Luke 11:42-44 42“But woe to you Pharisees, because you tithe mint and rue and every garden herb and neglect justice and the love of God. And these you ought to have done and not to neglect the others. 43Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. 44Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, and people who walk over them do not know it.”
Jesus next gives the Pharisee and his guests examples of ways they had missed God’s purposes for them. These woes are some of the saddest words in the New Testament. A woe in the Bible is an expression of judgment and negative outcome for certain behaviors or lack thereof. Luke records more woes than the other Gospels (14). There are six in this chapter, in two pairs of three interrupted by a lawyer in verse 45.
The first woe pronounces judgment upon the Pharisees for doing their religious tithing but neglecting to care for justice and love. They gave attention to tithing even their small spices and herbs. They over-interpreted the commands in Leviticus 27:30–33 and Deuteronomy 14:22–29. Tithing should be a sign of one’s love for God and God’s work and not a sign of one’s religious piety. The Pharisees’ problem was neglect of the poor. Their tithing was not wrong, as Jesus notes. This is one of the few references Jesus made to the importance of tithing. They should have been faithful with all that God gave them, but they had things backwards. They were essentially being hypocrites. It is significant that Jesus puts justice and loving God together. One way to show one’s love for God is to make sure everyone is treated fairly and that justice and righteousness are followed.
The second woe addresses the Pharisees’ desire to be first and to receive honor. They wanted people to see them. In an honor/shame culture, receiving honor also brought power, control, and influence. Jesus repeats this idea in 20:46. Jesus taught a different way of honor. Those who wanted to be first would do so by be last. This type of first place is not to stand before people to receive honor but to one day stand before God and receive his honor. The paradox of the kingdom is that God desires humble service done in secret, not to be political to get people’s vote or vie for power.
The third woe is more difficult to interpret because it is stated as a simile. Jesus compares the Pharisees to unmarked graves. People do not know a particular spot is a grave unless it has a marker. An unmarked grave contains death, but no one knows it. The Pharisees were dead on the inside, like white-washed tombs, as Matthew records in a parallel passage (Matthew 23:27-28). To be near a grave could make a person ceremonial unclean (Numbers 9:6-10; Leviticus 21:1-4). The Pharisees were like death that could actually people unclean instead of bringing them closer to God.
These accusations were significant and showed the spiritual emptiness of these so-called religious elite from among the Jews of the time. Their struggle was that they got caught up in the doing of religion and not the being in relationship with God and with others. Their priorities were all mixed up. Religious piety can be a help to spiritual growth but not a substitute for it.
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