While Jesus was teaching, one of the Pharisees in the crowd asked him to come have dinner with him.
Jesus accepted the invitation and entered his home. When the Pharisee saw that Jesus did not wash his hands before sitting down to eat he was amazed.
Jesus said to him:
You Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and plate, but the inward parts are full of greed and wickedness.
You fools! Didn’t the one who made the outside also make the inside? Give your inner life as an offering and everything is clean.
But woe to you Pharisees! You tithe with an exactness that is so precise that you give the tenth part of a seed or a herb.
But you ignore doing justice to others and loving God. Those are the things you should be giving, and not the other.
Woe to you Pharisees! You love the important seats in the synagogues and fancy greetings in the marketplace.
Woe to you! You are like tombs that have been whitewashed on the outside but are full of corruption and dead bones on the inside.
One of the lawyers who was listening, said to Jesus, Aren’t you being hasty in your condemnation?
Jesus said to him:
Woe to you lawyers also! You load up men with burdens too heavy to carry, while you will not lift a finger to carry your own burdens.
Woe to you! You decorate the tombs of the prophets that your fathers killed. So you are witnesses and agree with the works of your fathers. Your fathers killed the prophets and you decorate their tombs.
Jesus then summarized the words spoken by the prophets of old and said:
I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute. The blood of the prophets, which was shed from the beginning of the world, will be required of this generation.
From the blood of Abel to the blood of Zacharia, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary, yes, I say to you, it will be required of this generation.
Woe to you lawyers! You took away the key to understanding Scripture. You didn’t even use the key to enter into the kingdom yourself and you make it difficult for others to enter.
When Jesus was finished speaking, he left the building. The scribes and the Pharisees pressed hard against him to try and provoke him to say something that they could use against him.
