The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1914-02-13

would be acceptable
to God. i.".,. 80 NJ" ''
A Pharisee invit-
ed Jesus to dine at his house. Jesus
passed in and sat down without the
Journalism of washing, customary to
the Pharisees. The host thought of
Jesus as holy man. and remarked
that 1t was strange that He had not
washed. Jesus then pointed out that
much of what even the hottest Jews
practised was merely ceremony. not
true religion. Outwardly they were
clean. but inwardly their hearts were
unclean-given to extortion-spiritual
wickedness. In Gods sight the heart
is the important matter. The inside of
the cup should first be cleansed.
From our Lords expressions. appar'
emily one Of the Pharisees' great fail
ings was covetousness. According to
the Greek. Jesus called them money
lovers" Once He told them that this
covetousness led them dishonesty to
disregard others rights. He said. I'VE
devour widows houses" meaning that
they took advantage If widows to ac-
cumulate property for themselves. APP
parently many Pharisees were rich.
Jesus pointed out that with such
wrong heart conditions God could not
be pleased. even though they ever so
carefully observed the outward regu-
lations of tie Jewish Law. While they
were particular to 1.-THE even the small
seed of which they grew but trifiing
quantity. yet they neglected the weight
Ter matters Of the I.aw-to deal justly
and to love merey. .,'s,s o....,. ,l
.7gA nohariseei Invites Jesus to Dine. g
Their covptousness took the form OF
pride. as wei! rs dishonesty, They
wanted to be very prominent in things
religious and to be hailed rs Rabbi
master. learned one Jesus declared
that they were like sepulchres. ont
wardly clean and whitewashed but
inwardly full of corruption. They
were holiness people merely in the
outward form or ceremonial.
Some of the Pharisees. especially ed
ucated. well-versed in the Scriptures.
were styled lawyers-Doctors of the
Law. equivalent of what today are
termed Doctors of Divinity. Jesus
upbraided them. saying that they
placed grievous burdens upon the COM
mon people,. which they themselves
would not bear. He meant that they
gave such hard interpretations of
Gods Law MS discouraged the people
setting before them standards of per
lection which they themselves did not
try to live up to. Apparently they
wished to impress the people with the
sanctity OF the clergy They built sep
ulchres for the Prophets. forgetful that
their fathers. whose spirit they had.
were the ones who killed those Prophets.
Woe! Woe! Woe! Woe! Woe!
We are not to think of Jesus as con-
demning the Pharisees to eternal tor
ment. or as intimntng that this would
be the woe coming upon them. The
woe was that the Pharisees were
about to miss the great blessing which
God had promised lsrael-chief asso
citation in Messiahs Kingdom. Gen
esis 22:lS, Had there been enough rs
raelites indeed" TO complete Gods fore
ordained Elect. the Kingdom offer
would not have gone TO the GentileS.
The Phnrisecs were in the most ia
vored place for attaining joint-heir-
ship with Messiah: but they recognized
not what they were losing. Jesus en-
preston. Woe unto you," Is therefore
to be regarded sympathetically This
thought is borne out by the context.
which foretells the great time Of trou