not the burdens with one of your fingers.
47 Woe unto you! for ye build the tombs of the prophets, and your
fathers killed them. 48 So ye are witnesses and consent unto the
works of your fathers: for they killed them, and ye build _their
tombs_. 49 Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send unto
them prophets and apostles; and _some_ of them they shall kill and
persecute; 50 that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed
from the foundation of the world, may be required of this
generation; 51 from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zachariah,
who perished between the altar and the sanctuary: yea, I say unto
you, it shall be required of this generation. 52 Woe unto you
lawyers! for ye took away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in
yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.

53 And when he was come out from thence, the scribes and the
Pharisees began to press upon _him_ vehemently, and to provoke him
to speak of many things; 54 laying wait for him, to catch
something out of his mouth.

The conflict between Jesus and his enemies here reached its climax. He
rebuked their hypocrisy, and pronounced upon them six solemn woes. His
words are full of warning for his followers in all ages; religion ever
tends to become a matter of form and ritual; hypocrisy is often
unconscious; its practice is almost universal.

A Pharisee whose heart was foul with sinful thoughts wondered that Jesus
had sat down to eat without first washing his hands according to the
Jewish ritual. No such ceremony was required by the Law, but only by the
traditions upon which the Pharisees laid such stress. Jesus declared that
to wash the body while the heart is impure is as absurd as to cleanse the
outside of an unclean cup or platter. He declared that God who made the
body created the soul also, and that God is more concerned with the latter
than with the former. He insisted that while it may be well to wash the
hands, a better preparation for a meal would consist in filling the heart
with love, which might be expressed in gifts to the poor. It was much more
important that the Pharisee should take the hatred from his heart, than
that Jesus should wash his hands. Vs. 37-41.

Hypocrisy, however, is ever concerned with external forms while
disregarding realities. Therefore Jesus pronounced a woe upon the
Pharisees for tithing the small garden herbs while neglectin