Luke 11:42-44

Father keep me humble and filled with Your compassion, love and mercy toward those You have created. 

Help me to live a life without hypocrisy but based on Your Word, Jesus Christ, that I may know Your will and stand for those things that You stand for… the poor and marginalized of society and hate those things that You do…arrogance and pride!

Unmarked graves is a metaphor for the Pharisees’ pious appearances, which disguised their inner wickedness. When graves were not appropriately marked, people could walk over them and potentially become ritually unclean. Faithlife Bible.

The Law spoke of tithing all produce, but what constituted food was debated. Some Pharisees took the strictest interpretation and counted almost anything, including spices. However, they neglected two basic things that the prophets also had warned about: love and justice. Anyone or anything in the same room as the dead was considered in Jewish tradition to be impure. This is Jesus’ stronger condemnation. The Pharisees, the paragons of purity, were in fact the height of uncleanness. NKJ Bible.

Luke 11:42–44 (NKJV)

⁴² “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass by justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. ⁴³ Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. ⁴⁴ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like graves which are not seen, and the men who walk over them are not aware of them.”

Matthew 23:23 (NKJV)

²³ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.

Micah 6:8 (NKJV)

⁸ He has shown you, O man, what is good;

And what does the Lord require of you

But to do justly,

To love mercy,

And to walk humbly with your God?