Jesus had his skirmishes with the Scribes and Pharisees, but today he seems particularly exasperated with them. And who could blame him? They of all people should have known who Jesus was and should have been on board with what he was trying to accomplish. But instead, they settle for the mere appearance of righteousness instead of really repenting of the evil inside them.
And we could really think ill of them for that. But we must remember that Matthew’s gospel wasn’t written just to make the Scribes and Pharisees look bad. It’s supposed to be an example for us and lead us to repentance. So what inside of us needs to go today so that we may not just appear righteous, but also be clean inside? May our Eucharistic Lord help us to be disciples in word and in deed.