The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. —Matthew 23:2-3

In today’s scripture from Matthew, Jesus accused the scribes and the Pharisees of hypocrisy. And he did not do  it just once, but numerous times. Indeed, throughout Matthew’s gospel, Jesus spoke more often about “hypocrites” than he did about “prayer.” I was surprised to discover that! He spoke about hypocrisy twelve times in Matthew, six of them in Matthew 23 alone. By way of contrast, Jesus spoke about prayer in Matthew a mere nine times. This is not to minimize the importance of prayer. It merely suggests that hypocrisy was a huge issue in Jesus’ day, just as it is today.

Do you know what hypocrites …