Judgment
We like to think about Jesus loving us and being gentle, but this chapter shows a different side of Him. He is passing judgment on religious leaders who are very concerned about appearing to be good people but are actually evil. In fact, He seems less tolerant of these people than He is of people who are obviously evil. He goes on to judge the entire city of Jerusalem for rejecting God’s message to them.
We typically see certain sins as worse than others; things like murder or child abuse. Jesus seems to be judging more harshly those who have lots of access to the truth and reject it. That’s people like us who have Bibles to read and many other ways of knowing what God wants us to do. Are you listening to what God wants and doing what He says?