Matthew 23:25-39 “How Will You Escape” (The Last 3 Woes)

Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 07 July 2013

Translation

23:23 Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,

because y’all are tithing your mint and your dill and your cumin, yet y’all are

letting go of the weightier matters of the law: the justice and the mercy and the faithfulness.

Now, it was necessary to do these things, while not letting go of those things either.

23:24 Blind trail-guides who strain out the gnat but swallow down the camel!”

23:25 “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,

because y’all are cleaning the exterior of the cup and of the saucer,

but interiorly they are loaded with stealing and injustice .

23:26 Blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and the saucer

in order that the outside of them might also become clean.

23:27 Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,

because y’all are comparable to whitewashed tombs, which have a beautiful exterior shine,

but interiorly are loaded with dead men’s bones and every [kind of] unclean thing.

23:28 In this way you yourselves also make a shining exterior appearance as righteous to men,

but interiorly y’all are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

23:29 Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,

because y’all are building edifices for the tombs of the prophets

and decorating the memorials of the righteous men,

23:30 and y’all are saying, ‘If we were in the days of our fathers,

we would not have been participants with them in the blood of the prophets.’

23:31 Thus y’all are testifying among yourselves

that you are sons of the ones who murdered the prophets.

23:32 So start filling out the standard of your fathers, y’all!

23:33 Snakes! Offspring of vipers! However can you escape the sentence of hell?

23:34 Look, it’s because of this that I myself am commissioning prophets and sages and scribes to y’all,

[yet] y’all will kill and crucify [some] of them,

and [some] of them y’all will whip in your synagogues and hunt down from city to city,

23:35 such that all the righteous blood shed upon the earth shall come upon y’all –

from the blood of Abel the righteous

up through the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah

(who was murdered between the temple and the altar).

23:36 Really, I’m telling y’all that all these things will arrive upon this generation.

23:37 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones the men who have been sent her.

How often I wanted to gather up your children

in the way that a hen gathers up her [own] chicks under her wings,

yet y’all did not want [it].

23:38 Look, y’all’s deserted house is being left with you,

23:39 for I am telling y’all that you are never going to see me from now on,

until whenever y’all start saying that the One who comes in the name of the Lord is blessed.

Introduction

We’re in the middle of the woes which Jesus pronounced on the scribes and Pharisees.
Remember that woes were part of the ministry of the prophets in particular^{^[1]}, and Jesus is acting in the role of the greatest Prophet.
The first five woes (or four if your Bible follows the United Bible Society text), which we looked at previously are about how false religionists harm other people:

Shutting out the kingdom of heaven to people and not entering ourselves,
(Devouring widow’s houses while pretending to pray long prayers,)
Making proselytes into double hellions,
Breaking promises and teaching others to do so with impunity,
And neglecting justice, mercy, and faithfulness, the most important parts of God’s word.

Now the last three woes have more to do with how false religion warps the one who practices it personally.
Woe #6 has do with one of these: [Display drinking glass] This glass has been thoroughly cleaned. In fact, I ran it on the “sanitize” cycle of our dishwasher, so it is not only clean, it is completely germ-free. Here, I will even wipe it with Germex hand sanitizer. “Kills 99.99% of germs!” Well, I do have a confession to make. This morning, after I took it out of the washer, I killed a fly that had been buzzing around our cat’s litter box, and I put the dead fly into this glass. But here, I can spit into the glass and take care of that. Now, how many of you would like to take a drink of water out of this glass? Nobody? Why not?
In the 6^th Woe, Jesus warns us not to let our lives be like that glass that’s clean on the outside but icky on the inside:

Exegesis

23:25 “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because y’all are cleaning the exterior of the cup and of the saucer, but interiorly they are loaded with stealing and injustice [or indulgence³].

Ουαι ‘υμιν γραμματεις και Φαρισαιοι ‘υποκριται ‘οτι ‘καθαριζετε το εξωθεν⁴ του ποτηριου και της παροψιδος^{^[2]} εσωθεν⁴ δε γεμουσιν εξ ‘αρπαγης και αδικιας^{^[3]}

Jesus used some of the same words back in Mt. 7:15 to warn his disciples to “Stay away from the false prophets, which come to y’all in sheep’s clothing, but inside they are [sheep-] snatching wolves.” There’s a world of difference between what they look like on the outside and the way they are on the inside.
Their “greed^NIV,ESV” has led to actual plunder of the poor. If you look inside that cup, it is “loaded down” (gemousin – not the usual Greek word for “full” – it is a special word used for loading up a caravan of camels – Gen. 37:25, or a ship – 2 Chron. 9:21, or a truck – Amos 2:13). The Pharisees are loaded with the things they have extorted^KJV from widows and robbed^NASB from parents and others.

The Pharisees of Jesus day were like Babylon the harlot mentioned in Rev. 17:4-5 who had “in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality” (NASB)
They are like the wicked person in Psalm 10:7 whose mouth is loaded/full of curses and deceit and oppression; Under his tongue is mischief and wickedness.
This is very similar to one of Isaiah’s woe passages in chapter 10: “Woe to them that write wicked [laws]… perverting the cause of the poor, violently wresting the judgment of the needy ones of my people, that the widow may be a prey to them, and the orphan a spoil. And what will they do in the day of visitation? for affliction shall come to you from afar: and to whom will ye flee for help?” (Brenton)

When God looks at us, He evaluates our thoughts and our feelings:

Heb. 4:12 “for the living word of God is… a judge of the inner desires and inner thoughts of the heart.” (NAW)
Rev. 2:23 “…I myself am the One who searches minds and hearts…” (NAW)
So we need our inner heart and attitudes – the inside of our glass to be clean:

23:26 Blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and the saucer in order that the outside of them might also become clean.

Φαρισαιε τυφλε καθαρισον πρωτον το εντος^{^[4]} του ποτηριου και της παροψιδος^{^[5]} ‘ινα γενηται και το εκτος⁴ αυτων^{^[6]} καθαρον.

I was struck by Chrysostom’s application of dealing with sins of the heart. Around the year 400, he wrote, “What doest thou, O man? Art thou curiously looking after women’s beauty …in God’s temple, when God Himself is discoursing unto thee, and threatening about these things, thou art committing whoredom and adultery at the very time in which thou art being told not to do this. And dost thou not shudder, nor stand amazed? … But these things arise from the [women’s] decking of themselves, and their luxury… The… business of women used to be to spread the word; but now it is to appear beauteous, and fair, and comely in countenance.” Wow, things haven’t changed much in the last 1600 years!
Remember Peter’s admonition to the women? “Your adornment must not be merely external--braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God.” (1 Pet. 3:3, NASB)
This kind of change doesn’t come from the outside in; it comes from inside out:

That’s one thing that non-Christians can’t seem to understand. Atheists and Muslims work hard to impose outward conformity on people, but it doesn’t fix the evil in their hearts, and their religions fail to fix the problems in the world.
We are not basically good people, corrupted by our environment, in need of nothing more than a stay in the right community to change us. Evil comes out of our hearts like hairballs from a cat, it’s just the way we are.

If we are harbouring sin in our hearts, no amount of cleaning up our outward act is going to cut it with God. It’s off to the lake of fire on judgment day. We must ask God to clean up the mess inside ourselves, including our bad attitudes, and say good riddance to that junk if we want to enjoy God’s blessings.^{^[7]}

Woe #7

23:27 Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because y’all are comparable to whitewashed tombs, which have a beautiful exterior shine, but interiorly are loaded with dead men’s bones and every [kind of] unclean thing.

Ουαι ‘υμιν γραμματεις και Φαρισαιοι ‘υποκριται ‘οτι παρομοιαζετε^{^[8]} ταφοις κεκονιαμενοις ‘οιτινες εξωθεν μεν φαινονται ‘ωραιοι εσωθεν δε γεμουσιν οστεων νεκρων και πασης ακαθαρσιας

Back in Bible times, the Jews buried their dead in caves, and there might be many different bodies buried in any one of these sepulchers.
But in order to make it easier to find it if you wanted to bury someone – or to avoid if you wanted to stay ceremonially clean, they would mix lime dust with water and paint the rocks.
So the exterior was this shiny clean, white plaster, but inside was rotting corpses and bones. I can see my wife pulling out the Germex to wash her hands just thinking about it.
Numbers 19:16 said that any Jew who touched a dead body or a human bone, or even the walls of one of these burial caves would be unclean for a whole week!
Now, the Greek word phainw includes the meanings of two English words: “shine” and “appear,”

and in the first couple of chapters of the Gospel of Matthew, this word is used to describe angels and stars making a shining appearance (1:20; 2:7; 2:13; 2:19).
Later on in this chapter 23 the word is used to describe how Jesus’ second coming will flash across the sky like lightening (23:27).
Well, here in v. 27, Jesus says the Pharisees want to get in on this act,
and the same word was used of them in Matt. 6:5 when they wanted to make a shining appearance with men, “…you shall not be like the hypocrites that love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets in order that they might be put in the limelight by men…”

23:28 In this way you yourselves also make a shining exterior appearance as righteous to men, but interiorly y’all are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

‘ουτως και ‘υμεις εξωθεν μεν φαινεσθε τοις ανθρωποις δικαιοι εσωθεν δε μεστοι εστε ‘υποκρισεως και ανομιας.

Now Jesus turns the tables on the usefulness of the conspicuous ostentation of the Pharisees. He says, “These guys are easy to see now, so you can avoid them!” Those long tassels and oversized phylacteries and long-winded prayers are all bright warning signs that say, “Danger, stay away – this one will make you unclean if you get too close!” Can you think of anything more horrible than BEING that disgusting thing that everybody pulls out their Germex around?
Hypocrisy and lawlessness (a-nomia, also translated “iniquity” by the KJV and “wickedness” by the NIV) is disregard for the law of God. It can make a person a contagious sinner, because the heart of every human who is not united to Christ is naturally rebellious to God and longs to be told that it is o.k. to ignore God’s law and do your own thing.
However, there is hope. There is one other place in the Bible which was said to be “full” of human “bones,” remember that story? The scribes would have. It was the valley in Ezekiel’s vision, chapter 37. Perhaps this is an intentional allusion to remind Jesus’ hearers that their disgusting uncleanness doesn’t have to be the end of the story. God’s Spirit could breathe on their dry bones and bring them to life again if they would “heed the word of the Lord.”

Woes #6 and 7 are similar, with the recognition that without a clean heart and without spiritual life on the inside, we are cursed, no matter how good we look on the outside. Now, Woe #8 points even more clearly to the cure:

23:29 Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because y’all are building edifices for the tombs of the prophets and decorating the memorials of the righteous men,

Ουαι ‘υμιν γραμματεις και Φαρισαιοι ‘υποκριται ‘οτι οικοδομειτε τους ταφους των προφητων και κοσμειτε τα μνημεια των δικαιων

The two words in this verse for burial places of prophets and of righteous men are synonyms, translated “tombs,” “sepulchers,” “monuments,” “or “graves”^{^[9]}.
John Gill, in his Bible commentary, wrote up a list of where the burial places could be found:

Of prophets like Adam, Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, David (Acts 2:29) – and Gad his seer, Isaiah, Hulda, Haggai, Zechariah, Zephaniah, Obadiah, Jonah, Habakkuk, and Ezekiel,
as well as the burial places of “righteous persons” like Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah, Elkanna and Hannah (Samuel’s parents), Joshua and Caleb, Eleazar and Ithamar and Phinehas the priests, Jael, Shamgar, and Esther’s Uncle Mordecai.

Marvin Vincent, in his Word Studies on the New Testament, explained that out of concern for all the travelers coming in to town for the holiday week, the priests ordered that every burial place be marked with whitewash, a month before Passover, so that guests could avoid them and stay ceremonially clean for the week’s festivities. Vincent went on to say, “[It] has been conjectured, the Pharisees were engaged in constructing the tombs of Zechariah and Absalom at the time that the Lord addressed them, and that the chambered sepulchres of James and Jehoshaphat, lying between those two, were the sepulchres which they were [“garnishing^KJV/ adorning^NAS,NKJ/ decorating^{NIV,ESV”^{^[10]}}] at their entrances.”
[Show photos of exterior structure and interior decorations at Machpelah.]
Now, there is nothing necessarily wrong with creating memorials so that you remember great things God did in history and exemplary followers of God. The problem is this:

23:30 and y’all are saying, ‘If we were in the days of our fathers, we would not have been participants with them in the blood of the prophets.’

και λεγετε Ει ημεν^{^[11]} εν ταις ‘ημεραις των πατερων ‘ημων ουκ αν ημεν κοινωνοι αυτων εν τω ‘αιματι των προφητων.

“Blood” is a euphemism here for murder.
In 1Kings 18:4, the Biblical history tells us that Ahab and Jezebel, the king and queen of Israel tried to slaughter all the prophets of God and replace them with false prophets salaried with royal funds. Elijah escaped by fleeing the country, and 100 more prophets escaped by hiding in caves (cf. 2 Kings 9:7, Rev. 16:6).
The Pharisees bragged that they would never have treated God’s prophets like that… but, wait a minute, how had they treated John the Baptizer in his prophecies? And what were they trying to do with Jesus? Here, then, is why they were hypocrites.

23:31 Thus y’all are testifying [bearing witness] among yourselves that you are sons of the ones who murdered the prophets.

‘Ωστε μαρτυρειτε ‘εαυτοις ‘οτι ‘υιοι εστε των φονευσαντων τους προφητας

It would be meaningless for Jesus to go to any effort to prove to the Pharisees that they were descendents^NIV of the kings of Israel. They already knew that, and it didn’t imply any problem.
Instead, I think Jesus is using a play on words where the figurative meaning of the word “sons” means something more than the literal meaning does. In Middle Eastern languages, to be a “son of” something can be taken figuratively to mean that you share in its characteristics, for instance:

A “son of the desert” is a Bedouin whose life is characterized by life in the desert.
And James and John are called the “Sons of thunder” (Mark 3:17) not because their dad was a lightening bolt but because they had energetic personalities that reminded Jesus of lightening.^{^[12]}
So I think here Jesus is saying, “Not only are you descended from the kings of Israel, but you share in the same character of those who murdered the prophets^{^[13]}.”

“The world in general… devises a means of worshipping God’s shadow in place of God: just so it plays a game over the prophets. The Papacy gives shining proof of this.” ~John Calvin
I was listening a few days ago to a song written by one of my kid’s friends that goes, “There stood a soldier with his back to me; he held a hammer in his tightened hand, and I saw Jesus at his feet, and I said, ‘Soldier, why did you nail my Savior to that cross? He was innocent, don’t you know, He was the Son of God!’ And then he turned to me, and our eyes met, and through the tears I could see that soldier was me.” (Mitch Froemming, “Soldier” from the album, Willing Heart)
Next, Jesus issues a curious command to the Pharisees:

23:32 So start filling out the standard of your fathers, y’all!

και ‘υμεις πληρωσατε το μετρον των πατερων ‘υμων.

The plural “you” is emphatic, referring, I think, to the Pharisees, in distinction from Jesus’ followers.
What was the “measure” of their fathers?

The NAS and KJV translations add the word “guilt” to explain it. Fair enough.
According to the prophet Zechariah, the “measure” was sin. Zech. 5:6 And I said, “What is it?” And he said, “This is the measure that goes forth.” And he said, “This is their iniquity in all the earth.” (Brenton, cf. unjust “measures” in Amos 8:5)
The NIV translators made a good call, but I wish they had put the phrase “the sin of” in brackets to show that the words are added.

In our English idiom, we could say Jesus is commanding^{^[14]} them to “fill the shoes of^{^[15]}” their ancestors and kill more prophets.
Now, this command would have the opposite effect on anyone who didn’t really want any more of God’s prophets murdered. Anyone with a heart that loves God should respond by saying, “Whoa; are there sins that I am totally blind to? I need to make a clean break with whatever messed-up cultural values and evil standards of judgment that my forefathers had so that I don’t fall into their sins – Lord, please save me from repeating the same mistakes of my fathers!”
However, the rank and file of Pharisees were not oriented toward repentance, and they inadvertently obeyed Jesus’ command by having Him crucified a few days later. That’s why Jesus says:

23:33 Snakes! Offspring of vipers! However can you escape the sentence of hell^{^[16]}?

Οφεις γεννηματα εχιδνων πως φυγητε απο της κρισεως της γεεννης;

Jesus is repeating the words of John the Baptizer to the Pharisees. He’s going back to the beginning of God’s word to this particular generation. “Offspring of vipers, who revealed it to y’all to flee from the impending wrath? Produce fruit therefore in keeping with repentance.’” (Matt. 3:8, NAW)
Not only is the Pharisee’s brand of religion contagiously defiling – like an unwashed cup or a tomb full of dead bones, it is a dangerous threat, like a poisonous snake whose bite means death.
“How can you escape damnation^KJV?” The question^{^[17]} is a good one, which we should all ask ourselves: “Is there any way that I might escape from being condemned^NIV,NKJ to hell? Is there anywhere I can flee to be safe from the judgment of God?”
Hold that thought; I want to come back to it.

23:34 Look, it’s because of this that I myself am commissioning prophets and sages and scribes to y’all, [yet] y’all will kill and crucify [some] of them, and [some] of them y’all will whip [flog/scourge] in your synagogues and [persecute] hunt down from city to city,

Δια τουτο ιδου εγω αποστελλω προς ‘υμας προφητας και σοφους και γραμματεις [και^{^[18]}] εξ αυτων αποκτενειτε και σταυρωσετε και εξ αυτων μαστιγωσετε εν ταις συναγωγαις ‘υμων και διωξετε απο πολεως εις πολιν

Most English translations start with the word “therefore.” What’s the “therefore” there for?

“Because” you are “snakes” with no hope of heaven, Jesus says, He is sending messengers to bring the good news that He came to save hell-bound sinners and make you right with God! Do you see the grace of God in these words?
God reaches out to rebellious, messed-up people and says, even as He said to the idolatrous Israelites before the Babylonian captivity: “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “Return to Me with all your heart… rend your heart and not your garments. Now return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness And relenting of evil.” (Joel 2:12-13, NASB)

Back then, God told Jeremiah (7:25), “from the day that their fathers went forth out of the land of Egypt, even until this day... I sent to you all my servants, the prophets…” (Brenton, cf. 2 Chron. 36:15) – prophets like:

Nathan who confronted David in his sin of adultery and murder (2Sam. 12:1), and
Elijah who confronted the nation of Israel in their worship of Baal (1 Kings 18:36-37),
And John the Baptizer who called the Jews to repent and prepare for the appearance of Jesus the Messiah (Mark 1:2-4).

Who are these “prophets, sages and scribes” Jesus^{^[19]} is now sending to the Pharisees in Jerusalem?

The Apostle John was one of them, according to his testimony in Revelation 22:6-8 “…the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show to His bond-servants the things which must soon take place. ‘And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book.’ I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things…” (NASB)
And the Apostle Paul claimed to take the place of the “wise/sages” and the “scribes” for the Gospel era in 1 Corinthians 1:17-21, “For Christ did not commission me to baptize, but rather to evangelize… For the word – the one of the cross – to those who are being destroyed is stupidity, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God… Where is the wise man? Where is the lettered man? Where is the rhetorician of this age? … in the wisdom of God, the world though its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased though the stupidity of what was preached to save those who believe” (NAW).
I also think that the scribes Jesus was commissioning were men like Matthew and Mark who wrote down the Gospel for us, for that’s what scribes do; they write.
The parallel passage in Luke 11:49 clinches it, actually using the word “apostles” to describe who He is sending.
Because so many Jews still needed to hear the good news that Jesus is their Messiah and that He died to save sinners from the wrath of God, Jesus sent His disciples “to the Jew first,” that more might believe in Jesus and be saved from hell.

Yet the Jewish nation did not convert en masse at this message from the apostles. Just as the Parable of the vineyard owner foreshadowed, those apostles would be given a hard time by Jews:

Some, like Matthew and the two apostles named James, were killed by clubs and swords.
Some, like Peter, Andrew, Philip, and Bartholomew, were crucified, just as Jesus predicted.
And some were indeed chased from one town to another, like John and Thomas and Paul, who had to flee on more than one occasion to get away from persecution.
If I were one of Jesus’ disciples at this point, I would be thinking, “Wait a minute! What have I gotten myself into?”

But Jesus looks at these “snakes” – these men who have acted so offensively against God and have hurt so many people with their false religion, and, instead of hating them, offers them His own life and the lives of His precious disciples, saying, “We will pour out our lives for you in order that some of you might be saved from the judgment you deserve!”
Christian, are you willing to take up your cross and follow Christ in thinking and acting this way toward wicked people? This does two things:

First it extends God’s grace to save more sinners,
but Secondly, for those who do not respond to this costly grace with repentence and faith, it makes their conviction before the judgment seat of Christ a lead pipe cinch^{^[20]}:

23:35 such that all the righteous blood shed upon the earth shall come upon y’all – from the blood of Abel the righteous up through the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah (who was murdered between the temple and the altar).

‘οπως ελθῃ εφ’ ‘υμας παν ‘αιμα δικαιον εκχυνομενον^{^[21]} επι της γης απο του ‘αιματος Αβελ του δικαιου ‘εως του ‘αιματος Ζαχαριου ‘υιου Βαραχιου ‘ον εφονευσατε μεταξυ του ναου και του θυσιαστηριου.

For “blood” to “come upon” someone was a legal phrase meaning they were “guilty of murder.”

Murder, of course, can only be murder if the victim is not a criminal sentenced to death; the victims are called “righteous” or “innocent^ESV” because they did not deserve to be killed.
More than that, Abel and Zachariah had reason to believe that they would not suffer God’s punishment of hell for their sins because they trusted God to provide the Messiah, the Lamb of God, to take away their sin and make them truly righteous in God’s sight.

Abel, you may remember, was the second son of Adam and Eve. Abel offered a Lamb as a sacrifice to God, and Cain became jealous that God showed favor to Abel, so he killed his brother while they were in the field together. This was the world’s first murder. (Genesis 4)
Zachariah’s story may be less familiar.

The Bible book of Zachariah was written by Zachariah son of Barachiah a few hundred years before Christ while the Jews were returning from exile in Babylon and re-establishing themselves in Jerusalem. His death is not described in his book or in the O.T. history books, so it has been suggested that this shameful murder may have been remembered by tradition over the years and recounted by Jesus here.

The Jewish Targum on the book of Lamentations supports this theory^{^[22]}
but a major problem with this theory is that there was no temple at that time,
so Jesus may have been referring to another man by the name of Zachariah who lived at an earlier time before the Babylonians destroyed the temple in Jerusalem.

Therefore, most Bible scholars point to 2 Chron. 24:18-21: “Then the Spirit of God came on Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people and said to them, ‘Thus God has said, “Why do you transgress the commandments of the LORD and do not prosper? Because you have forsaken the LORD, He has also forsaken you.”’ So they conspired against him, and at the command of the king they stoned him to death in the court of the house of the LORD” (NASB).

The problem with this theory is the father’s name is Jehoidah instead of Berechiah^{^[23]},
but this is answered by saying that many Jews went by more than one name, such as Simon Peter, Matthew who was also called Levi, and Thaddaeus/ Lebbaeus.
There are other theories out there^{^[24]} which add up to a startling number of men throughout history named Zecheriah who were killed in the temple. None of them conclusively disprove Jesus’ statement, and together they serve to underscore Jesus’ point that the Jews had repeatedly treated the holiness of God’s temple and the honor of God’s servants to egregious disgraces.

In the Jewish Bible, Genesis is the first book, and 2 Chronicles is the last book. The stoning of Zachariah in the temple is at the end of 2 Chronicles, so Jesus is saying that the guilt of all the murders of innocent men from cover to cover in the Hebrew Bible will fall upon this generation of Jews. The shoe was going to drop in 70 AD.^{^[25]}

23:36 Really, I’m telling y’all that all these things will arrive upon this generation.

Αμην λεγω ‘υμιν [‘οτι^{^[26]}] ‘ηξει ταυτα παντα επι την γενεαν ταυτην.

When your forefathers have killed the messengers God sent, and you have killed the son of God, your doom is sealed. The wrath of God will be so great against you that there is nothing you will be able to say to talk Him down. The sentence^NAS,ESV seems to be inevitable; “You’re going to the hot place.” “More than that, your temple and your whole city will be leveled to the ground by a foreign army in 37 years.”
“That is, the nation is guilty. Your fathers were guilty. You have shown yourselves to be like them. You are about, by killing the Messiah and his messengers, to fill up the iniquity of the land. The patience of God is nearly exhausted, and the nation is about to be visited with signal vengeance. These national crimes deserve national judgments; and the proper judgment for all these crimes are about to come upon you in the destruction of your temple and city.” ~Albert Barnes

23:37 Jerusalem, Jerusalem^{^[27]}, the one who kills the prophets and stones the men who have been sent to her. How often I wanted to gather up your children in the way that a hen gathers up her [own] chicks under her wings, yet y’all did not want [it].

Ιερουσαλημ Ιερουσαλημ ‘η αποκτεινουσα^{^[28]} τους προφητας και λιθοβολουσα τους απεσταλμενους προς αυτην. Ποσακις ηθελησα επισυναγαγειν τα τεκνα σου ‘ον τροπον επισυναγει ορνις τα νοσσια [‘ε]αυτης^{^[29]} ‘υπο τας πτερυγας και ουκ ηθελησατε;

The metaphor is that of a hen gathering her chicks under her wings (cf. Deut. 32:12). When danger threatens, the mother bird chirps a signal, and her babies come running to her and she covers them with her wings.
This Greek word for “gather” is used by Luke in 12:1 to indicate the gathering of disciples collected around Jesus as He was teaching them at this time, and it is also used later in Matthew 24:31 when Jesus will gather His elect at His second coming.
The two main verbs in this verse are based on the Greek word thelw, which means “to exercise the will to do something.” Unfortunately, in most English translations these two verbs get translated into two different words (“would,” “wanted,” and “willing”), so that the parallel is not as clear, but Jesus is making a contrast between what He has often wanted to do and the fact that it is the very thing that the people of Jerusalem don’t want to do. He wanted to gather them under his protection, and they don’t want gather under His protection.
And if they don’t want Him, then He’s not going to stick around:

23:38 Look, y’all’s deserted house is being left with you,

Ιδου αφιεται ‘υμιν ‘ο οικος ‘υμων ερημος^{^[30]}

This is language much like the threats of the O.T. prophets before the exile:

Isaiah 24:12 And cities shall be left desolate, and houses being left shall fall to ruin. (Brenton, cf. 6:11)
Jer. 22:6 …I will make thee a desert, even cities that shall not be inhabited (Brenton)

The word “deserted/desolate” is an adjective describing the word “house.” In this case, I think that the “house” is referring to the temple^{^[31]} in which Jesus was standing as He spoke.
Jesus, as the Son of God and rightful master of the temple was saying to its custodians, “I’m leaving this place; it is no longer the temple of God, and I’ll leave this vacated building with you, no longer my house but ‘your house.’ Do whatever you want with it.”
This was Jesus’ last day in the temple, and He never came back to it.
What is a temple without God in it? Once Jesus leaves, there’s no God to pray to there any more, no God to worship anymore. Nobody is going to encounter God there ever again, except on one condition:

23:39 for I am telling y’all that you are never going to see me from now on^{^[32]}, until whenever y’all start saying that the One who comes in the name of the Lord is blessed.

λεγω γαρ ‘υμιν ου μη με ιδητε απ’ αρτι ‘εως αν ειπητε ευλογημενος ‘ο ερχομενος εν ονοματι κυριου.

This could be referring to a large-scale conversion of Jews in the future, as Romans 11 indicates, or to the judgment of the wicked at Jesus’ Second Coming, but the personal application of it is what I want to focus on:
“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” These were the words of Jesus’ admirers when He first came to Jerusalem – the words which the scribes and Pharisees had refused to say because they were a quotation from Psalm 118 about the Messiah. They had even hushed up the children in the temple who were proclaiming this about Jesus.
But in His mercy, Jesus still offers the hope that if any of these eight-times-cursed Pharisees would humble themselves and proclaim that He is indeed the Messiah, the hope and salvation of Israel, they would not be abandoned forever, but would see Jesus again in heaven!^{^[33]}

Job 33:26 Then he will pray to God, and He will accept him, That he may see His face with joy, And He may restore His righteousness to man. (NASB, cf. Psalm 11:7)
Revelation 22:3-5 There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever. (NASB)

Conclusion

What brought these covenantal curses down on these people who had been the people of God, and how can we head in the opposite direction of God’s blessing?

Stop holding sin in your hearts and maintaining an outward façade; ask for forgiveness and repent.
Don’t cover up spiritual deadness; instead submit to the authority of God’s word and seek for the Spirit to breathe life into your bones!
Pay attention to the messengers God sends and gather under Christ’s protection to escape God’s judgment against sin.

When I was a boy, my parents used to read a children’s book to me about a little red hen that was found on a farm after the barn burned down. She was found burnt to death, but under her charred wings was a whole brood of chicks that survived the blaze because they were tucked under her wings when she gave her life for them. It’s a powerful picture of our relationship to Christ. “How are you going to escape the sentence of hell?” By taking refuge ‘under His wings,’” the one who endured on the cross the judgment for sin, giving His life as a substitute for us so that we could be saved.

^{^[1]} Cf. Woes from Isaiah 5: 1. Woe, those who extend house with house, they adjoin field with field until there is no more place, (materialism, v.8), 2. Woe to those who, early in the morning, pursue alcohol; after dusk wine inflames them. (idolatry of food/drink, v.11), 3. Woe to those who draw iniquity, with cords of vanity and sin, with cart ropes. (hypocrisy, v.18), 4. Woe to those who say to evil, “Good!” and to good, “Evil!” (lying, perversion, v.20), 5. Woe those who are wise in their eyes and in front of their faces consider themselves intelligent. (pride/humanism, v.21), 6. Woe, those who are champions for drinking wine and men of valor for mixing alcohol… those who make righteous the wicked in order to gain a bribe… (misplaced heroism and injustice, vs.22-23).

^{^[2]} This is the only passage in the whole Greek Bible in which this word appears. The Greek word means “see-alongside,” so it is apparently not the main eating plate (“Side-dish” ~Vincent). The parallel passage in Luke 11:39 has a different Greek word pinakos which has the root meaning of “flat” (like our English words like platter and plate) and which is only used in the Greek Bible there and in the passages about the platter on which John the Baptizer’s head was displayed.

^{^[3]} I have somewhat-arbitrarily opted for the reading of the Byzantine edition of the Greek New Testament (“injustice”), which is the reading of the majority of the known Greek manuscripts (including C, K, W, and Γ), over that of the Critical editions and the Textus Receptus, which read ακρασιας (“excess/self-indulgence”). Neither the Nestle-Aland nor the UBS third edition gave any manuscript evidence for their reading in their critical apparatus.

^{^[4]} The Greek adverbs used in v.26 for inside and “outside” differ slightly from those used in v.25. It appears that exwthen and eswthen are used more for structural objects whereas entos and ektos are more used to describe persons, thus Jesus is personalizing the application of His object lesson.

^{^[5]} On the basis of two ancient manuscripts (D & Θ), Critical editions of the Greek New Testament (GNT) omit the phrase “and the platter/ plate/ dish.” Curiously, none of the English translations based upon the Critical text omit the phrase, though! And for good reason. It is supported by the majority of Greek manuscripts (including the most ancient ones א, B, C, K, L, W, X, Δ, Π, 0138) and the majority of ancient translations (including Syriac, Coptic, and Vulgate), and the traditional Byzantine and Textus Receptus(T.R.) editions of the GNT.

^{^[6]} Having two objects to wash (a cup and a plate) instead of only one (a cup – see footnote #1) makes a difference in the pronoun at the end of the sentence, as to whether it is singular or plural (viz. KJV “of them” vs. NAS & NIV “of it”). Critical editors, of course, opted for the singular since they didn’t believe the plate existed in the original and the verb is also singular. The singular form of the pronoun is supported not only by the two manuscripts that omit the plate, but also by B and f¹³. The majority of Greek manuscripts (including some of the most ancient ones: א, C, K, L, W, Δ, Π, 0138) read the plural form, and that is the rendering of the Byzantine and T.R. Since Jesus’ point does not hinge on whether the plate exists, and since He has indisputably mentioned the plate in other verses, its omission here would not constitute a significant change.

^{^[7]} The change to the singular in this verse invites personal application.

^{^[8]} This Greek word, a compound of para (“alongside”) and homoi (“similar”), is found nowhere else in the Greek Bible. The only word like it is the adjective παρόμοιος in Mark 7:13 “you do many things like that.”

^{^[9]} As best I can tell, taphous and mnemeia are full synonyms, both being burial places for the dead in cave-like places over which edifaces were later built. Both words are used to refer to the tomb where Jesus was laid, although the latter is used much more frequently to refer to it.

^{^[10]} The Greek word behind our English word is kosmeite (from which we get the English word “cosmetic”). This Greek word is used of straightening up – cleaning and organizing – a building (in Eccl. 7:13, Ezekiel 23:41, and Matt. 12:44), and it is used of embellishing or decorating a building with precious stones, gold, tapestries, floor tiles, and furniture (in 2 Chron. 3:6, Esther 1:6, Luke 21:5, Rev. 21:19). Eighteenth Century Bible Commentator Adam Clarke mentions Jews honoring Abraham’s burial cave of Machpelah by lighting wax candles and burning perfumes at it.

^{^[11]} Critical editions read a Deponent form of this verb of being (ημεθα) both here and where it occurs later in this verse, but neither the UBS nor N-A third editions cite manuscript support in their critical apparatus for departing from the majority of Greek manuscripts. Regardless, this alternate spelling makes no difference in meaning. By the way, the grammar of this conditional clause (ei + Imperfect Indicative verbs) indicates that they know it is not true.

^{^[12]} Cf. Luke16:8 “sons of light,” Luke 20:34 “sons of this age,” and Eph 2:2 “sons of disobedience”

^{^[13]} It’s also possible, but I think less likely, that Jesus was implying that they were not descendents of the godly kings of Judah but were rather descendants of imposters like Jezebel and therefore had no legitimate claim to their priesthood. Chrysostom, on the other hand claimed that they built edifices to brag about the fact that their fathers had killed prophets: “it was not for the honoring of them that were slain, but as making a show of the murders, and afraid, lest, when the tombs had perished by time, the proof and memory of such daring should fade away, setting up these glorious buildings, as a kind of trophy, and priding themselves in the daring deeds of those men, and displaying them.” However, he also supports what I have said above by the comment, “And what blame is it to be a murderer’s son, if one partake not in the mind of one’s father? None. Whence it is evident… He brings it forward against them, hinting at their affinity in wickedness.” Calvin commented, “They were used to boast of their descent for all that they were descended from the bloody enemies of God… [But] boasting of sacred descent is vain, since you draw your line from sinful and criminal ancestors.”

^{^[14]} “not commanding, but declaring beforehand, what was to be” ~Chrysostom
“He is not telling them to continue what they are doing, putting holy teachers to death, but, in a manner of speech, He says that they have a hereditary right to rise up against the servants of God.” ~Calvin
Hendriksen makes an interesting comparison between this imperative and the one Jesus gave to Judas, “What you do, do it quickly” John 13:27.

^{^[15]} Compare Ephesians 4:13 “until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” (NASB)

^{^[16]} Lit. Gehennah. See 10:28.

^{^[17]} Not only the opening interrogative, but also the subjunctive mood of the verb invite contemplation of this possibility.

^{^[18]} Although this conjunction is in the majority of Greek manuscripts (including some of the oldest ones C, D, L, 0133) and is in the T.R., it is not included in the Critical editions of the GNT due to its omission in a significant number of ancient Greek manuscripts (א, Β, W, Δ, Θ, 0138, f¹, f¹³). Ancient Syriac and Latin translations are also divided on this. Even KJV translations are divided on this, with the 1769 edition including the “and” and the NKJV omitting it. No change in meaning occurs with or without it, however, so it’s no big deal.

^{^[19]} The parallel passage in Luke 11:49 says it is “the wisdom of God” who sends these prophets, a moniker synonymous with Jesus, cf. Proverbs 8, John 1.

^{^[20]} Hendriksen notes exact parallels between Mt. 23:34-35 and Jeremiah 7:25-29. This has all happened before!

^{^[21]} Critical editions double a letter in the middle (εκχυνομενον), but provide no manuscript basis for this in their critical apparatus. However, it makes no difference in meaning.

^{^[22]}http://targum.info/meg/tglam.htm 2:20. Also, note that it says Zachariah was high priest, but the book of Zachariah says that Joshua was the high priest.

^{^[23]} The parallel passage in Luke 11:51 does not include the father’s name.

^{^[24]} Two other less-likely explanations I’ve run across include 1) A certain Zachariah son of Baruch (which is the first half of Barachiah), mentioned by Josephus in his Wars of the Jews (iv.5.4), who was a righteous man killed in the temple several years after Jesus’ statement, shortly before the temple was destroyed. 2) And then there’s the legend that Zachariah, the father of John the Baptizer, was stoned to death in the temple for defending Mary’s virginity. Then there’s Ridderbos and Hendriksen who believed that it is a mistake introduced early on by a Bible copyist.

^{^[25]} Cf. God allowing the iniquity of the Amorites to come to a full head before sending Joshua to destroy them Gen. 15:16. “God has decided to lay open by an uninterrupted succession of gracious invitations your stubborn wickedness, and, on your conviction, to involve parents and children alike in one ruin… His message… is sometimes proclaimed to the reprobate whom He knows will remain obstinate, that it may be to them the savor of death unto death… [W]henever Scripture assigns the Jews to eternal death, [however], a remnant is excepted…” ~Calvin

^{^[26]} Although in the Majority of Greek manuscripts, it is not included in the T.R. or Critical editions of the GNT, and Byzantine editions are divided (it’s in my Athens one, but not in my e-Sword one). No difference in meaning, though.

^{^[27]} “What meaneth the repetition? this is the manner of one pitying her, and bemoaning her, and greatly loving her.” ~Chrysostom vis a vis Calvin: “The relevance of the name repeated is that no ordinary word of detestation was fit for such prodigious and incredible wickedness.” Hmm….

^{^[28]} The iota in the middle of this word is in the Byzantine, Critical, and T.R. editions of the GNT, but a slim Majority of Greek manuscripts spell the word without the iota. The Majority may be an irregular spelling, but is no different in meaning.

^{^[29]} Critical editions of the GNT spell this word in a less-emphatic form without the first letter, following a handful of ancient Greek manuscripts (p⁷⁷, א, B¹, D, W, Δ, 0138), but the full form of this word found in the majority of Greek manuscripts is also found in ancient manuscripts, albeit of somewhat less antiquity (א², C, L, Θ, f¹, f¹³), and in the Byzantine and TR editions of the GNT. This nuance made no difference among the standard English translations, which all read “her,” whether they followed the UBS Critical text or the T.R.

^{^[30]} A couple of Greek manuscripts (B, L) omit this word “deserted,” but it is in all the standard editions of the GNT except for some early Critical editions which were over-zealous about the Vaticanus.

^{^[31]} Hendriksen contended that it meant more than the temple and included the city of Jerusalem.

^{^[32]} “by these He intimated both His resurrection, and His second coming” ~Chrysostom

^{^[33]} Hendriksen follows Calvin in asserting that this is not about grace but about judgment, that Jesus is saying that the next time the reprobate Pharisees see Him will be on judgment day (Rev. 1:7), when they will involuntarily bow before Him (Phil. 2:10-11) and proclaim Him blessed, but it will be too late; they will be cast into the lake of fire. In this case the application is a sobering warning against obstinate rebellion to God because there is a limit to His mercy which is perilous to try.