Jesus did not hate the religious leaders because they were frauds, counterfeits and hypocrites. Because He loved them, He warned them that they had to change or face God's wrath. It may seem that Matthew is spending too long on the 7x 'woes' in Matthew 23:1-39, but he knew that the leaders of the early church (including the disciples who were trainee apostles) must not fall into the same error (Matthew 16:11).

God is the life-giver. His Word is the 'Word of life' (Philippians 2:16), which is also one of the Names of the Lord Jesus Christ (1 John 1:1). The reason Jesus came to earth is to lead people from death to life (John 5:24). The spiritual leaders of His day should have been helping in that task. Instead, they did not, because they could not. The Pharisees were spiritually dead: unable to respond to God's Word and unable to bring life to others.

Calling somebody, especially a respected community figure, a 'whitewashed tomb' was socially insulting. But it was true. Their religious robes, posture, speaking voice and paternalistic attitude to the people made them look 'beautiful'. But they had no spiritual life in them. Jesus went further; not only were they dead but they were full of uncleanness – rotting, infectious and deadly to anything that was alive. The evidence of that is that they campaigned to kill Jesus and, later, Saul the Pharisee (who became Paul the Apostle) persecuted the church (Acts 9:1-2).

‘Wickedness’ is a word we do not like to associate with ourselves. We reserve it for really bad people. But the truth is that it lurks in all of us: even the Apostle Paul admitted that it was in him also (Romans 7:18-19). However, when those who are in Christ Jesus, including church leaders, know they have the problem … they must ask the Lord to deal with it (Romans 7:24-25). It does not have to be their master (Romans 6:14). But people who trade on their religious credentials and allow wickedness to breed within them, face God's wrath because they cannot bring His life to others. It is a wake-up call for all of us, especially those who have any spiritual responsibility. Let us examine ourselves, repenting of wickedness and allowing the Lord to clean us and bring us to life in areas where we are dead - useless to Him and other people.