Jesus called the self-righteous Jewish religious leaders of his time ‘hypocrites’. He used this term as many as six times in Matthew 23. The Pharisees were very strict on the literal interpretation of the Mosaic laws given in the Pentateuch, i.e. the first five books in the Old Testament—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and the Deuteronomy (Torah in Hebrew, Taurath as Muslims call them). In Part I of this article, we saw that Jesus heavily criticised the religious leaders of the Jews because of their outward or external religiosity as they taught people by mouth only but hardly ever practising what they taught. The word ‘hypocrite’ is used in both the Old and the New Testaments. So is the word ‘woe’. This is why the so-called religious leaders of Jesus’s days turned out to be his main adversaries. It was they who eventually did everything to liquidate Jesus by the colonial Romans.
In the Prophetic book of Isaiah, we find in Chapter 5 the word ‘woe’ used to condemn the greediness, carnality, drunkenness, mockery against God, hypocrisy, injustice and arrogance of people. In Habakkuk, this word is used five times denouncing the people of Israel for similar crimes done by the rich, powerful and wicked people against the poor and innocent ones. God always warned in history and He continues to do so against people, especially people who give only a lip-service to their religious doctrines and values. He does this against the religious or spiritual leaders who are supposed to teach and lead other people in society religious truths that help people to fulfil divine will for justice, peace and goodwill among all people.
Matthew 23:5-7 shows us that Jesus says that the Pharisees and scribes put on their prayer shawls with long tassels and put on their arms and foreheads bigger phylacteries. Tassels were to remind them of God’s laws given through Moses for obedience to them, and the phylacteries were the tiny leather boxes that contained some verses from the Mosaic laws. Those leaders always expected reverential greetings and honour from the people, special seats of honour in all places. But they did not live what they taught others. They made their religious life bereft of spiritual value. They were actually giving a wrong picture of God and his attributes in a sense by the ways and manners they followed. Leaders are to serve the people. But they expected to be served. Jesus taught that people wishing to be great must serve others. All his life, Jesus practised what he preached. “Whoever wants to be first must be a servant of all” (Mark 10: 43). He vicariously sacrificed his sinless life to be the ransom price for our sin and free man from the bondage of sin. So about himself, Jesus said, “For even the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve”. Jesus said, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Matthew 23:12).  
The sham religious teachers made religion complicated and unduly burdensome. They replaced spiritual and ethical values with mundane issues. Jesus told them that they gave one-tenth of their spices – mint, dill and cumin – giving importance to such trivial matter. On the other hand, they ignore more important issues (socio-economic justice, mercy and even faith in their God) of the Law that God had given them when He delivered the Israelites from Egyptian slavery long ago. They strained out gnats but swallowed camels. They were blind guides only to frustrate any hope for human growth and progress of people at large for the sake of false religiosity. Such leadership only endangered the growth of human potential in any sense of the term. Religion became a heavy burden and oppressive structure for men on the street. In such a colossal nihilistic scenario Jesus came up and called out to people: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew11:28-30). Much of what then religious teachers were to be characterised in their dealings with people’s lives could be seen as abuse and wrong interpretation of religion. They emphasised more on the letters of the Law than on the spirit of the same. This is seen happening in all religions. Religions in many ways become as burdens to their adherents rather than sources of blessings. To end this part of this article it is useful to quote what Jesus had told the Pharisees in Matthew 22:37-40: “... ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’”
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The writer is a Christian Theology teacher and Church leader