Matthew 23:23-39
In these strong terms the Lord solemnly condemns those who might be called the "clergy" in Israel. They were doubly guilty, these blind guides who not only failed to enter the kingdom of heaven themselves, but abused their position of authority by preventing others from entering (v. 13). Punctilious in small things, they neglected the principal matters: judgment, mercy and faith (v. 23). Besides all that, their hypocritical mask deceived those simple folk who put their confidence in them. The Lord Jesus, filled with indignation, uncovers their true image: they are "whited sepulchres" (inwardly dead), "serpents", murderers, sons of murderers.
Before departing from the temple and leaving desolate the house where God no longer had His place, the Lord Jesus expresses Himself in deeply moving terms as to the judgment which would fall on Jerusalem. We can understand a little what it must have been to His heart so divinely sensitive to the scornful rejection of the grace offered. "And ye would not!" (Matthew 22:3; Hosea 11:7). Overwhelming words! What person among those who will one day have to hear them will be able to put the blame on God for his eternal distress? Salvation in Christ has been offered him. And he would not have it.