Daily Devotional For Monday, February 9, 2026
Good day Southside. We are making our way through the Gospel of Matthew and today we come to Matthew 23. Because Jesus has much to say in this chapter that is the whole chapter, we are going to break it down into parts. Today, we are entering into the section that is called the “8 woes” because Jesus begins each one with the word “woe.”Some do not include the “woe” in Matthew 23:14 because it is not in the oldest manuscripts of Matthew. It was added later because this verse is found in Mark 12:40 and Luke 20:47. At some time it was incorporated into Matthew 23. We are going to take each of these “woes” individually. Today, we come to the 6th/7th “woe” in Matthew 23:27-28:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. (28) So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (NASB).
Some count this as the 6th “woe” but if you include verse 14, which is often omitted, then, it is the 7th “woe.” Before the week of Passover, it was customary for Jews to go to cemeteries and clean up the graves of loved ones that were located by the roads leading into Jerusalem. The wealthy had caves carved into the side of a hill such as Lazaurs and Joseph of Arimathea and others had simple graves. With so many pilgrims coming to Jerusalem for Passover, if you stepped on a grave you were considered ceremonially unclean for seven days. Pilgrims coming to Jerusalem would not know where these graves were especially if weeds and brush had grown up around them. So, Jews in and around Jerusalem would make a form of bleach and whitewash these graves so that these pilgrims could see them.
While these grave markers looked beautiful on the outside the whitewashing did nothing nor could it change the rotting, decaying and corrupting corpses buried beneath them. Jesus uses this as a lesson to show the contrast between external cleanliness and internal cleanliness. The Jewish religious leaders were like these whitewashed tombs — shiny and clean on the outside but spiritually dead, decaying and corrupt on the inside. The religious leaders were like skeletons with decaying and rotting flesh that had been dug up whose stench was nauseating.
If you have ever driven by a veteran or military cemetery and seen all the whitewashed grave markers, it is impressive. However impressive these cemeteries are in their beauty, they all have one thing in common – dead, decaying, and rotting corpses of soldiers. These Pharisees who claimed to be adherents to the Mosaic law were hypocrites because they were guilty of lawlessness to it. Jesus’ warning applies to us as well. A coat of paint can cover up the flaws but the flaws are still there, though hidden.
Jesus called the religious leaders hypocrites. What is so dangerous about them is that they can’t see themselves as everyone else sees them – living a double standard. This is why Jesus called them “blind”’ and “blind guides.” I conclude this from New Testament scholar Daniel M. Doriani writes on this:
“Imagine that a man awakens one day with severe chest pain. The pain persists, so the man visits his doctor. The doctor’s tests show an aortic aneurysm that could rupture at any time, causing rapid death. Suppose that the diagnostician is a sensitive man. He hates to see people shattered by bad news; he can hardly bear to announce it. So he calls the man in. “Sir, I can see why you are in pain,” he says. “You have a condition that arises from time to time. It ordinarily resolves itself naturally and after it does, you will feel no pain.”
Such kindness is the height of irresponsibility, especially if a surgical procedure can rectify the defect. It is painful to bring the true diagnosis and painful to endure surgery, but both are necessary if the patient is to survive. So the good physician, learning that a patient has an aneurysm, reveals the bad news. He does not think, “If I say anything, my patient will be upset. He will think I’m a negative person.” No, the good physician plainly declares the dark truth and presents the plan for a cure.
Spiritual physicians must do the same. Spiritual rebellion has consequences. Jesus is loving and gentle, but not sentimental. When he sees problems, he addresses them. He “knew what was in a man” (John 2:25). The Father commissioned him to judge all flesh (Matt. 16:27; Matt. 25:31-46). If judgment is coming, it is loving and compassionate to say so.
Judgment and wrath are unpopular in the polls these days. But poll results change; the truth does not. Distaste for talk of wrath links closely with a love of the word “grace” among Christians and other groups. Unfortunately, overuse of the word “grace” has led to erosion of its meaning. We use the term to describe kindness or favor or even social skill. But in the Bible, grace is a complex concept. It means favor that is undeserved because of sin. Saving grace is favor the Lord specifically extends to His foes” (Source: Daniel M. Doriani, Reformed Expository Commentary, “Matthew,” pp. 336-337).
In the Garden of Eden we were friends with God. After sin entered the world we were and still are foes against God. Grace is what God gives us. The Pharisees sadly believed they were on God’s team and friends with God when in reality, they were on the opposing team. They were unaware they had a spiritual aneurysm.
Jesus, the Great Physician, gave them their diagnosis. General Patton once said this: “No one ever won a war by dying for his country; he won by making the enemy die for his country.” Jesus knew the greatest thing to do was not to kill us spiritually, but through grace bring us to His side, to His team. Jesus aims not to destroy His human foes, but to win them.
Reflection Assignment: What spiritual diagnosis is Jesus the Great Physician giving you today? Where are you hypocritical? Where do you live a double-standard? Do you tell your family to live one way and you live different from that? When you go to church or into the world, do you polish yourself up to look good to be seen by others? What in your life stinks before the Lord? If Jesus were to remove the veneer, what would others really see in you?
Scripture To Meditate On: Luke 11:44, “Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it” (ESV).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, help me to see myself as I am before You. I do not want to be spiritually blind, spiritually dying nor spiritually arrogant. I fall at Your feet and seek Your mercy, forgiveness and grace. Help me to be more like You every day. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly