Matthew 23:14 – The Second Woe to the Pharisees

Matthew 23:14 – “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you devour widows’ houses and for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you will receive the greater condemnation.”

Many religious people and even non-religious people spend a lot of their time helping those who are less fortunate especially those who fall under the description of widows and orphans.  Some of them do it for the right reasons, wanting to help those in need to get back on their feet and live better lives, while others do it just to grab the attention of others, so that they will appear generous and caring.  The motive behind the action differs between different people.  We all can remember the movie/television scenes in which a rich person goes out to the homeless shelter and serves just to get a few community service hours for college or to make a media appearance – no heart for people and no care for anyone but himself.  It didn’t matter that they were doing something good, because we knew that the heart behind it was all wrong.  What really matters is the heart.

In our passage today, the second woe that Jesus spoke against the religious leaders focused on this exact thing – the heart behind something.  These religious leaders did everything they could to appear righteous and holy before the people, but in reality they were just trying to win their affection to gain power and control.  Christ stated that they “devour widows’ houses” and for “a pretense…make long prayers…”  If you think about it carefully, these two actions cannot take place together in an honest fashion, one must be a façade for the other.  Either you are truly making prayers to the God of comfort, love, justice, grace, mercy, and holiness or you are heartlessly taking over a person’s life who is in a disadvantaged situation.  James 1:27 states, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”  If this verse is taken into consideration, it makes no sense to pray long prayers to God when you are doing the exact opposite actions of what He would desire you to do.  These religious leaders were using these long prayers to appear righteous and holy to the people, but in reality, they were just taking advantage of those who could not defend against them.  John Gill, the writer of John Gill’s Expositor, even went so far as to consider that maybe they were taking advantage of these widows in their precarious position by making them pay so that long prayers may be made for them to God, similar to what happened with indulgences in the sixteenth century.  Jesus reprimanded these religious leaders for their pretense and their heart.

We as Christians today must also consider the heart behind which we do things for others and especially for God.  Are we praying and fellowshipping and serving in a ministry just to get attention from people?  Are we just looking to get favor from others and seeking our fulfillment in the applause of men like these Pharisees did?  Are we serving God to “earn His favor” or to “get Him to do something for us” or to “obtain a blessing”?  These are all the wrong reasons.  When we serve the Lord, it must be with a heart fully devoted to Him with no hidden agendas.  We serve Him because we love Him.  We serve others because we love God and want His love to be showed to them tangibly.  What is your heart behind your service?  Always ask yourself this and be wary when serving never to swerve from that final focus of the Lord.  Remember the Lord cares not for outward appearance, for He looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).