YE ARE LIKE UNTO WHITED SEPULCHRES

Today’s reading is a calculated critique by the Lord of the scribes and Pharisees for their hypocrisy. With methodical care, he exposes their audacious deception and exploitation of those who could not recognize their double standards.

The particular sin associated with the metaphor we are con­sidering here is that of conveying an appearance that is admirable, but which does not reflect the inner reality of our condition. It is easy to understand why this was detestable to our Lord as it was the polar opposite of His character.

It was customary for burial places to be whitewashed so that they could be readily identified and avoided. This was to safe­guard against becoming ceremonially contaminated by contact with the dead. The Lord likened the Pharisees to unmarked graves with which travellers could inadvertently come into con­tact, Luke 11. 44. He upbraids them for the hidden danger they represented to the unsuspecting. Here the inference is different.

The display of their fake righteousness was as highly visible as whitened sepulchres. To the onlooker, this had a certain attractiveness. Our God is not taken in by such a facade, ‘Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart’, 1 Sam. 16. 7. The Pharisees were content with receiving the recognition of men. They certainly were not humbled by the realization that ‘the heart is deceitful above all things, and des­perately wicked’, Jer. 17. 9.

Such was the system that they had developed, the true real­ity of things as they were had become hidden by the structure they had erected. E. M. Blaiklock describes the condition of the Pharisees thus, ‘As so often happens in the institutions of men, sincerity gave place to formalism, and zeal for the law degener­ated into a passion for legality. Rigidity breeds pride and pride destroys sincerity’. May God preserve us from this!

There is a strange fascination with man for elaborate memo­rials for the dead. Whether they are pyramids, burial mounds or mausoleums, they are all alike in that they are ‘full of dead men’s bones’. For those whose faith rests in a risen Lord, the appeal of Joseph’s new sepulchre lies in its emptiness.