Matthew 23:19

“You blind ones, for which is greater, the gift, or the altar which sanctifies the gift?”

Then He passes His verdict and confirms why He considers that they are spiritually blind. Jesus' point is that they lay too much stress on inessentials, and not sufficient on the reality of the living God. (This was in fact their whole problem all the way through). In His eyes the gifts only become important because of their connection with the Temple and the altar, which point beyond themselves to God. It is through them that the gifts ‘are made holy', and thus they are of the greatest importance. Jesus recognises that until His own sacrifice of Himself has been completed the altar and the Temple are essential, while on the other hand the gifts and offerings made there are simply man's participation in it. Thus the problem with the Scribes and Pharisees is that their worship is not based on the spiritual realities, with God filling the vision, but on the physical and the emotional aspects of coming and making their offerings, and therefore they do not encourage men, as it were, to break through to God. They are rather holding men at a distance from God. And as a result they do not thereby come under the Kingly Rule of God. They are rather taken up with what they do themselves, their means of worship, and their participation in it. They too therefore never come to see themselves as ‘sanctified' (compare Hebrews 2:11), but as sinners afar off.