Radix Fidem

The soul of Old Testament religion was mysticism. While the legalism of the Sadducees and Pharisees differed, it was still two brands of the same basic error. However, Jesus lowers the boom particularly on the Scribes in their alliance with the Pharisees.

In the midst of a laundry list of their evil, the Lord points out something that seems to summarize everything else. They would tithe legalistically on the kind of household plants everyone grew for their own private consumption. During Jesus' day, it was common to find something like a window box where the homemaker would grow a few herbs that were best when used fresh in cooking. The Scribes and Pharisees would actually tithe on this pitiful handful of household plants.

Yet, anyone could see they weren't so honest with God about the broader meaning of divine justice. Jesus chose words to indicate the divine moral character of His Father: covenant, discernment, mercy and faith. They held themselves accountable for tithing on household herbs, but very pointedly left out their hearts. They did their best to silence their convictions because they somehow imagined God was petty and silly enough to be satisfied by semantic wrangling over superficial details in the Law of Moses.

It was as if they would sift out a gnat from flour to avoid eating non-kosher meat, but they would swallow a camel, which was the largest non-kosher animal they would ever encounter in Palestine. Their focus was too small, yet their appetite for injustice never came to their attention. So they would not hesitate to defraud people by secret code words and corruption. Over and over Jesus kept using the word translated into English as "hypocrite" to refer to acting a part in a play.

Then Jesus spoke words of prophecy on behalf of His Father.

He promised to send them messengers of various types: prophets, sages and scholars. Some they would murder or execute, and some would be flogged. Either way, they would chase them down for daring to tell the truth and expose Pharisaical lies. The reason God would let them get away with such intolerable behavior is so that their blood-guilt would become too large to ignore. They would then become liable for all the blood-guilt since people were kicked out of Eden. They were the same kind of people; they put their hands to the same kind of sin.

The current generation would see God pour out His wrath on them in ways they could not imagine. It's not even certain they would even notice. They had so completely left the Covenant that they would be purged from it.

Then He said something poetic about how the City of Jerusalem had become a symbol of rejecting the Word of God to the point of murderous rage. Jesus came to heal and restore divine justice, and they had done everything possible to prevent it.

Then He said something that most western readers miss: Their role as a covenant nation would be vacated. They would lose their moral and spiritual identity completely. From that time forward, they would no longer be God's People.

They would have to start all over again. The only way they could restore their ancient identity would be as individuals who joined a king of hearts. Until the welcomed the Messiah as their Lord and exult in the opportunity for redemption, they would remain just another tribe of fools who don't even know their Creator.

Not directly related to this post, but I often wonder how the Bible would've turned out if Israel went back to the days of Moses and embrace tribal covenant living again. At least, en masse as opposed to some scattered few plus some gentiles.

It's precisely related; it's sort of the whole point. The New Testament would have changed in tone somewhat, in that Israel would be inside, instead of an outside force for persecution. The Covenant of Moses would have been translated directly and Jesus would have died strictly at Roman hands. Keep in mind that the tension between Rome and Judea was already there, and growing largely because Rome was shifting internally. The Romans would have objected if Jews had changed to their ancient Hebrew ways.