Every year, with a view of the coming of the Passover season, the sepulchers were whitened by sprinkling them with lime dust. These were the graves of the poor, and they appeared in the fields and on the sides of the road. Generally, the graves could be found just outside the towns and cities, but, occasionally, there were family gravesites in fields nearer to homes, and there were also those gravesites in unexpected areas, because a body was found in a field, and it was buried at that spot, where it was found. The wealthy had sepulchers carved out of rock, and these were whitewashed each year about a month prior to the Passover. The gravesites were, thus, prepared only recently this season, as folks traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate the Holy Days. So, Jesus’ imagery would have been self-evident. If anyone, even inadvertently, walked on or touched any of these gravesites, he would have been unclean for seven days, and some may not have been able to celebrate the Passover (cp. Numbers 19:16). Making these graves conspicuous, so the pilgrims would avoid inadvertent contact,[1] was an important annual task.
The translators mention the “whited sepulchers” were beautiful (G5611), but I think that rendering misses the point. The general intention wasn’t meant to beautify the gravesites, but to expose them to an undiscerning Jewish pilgrim on his way to worship at Jerusalem.[2] The sight of them was welcome and timely, not in the sense that folks were attracted to them, vis-à-vis their beauty, but to identify them as “unclean” so they could be avoided, and this is Jesus’ point in likening them to the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 23:27). The Jewish authorities weren’t necessarily beautiful, but they served a useful or desirable purpose. They identified and warned about things that were legally “unclean” and should be avoided. That was their task, and, like the whited sepulchers, they did it well. Nevertheless, they, themselves, were “unclean” full of death within, vis-à-vis the “dead men’s bones.”
What a contradiction! In Romans 10:15, one of the four places, where the Greek word (G5611) can be found in the New Covenant text, quotes a scripture: “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!” (Isaiah 52:7). Yet, the scribes and Pharisees, although they fulfill a desirable function, are to be avoided by anyone, who wishes to be clean or pure of purpose. Yes, “…observe and do whatever they bid you to observe,” however, “don’t (imitate) their works!” (Matthew 23:2). Therefore, their appearance of righteousness is only in what can be observed with one’s eyes. They serve a righteous purpose, but their motives, their hearts condemn them. They are hypocrites whose outward practices doesn’t imitate their evil and unclean hearts (Matthew 23:28).
Fine, one might say, but what does this have to do with us today? We don’t embrace the worldview that, if we visit the gravesite of a loved one, we couldn’t go to worship services that day or the following day. What has any of this to do with modern Christianity?
Jesus described the religious authorities of his day as hypocrites, as folks that said one thing but did another, as folks who weren’t really what they made themselves out to be. For the sake of argument let’s say today’s denominational Christianity is nothing more than believers dressed up in religious clothing. One could change his Catholic clothes, for example, for Lutheran clothes and again for Baptist’s or Evangelical garments. Thus, the religious clothing answers to the whited or whitewash on the tombs, which “instructed” or “forewarned” the unsuspecting worshiper. What did Jesus command his followers to do? Didn’t he command them to make disciples of all nations, teaching them to do as Jesus said should be done? (Matthew 28:19-20)? What does this mean? Well, one thing it doesn’t mean is, preaching to folks who are already disciples (Romans 15:20-21; cp. Isaiah 52:15), just so you could gain a following or increase your numbers. The Jewish authorities were interested in increasing their numbers and their political power and wealth, more than they desired to help the poor or teach righteousness to new converts (Matthew 23:14-22). It would be a dishonest thing to do, to increase one’s own wealth (disciples) by stealing from another religious organization, vis-à-vis take away church members of one denomination in order to increase the wealth and power of one’s own church/denomination. That is hypocritical, and, according to Jesus, a woeful and unclean (impure) thing to do.[3]
[1] See Robertson’s Word Pictures and Vincent’s Word Studies for Matthew 23:27.
[2] The Greek word (G5611) is used only four times in the New Covenant text: here, at Acts 3:2 and again in verse-10, and finally at Romans 10:15. It the Septuagint it appears more often. It is translated from the Hebrew word rendered in the text as: fair, pleasant, beautiful, strength, majesty, among other words. The point is the seasonable whitening the gravesites should hardly be understood as beautiful. A better translation would be seasonable, timely or even desirable, in my opinion. The point of their whitening is not to beautify but to expose or make known.
[3] If all we do is preach to the choir and from time-to-time exchange choir members, no new disciples are ever made, and Jesus’ command to make (new) disciples, never gets obeyed or fulfilled.
Leave a Reply