Woes on Pharisees

How Jesus Embodied Patience Here

At first glance, this passage seems to showcase Jesus at his most impatient—delivering harsh "woes" to the Pharisees and lawyers with seemingly little restraint. Yet a closer look reveals Jesus embodying the deepest form of patience: makrothymia, or long-suffering love that persists even in the face of persistent opposition.

Consider the opening scene: "a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him: and he went in, and sat down to meat." Despite mounting tensions with religious leaders, Jesus still accepts the invitation. This wasn't naive optimism but patient hope—the kind that continues engaging even when previous encounters have proven fruitless. In first-century Palestine, sharing a meal created bonds of hospitality and obligation. Jesus knew he was entering hostile territory, yet his patience compelled him to try once more.

When the Pharisee "marvelled that he had not first washed before dinner," Jesus could have simply defended himself or walked away. Instead, his patience manifested as truthful confrontation. "Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness." This wasn't impatience exploding—it was patient love refusing to enable spiritual self-destruction.

The series of "woes" that follow demonstrate how true patience sometimes requires difficult truth-telling. Each pronouncement addresses a specific failing: neglecting "judgment and the love of God" while obsessing over tithing herbs, craving honor in public spaces, and becoming "graves which appear not"—spiritually dangerous to those who encounter them unknowingly. Jesus had observed these patterns repeatedly throughout his ministry. His patience had endured their rejection, their plotting, their attempts to trap him. Now, with characteristic long-suffering, he offered one final warning.

Most remarkably, even as "the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently, and provoke him to speak of many things: laying wait for him," Jesus neither retreated nor retaliated with personal attacks. His patience held firm even as they sought to "catch something out of his mouth, that they might accuse him." True makrothymia doesn't avoid conflict when truth is at stake—it endures through conflict with love intact.

Following His Example

First, practice patient truth-telling in your closest relationships. When someone you care about repeatedly makes harmful choices, resist the extremes of either enabling silence or explosive confrontation. Like Jesus at the dinner, stay engaged. Address specific behaviors with clear, direct language while maintaining genuine care for the person's wellbeing. This might mean having that difficult conversation with a family member about their drinking, or gently but persistently challenging a friend's pattern of dishonesty.

Second, develop patience with institutions and systems that frustrate you. Jesus could have dismissed the Pharisees entirely and focused solely on receptive audiences. Instead, his long-suffering love kept him engaged with the religious establishment, calling it toward its true purpose. Whether dealing with workplace dysfunction, political systems, or even church problems, channel your frustration into patient, persistent calls for authentic change rather than cynical withdrawal or destructive attacks.

Third, cultivate patience with your own spiritual growth. The Pharisees' core problem was impatience with the slow work of inner transformation—they settled for external compliance instead. When you notice gaps between your values and actions, resist both self-condemnation and self-justification. Instead, practice the patient self-examination Jesus called for: "did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also?" Allow God time to work on your heart while you consistently engage in practices that foster genuine inner change.

Echoes in Other Traditions

This principle of patient persistence in speaking truth to power, even at personal cost, resonates across wisdom traditions. Many spiritual paths recognize that genuine compassion sometimes requires difficult confrontation, and that true patience involves long-suffering commitment to others' ultimate good rather than simply avoiding conflict or enabling harmful patterns.