The love of Jesus. He loved the corrupt leadership of the church in his day perfectly. Insomuch that he spoke boldly and directly to them. In this context below, couched in his rebuke of leadership, he teaches the two great commandments. Then he personifies what love looks like by rebuking them.
“Then went the Pharisees and took counsel how they might entangle him in talk….What do you think? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar or not? But Jesus perceived their wickedness and said, You hypocrites, why do you test me? …
The same day came the Sadducees to him (who say that there is no resurrection) and asked him, saying, Master, Moses said,… Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife shall she be of the seven? For they all had her.
Jesus answered and said unto them, You do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God; for in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in Heaven….
But when the Pharisees heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer testing him, asked, saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets….
Then spoke Jesus to the multitude and to his disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. All therefore whatever they bid you observe, they will make you observe and do, for they are ministers of the law and they make themselves your judges. But do not after their works, for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy burdens and lay on men’s shoulders, and they are grievous to be borne, but they will not move them with one of their fingers. And all their works they do to be seen of men. They make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi — which is, Master.
But be not called Rabbi, for one is your Master, who is Christ, and all you are brethren. And call no one your creator upon the earth, or your Heavenly Father, for one is your creator and Heavenly Father, even he who is in Heaven. Neither be called masters, for one is your Master, even he whom your Heavenly Father sent, who is Christ; for he has sent him among you that you might have life. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant, and whoever shall exalt himself shall be abased of him, and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted of him.
But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you shut up the kingdom of Heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer them that are entering to go in.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, for you are hypocrites. You devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore, you shall receive the greater punishment.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you traverse sea and land to make one convert, and when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than he was before — like unto yourselves.
Woe unto you blind guides, who say, Whoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing, but whoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he has committed sin and is a debtor. You are fools, and blind. For which is the greatest — the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold? And you say, Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing, but whoever swears by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. O fools, and blind. For which is the greatest — the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift? Truly I say unto you, whoever therefore shall swear by it, swears by the altar and by all things thereon. And whoever shall swear by the temple, swears by it and by him who dwells therein. And he that shall swear by Heaven, swears by the throne of God and by him who sits thereon.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint, and anise, and cumin, and have omitted the weightier things of the law: judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought you to have done, and not to leave the others undone. You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel, who make yourselves appear unto men that you would not commit the least sin, and yet you yourselves transgress the whole law.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. You blind Pharisees, cleanse first the cup and platter within, that the outside of them may be clean also.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like unto whitewashed sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but are within full of the bones of the dead and of all uncleanness. Even so, you also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous, and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
Wherefore, you are witnesses unto yourselves of your own wickedness. And you are the children of them who killed the prophets, and will fill up the measure then of your fathers, for you yourselves kill the prophets like unto your fathers. You serpents, a generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell?
Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes. And of them you shall kill and crucify, and of them you shall scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth; from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom you slew between the temple and the altar. Truly I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation. You bear testimony against your fathers, when you yourselves are partakers of the same wickedness. Behold, your fathers did it through ignorance, but you do not. Wherefore, their sin shall be upon your heads.
Then Jesus began to weep over Jerusalem, saying, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who will kill the prophets and will stone them who are sent unto you, how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate” (JS–Matthew 1:1; Matthew 22:15-Matthew 23:38).
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