Traits of a Pharisee: Superficiality

In exposing the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, Jesus now brings up the issue of superficiality. This is not the superficiality of ignorance; nor that of insincerity. Rather, it is the belief that external treatments are all that is necessary, because heart sins either don't really exist, or they are only symptoms and not problems. Therefore, all issues of holiness can be measured in terms of external behaviors; and thus, the more precisely these behaviors are kept, the more holy the person.