consistent with piety; on the contrary, while performing long prayers, they at the same time “devour the houses of widows.” They were deceivers who mocked and robbed the simpletons. They will receive the heaviest condemnation for eating the houses of widows, who, on the contrary, should be supported and helped in their poverty. Or in other words: they will accept the heaviest condemnation for the fact that they do evil, eat the property of widows under the pretext of a good deed - prayer; It is the one who deceives under the guise of goodness who deserves the greatest condemnation.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you close the Kingdom of Heaven to men: for you yourselves do not enter, and you do not allow those who want to enter.

Not only that, says the Lord, but you yourself do not believe and are vicious, but you also turn others away from faith in Me and destroy by your example. People usually imitate their leaders, especially when they see them as prone to evil. Therefore, every mentor and teacher should observe what benefit it brings. Woe to him if by his life he prevents others from succeeding in goodness.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you go around sea and land to convert even one; and when this happens, you make him a son of Gehenna, twice as bad as you.

You corrupt not only the Jews, but also those who turn from idolatry to the Jewish faith - the so-called proselytes. You try to convert someone to the Jewish way of life and circumcision, and when someone becomes a Jew, he perishes, becoming infected with your depravity. “Son of Gehenna” is a person worthy of being burned in Gehenna, who has some kind of spiritual affinity with Gehenna.

Woe to you, blind leaders, who say: if anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is guilty. Mad and blind! What is greater: gold or the temple consecrating gold? Also: if anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing; If anyone swears by the gift that is on him, he is guilty. Mad and blind! What is greater: the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? So, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything that is on it, and he who swears by the temple swears by it and by Him who dwells in it; and he who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.

Calls the Pharisees blind because they do not want to teach what they should; preferring the unimportant, they neglect the most important. They prefer gold, cherubim and a golden statue in the temple to the temple itself. That is why they taught the people that it is not very important to swear by the temple, but what is important is to swear by the gold that adorns the temple. Meanwhile, this gold is venerable only because it is in the temple. Likewise, they said: the gifts laid on the altar are more honorable than the altar itself. As a result, according to the teaching of the Pharisees, whoever swore by a golden utensil, a bull or a sheep sacrificed, and then broke the oath, is obliged to pay the value of what he swore with. And they preferred the gift to the altar because of the benefits received from the sacrifices. But whoever, having sworn by the temple, broke the oath, could no longer create anything equal to the temple, and therefore was freed from the oath. Thus, because of the greed of the Pharisees, the oath by the temple was considered more insignificant. Christ does not allow the Old Testament sacrifice to be considered higher than the altar. And among us Christians, the altar is consecrated with gifts; By divine grace, the bread is transformed into the very Body of the Lord, with which the altar or altar is consecrated.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you tithe mint, anise and caraway seeds and forsake the most important things in the law: judgment, mercy and faith: these should have been done and not abandoned. Blind leaders, straining out a mosquito and devouring a camel!

And here he condemns the Pharisees as crazy because they, neglecting the most important things in the law, tried to be precise in small things, not even missing out on donating tithes from the caraway plant. If anyone reproached them for such pettiness, they pretended that the law required it. But it would be better and more pleasing to God if they demanded judgment, mercy and faith from the people. What is a court? To observe justice means not to do anything unjustly or recklessly, but to do everything with fair judgment. Mercy flows directly from such judgment. He who acts justly in everything knows who needs to have mercy. Faith follows mercy. A merciful person, of course, believes that he will not lose anything for nothing, but will receive a reward for everything. Being merciful, we must at the same time believe in the true God. And many of the pagans were merciful, but, not believing in the living God, they did not have true mercy, characteristic of faith, and therefore their mercy was fruitless. So, every teacher must demand tithes from the people, that is, demand from the ten senses (five bodily and five mental) judgment, mercy and faith. “This ought to be done,” says the Lord, not thereby commanding the tithing of vegetables, but eliminating the pretext for the accusation that He teaches contrary to the law of Moses. He calls them blind leaders because, boasting of their learning and knowledge of everything, they were useless to everyone, even destroying people, plunging them into the ditch of unbelief. They, according to the Lord, “strained out the mosquito,” that is, they noticed small errors, and at the same time “swallowed the camel,” that is, they lost sight of all kinds of crimes.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you cleanse the outside of the cup and platter, while inside they are full of robbery and unrighteousness. Blind Pharisee! First cleanse the inside of the cup and the dish, so that the outside of them may also be clean.

Observing the traditions of the elders, the Pharisees took care of washing the cups and dishes in which food was served. However, the foods and wines that they ate and drank were acquired by carnivore and spiritually desecrated them. Do not, the Lord teaches, acquire wine through unrighteousness, then the vessel will also be clean. Allegorically understanding, the Savior is not talking about cups and dishes, but about the outer - bodily and inner - spiritual sides of the human being. You, as if the Lord were saying so, are trying to make your outer state splendid, but your inside, your soul, is full of filth, for you steal and offend. The inner, that is, the soul, must be washed, and together with the purity of the soul, the outer, bodily state will also shine.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and all uncleanness. So, on the outside, you seem righteous to people, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.

And this comparison makes the same sense as the previous one. The Pharisees tried to appear decent in their outward behavior, like painted tombs, that is, whitewashed with lime and alabaster, but inside they were full of uncleanness, dead and rotten deeds.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, who build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, and say: If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been their accomplices in shedding the blood of the prophets. Thus, you testify against yourself that you are the sons of those who killed the prophets.

He announces woe to them not because they build tombs for the prophets, since this pleases God, but because they do this with hypocrisy, because, condemning their fathers, they did worse than them, surpassed them in depravity and clearly They lied, saying: if we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have killed the prophets, but meanwhile they wanted to kill the Lord of the prophets Himself. Therefore Christ adds:

Complete the measure of your fathers. Serpents, spawn of vipers! How will you escape from condemnation to Gehenna?

With the words: “complement the measure of your fathers,” he does not command or encourage them to kill Him, but expresses the following thought: since you are serpents and children of similar fathers, since you are not healed due to your depravity, then try to quickly surpass your fathers, this is what you will do when you kill Me. You will fulfill the full measure of evil by murder, which your fathers lacked. But if you are so evil, how can you avoid punishment?

Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; and some you will kill and crucify, and others you will beat in your synagogues and drive from city to city.

The lie of their words is exposed: “If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have killed the prophets.” Behold, he says, I am sending prophets, wise men and scribes, but you will kill them too. We are talking about the apostles; The Holy Spirit made them teachers, prophets, filled with all wisdom. With the words: “I send” he reveals the power of His Divinity.

May all the righteous blood shed on earth come upon you, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Barachi, whom you killed between the temple and the altar. Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

All the blood unrighteously shed, according to the Lord, should come precisely to the Jews of that time. They will be punished more severely than the fathers, since they did not come to their senses after so many examples; so once Lamech, who lived after Cain, was punished more than him, although he did not kill his brother; He was punished more severely because he did not understand the example of Cain’s punishment. According to the words of the Lord, all the blood will come from Abel to Zechariah. It is not without reason that Abel is mentioned here: he, like Christ, was killed, suffering from envy. But which Zechariah is being mentioned here? Some say that this Zechariah is one of the twelve minor prophets, and according to others, this is the father of the Forerunner. A legend has reached us that there was a special place in the temple where the virgins stood. Zechariah, being the high priest, placed the Mother of God here with the virgins after the birth of Christ from her; The Jews, indignant that he placed the woman who gave birth with the virgins, killed him. It is not surprising if the father of the Forerunner Zechariah’s father was called Barachiah, just as Zechariah the Prophet’s father was called. It is possible that since they themselves were fellow tribesmen, the names of their fathers coincided.

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to you! How often have I wanted to gather your children together, as a bird gathers its chicks under its wings, and you did not want to. Behold, your house is left to you empty. For I say to you, you will not see Me from now on until you cry, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.

Repeats the name of Jerusalem, regretting it and calling on it with compassion. By threatening punishment, the Lord justifies Himself before him, as if before a beloved who neglects her lover; and Jerusalem is accused of murder, because when He Himself repeatedly wanted to have mercy on him, he did not want to. Jerusalem listened to the devil, who distracted him from the truth, and not to the Lord, who called him to heaven, for sin removes sin from God, but integrity of conscience unites with Him. The Lord expresses His love in the image of a bird. But, He says, since you did not want to, I will leave the temple empty. From this we understand that for our sake God also dwells in temples, and when we become hopeless sinners, He leaves the temples too. So, says Christ, you will not see Me until the second coming. Then the Jews, even against their will, will worship Him and say: “Blessed is He who comes.” “From now on” should be understood: from the time of the crucifixion, and not from the hour when this was said. For after this hour the Jews saw Him many more times, but after the crucifixion they no longer saw Him and will not see Him until the time of His second coming comes.