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Gospel Reading for October 14, 2026 – Luke 11: 42-46
BLIND GUIDES
The Lord said: “Woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb, but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God. These you should have done, without overlooking the others. Woe to you Pharisees! You love the seat of honor in synagogues band greetings in marketplaces. Woe to you! You are like unseen graves over which people unknowingly walk.” Then one of the scholars of the law said to him in reply, “Teacher, by saying this you are insulting us too.” And he said, “Woe also to you scholars of the law! You impose on people burdens hard to carry, but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them.”
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During Jesus’ time, touching a grave would make a person ritually unclean for seven days, preventing them from entering the temple to worship God. Hence, people avoided graves, and the Jews often painted tombs white so they would be easy to spot and avoid.
Therefore, when Jesus compared the Pharisees to unseen graves, he meant that people who listened to and accepted their teachings unknowingly became unclean.
It is no wonder that Jesus seemed to have lost patience with the Pharisees. Who would not? As Jesus described in Matthew 23:16–19, they were BLIND GUIDES who led people astray through their hypocrisy.
This was a serious matter for Jesus, who came to be the Saviour, because how could people be saved if they listened to the Pharisees? How could the Pharisees themselves be saved when they did not even understand what salvation meant?
When we examine the way we live our lives, are we leading people to Jesus, or are we leading them astray?
Lord Jesus, may we be truly Christians in word and in deed. Amen.
