The Jews are wary of coming in contact with the tombs or dead bodies which renders them ritually impure (Nm 19:16). Whitewashing the tombs serves as identifying marks that warn others from touching them.

Pilgrims going to Jerusalem take extra precautions to avoid contact which would hinder them from attending Temple services. Since the interior of the tombs is the supreme example of uncleanness, the figure of speech used by Jesus is unusually strong.

Jesus is saying that the hypocrisy and evildoing of the scribes and the Pharisees have made them unclean in God’s eyes. Their boast of their strict observance of the Law is nothing but a cloak for a way of life that is in contradiction with the spirit of the Law. Their supposedly intense religious practice is only meant to cover up for their neglect of the weightier matters of the Law. Their unjust and self-indulgent behavior shows what they truly are: foul and putrid with sin.

We instruct you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to shun any brother who walks in a disorderly way and not according to the tradition they received from us. For you know how one must imitate us. For we did not act in a disorderly way among you, nor did we eat food received free from anyone.

On the contrary, in toil and drudgery, night and day we worked, so as not to burden any of you. Not that we do not have the right. Rather, we wanted to present ourselves as a model for you, so that you might imitate us.

In fact, when we were with you, we instructed you that if anyone was unwilling to work, neither should that one eat. May the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way.

The Lord be with all of you. This greeting is in my own hand, Paul’s. This is the sign in every letter; this is how I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all of you.

Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth. Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the memorials of the righteous, and you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have joined them in shedding the prophets’ blood.’

“Thus you bear witness against yourselves that you are the children of those who murdered the prophets; now fill up what your ancestors measured out!”