The insulted lawyer: V. 45. Then answered one of the lawyers and said unto Him, Master, thus saying Thou reproachest us also. V. 46. And He said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! For ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers. V. 47. Woe unto you! For ye build the sepulchers of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. V. 48. Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers; for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchers.
A certain scribe, one of the teachers of the Law, who was sitting by, felt that the description which Jesus had just given of the Pharisees fitted his own case remarkably well. And so he actually invited the criticism of Jesus upon himself and his fellows by challenging Him at this point. For Christ fearlessly proceeds to say exactly what He thinks of the whole class.
These teachers of the Law, in their rules of conduct for the people, weighed them down with heavy, unbearable burdens, with precepts which regulated even the most minute happenings of their daily life, but they themselves did not so much as touch the burdens with one of their fingers, for they knew better and did not care to torture themselves.
(How well this fits many rules of the Roman Catholic Church! The lawyers also built tombs unto the prophets with the idea of honoring them.)
But in reality they were continuing the evil work of their fathers. Their forefathers had put more than one of the prophets of old to death, and the present people, in erecting the tombs, agreed with the work of their ancestors. "They killed, you build; worthy sons of such fathers!"
The lawyers truly had their fathers' disposition. Outwardly they honored the prophets, insisted upon observing any precept that might be found in any book of the Old Testament, but the prophecy concerning the Messiah they garbled and denied.
This feature characterizes the preaching of the false prophets of all times. They refer to the Bible and praise many sections of it highly, but the great central doctrines of Scripture, especially that concerning the justification of a poor sinner through the merits of Jesus, by faith only, that they omit, and they are full of enmity toward the true messengers of the Gospel, persecuting them whenever they have an opportunity.