Woe to you, hypocrites, scribes and Pharisees, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and every kind of uncleanness.
In these words Jesus uses a powerful and shocking image to reveal the spiritual condition of the Pharisees. Their outward appearance was splendid and devout, like whitewashed tombs that look beautiful on the outside, but inside are filled with dead bodies and uncleanness, because according to Jewish law, touching the dead was considered defilement (Numbers 19:11). He shows that the Pharisees, who seemed clean outwardly, carried within themselves what the law itself called unclean. In this way Jesus also exposes the tragedy of false holiness: holiness on the outside, spiritual death on the inside. The Pharisees kept all the outward forms of the law, but their hearts remained full of arrogance, pride, and unrighteousness. The Lord reminds us that God looks not at outward shine, but at the true condition of the soul. This word is a warning to believers of all times that formal piety, however pure it may seem, cannot replace living faith and inner purity.