Matthew 23:25-26 25“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup so that the outside also may be clean.
This fifth woe repeats some of the earlier problems of the scribes and Pharisees but with the new image of eating utensils. These Jews were very careful in cleaning the outside of a cup and bowl but not the inside. A cup and dish or bowl were the basic eating utensils for most people. The image clearly shows hypocrisy for being concerned about outward appearances but neglecting issues of the heart. They were concerned about what others see and had forgotten to remember that God looks on the inside and knows peoples’ true motives.
The image Jesus depicts is humorous, with shiny clean outsides but with dirty insides filled with muck. This filth came from greed, which can be translated as plunder or robbery, and self-indulgence, which is a lack of self-control. Apparently the scribes and Pharisees gave their token tithes but were getting rich at the expense of others. They were charlatans at religion, perhaps an early form of televangelists. They were selfish and make themselves comfortable with excess. They were blind to their problem. A blurring of vision can come so slowly over time that a person does not realize it.
They had lost sight of true religion, which is a matter of the heart. Jesus gives them the simple solution in verse 26: clean the inside, and then the outside will be clean. Deal with the most important matter first. Jesus does not say that the outside is not important, for it is. How we live and love our neighbor are of utmost importance. But our behavior indicates our thinking and values. We can fake holiness for a while, but by doing this, our hearts will become hardened and we will become self-focused, even reaching the point of the scribes and Pharisees with greedy self-indulgence.
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