Luke 11:37 - 54
37 While Jesus[e] was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table. 38 The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. 39 And the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. 40 You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? 41 But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you.
42 “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. 43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. 44 Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.”
45 One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.” 46 And he said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. 47 Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. 48 So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. 49 Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ 50 so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. 52 Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.”
53 As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things, 54 lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say.
Questions:
ReplyDelete1. Why didn't Jesus wash? Why was the Pharisee surprised?
2. Why did Jesus encourage the Pharisees to pay attention to the minutiae?
3. What did Jesus mean by unmarked graves?
4. How are the lawyers getting away with not touching the burdens?
5. Why does "this generation" get charged with all the murders?
6. How have the lawyers taken away the key to knowledge?
7. How do we act like the Pharisees and lawyers?
https://hartmangroupdevotions.blogspot.com/2016/05/matthew-2313-39-13-woe-to-you-teachers.html?zx=b0b22e613e4cbbfd says:
ReplyDeleteWe become sons of hell when we devote our lives to locking people out of the kingdom of heaven.
The way that sons of hell prove their worth and fidelity to God is through their zeal to damn. It becomes no longer sufficient to damn homosexuals, Palestinians, illegal aliens, or people of other religions. Christians who are unwilling to damn others must be damned themselves, as well as Christians who are willing to associate with other Christians who refuse to damn. I wish I were creating a straw man here, but I’ve actually watched religious leaders use the homosexuality issue primarily as a guilt-by-association tactic, accusing each other not of being homosexuals or blessing homosexuality, but of associating with Christians who have inadequately expressed their condemnation of homosexuality. This profoundly bitter fruit has been an enormous witness in my life and the lives of many young evangelicals like me who have been shaped permanently by this age of culture wars.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-11-commentary says:
ReplyDeleteJesus shows us that He is willing to be associated with the religious group, who were among those He had labeled a wicked generation. He still sought to see them converted. This is a great example of our Lord to all of us, for we tend to push away from religious hypocrites, but Jesus shows us we should at least be willing to dialogue with them.
To the contrary, legalists seem to be concerned about holiness. Yet the Lord Jesus had more conflicts with the legalists of His day than any other group. It wasn’t the adulterers, the robbers and that sort, who put Jesus on the cross. It was the legalists. Later on, the Apostle Paul had the same experience, as the legalists dogged his steps, perverting the gospel of the grace of God. When you study the life of Christ, it is noteworthy how He deliberately did things to provoke the legalists. He could have healed people on any other day of the week, but He often did it on the Sabbath. He could have been more discreet in violating the Pharisees’ rules, but He did it openly. When a Pharisee invited Jesus to dinner, He could have gone along with their elaborate hand-washing custom, but He deliberately ignored it. When they questioned Him about it, He could have been more polite, but He blasted them for their hypocrisy. When a lawyer pointed out that Jesus had offended them as well, He didn’t say, “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to offend you good folks.” He said, “Woe to you lawyers as well!” Jesus confronted legalism as sin.
So, what is legalism? Legalism is an attempt to gain favor with God or to impress our fellow man by doing certain things (or avoiding other things), without regard to the condition of our hearts before God. At the root of legalism is the sin of pride, because the legalist thinks that he is able to commend himself to God by his own good deeds. Invariably, he is only looking at externals, not at his heart. Also, the legalist’s pride motivates him to exalt himself in the sight of others by his outward behavior, again neglecting to see the corruption of his own heart. Thus legalism denies human depravity and exalts human ability. As such, it is opposed to the gospel of God’s grace. That’s why both Jesus and Paul clashed with the legalists.
Jesus hates legalism because it does not deal with the condition of our hearts before God.
Christianity is primarily a matter of the heart. Everything flows from a heart relationship with God, who transforms our hearts when He regenerates us.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-11-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteHe was surprised that He had not first ceremonially washed before the meal - There was no regulation in the Mosaic Law stating one needed to ceremonially wash before meals.
MacArthur adds that they would wash their hands ceremonially if by chance they had "touched a Gentile that day or touched something a Gentile touched, or touched something an unclean person touched, or touched something else unclean (Ed: like a dead animal). This ritual was to symbolize their holiness and their desire to be clean from all the defilements of the world. And the Mishnah actually describes how this was to be done. It even gets down to the amount of water. You were to use enough water to fill one and a half egg shells, and it was to be poured across the tips of the fingers, running down to the wrist, and then the hands were to be washed, symbolizing this bathing/cleansing.
Edersheim, the great Jewish scholar, writes, "Water jars were kept ready to be used before every meal. The minimum amount of water to be used was a quarter of a log, which is defined as enough to fill one and a half eggshells. The water was first poured on both hands, held with the fingers pointed upward. It must run down the arm as far as the wrist and drop off from the wrist, for the water itself was now unclean having touched the unclean hands. If it ran down the fingers again, it would render them unclean. The process was repeated with the hands held in the downward direction, the fingers pointing down, and finally, each hand was cleansed with being rubbed with the fist of the other, and a strict Jew would do this before every meal and between every course in every meal."
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-11-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteJesus knew that failing to ceremonially wash would incite a reaction from the Pharisee. He allowed the confrontation because He wanted to highlight the foolishness of their empty ritual and worthless religion.
Jesus is saying in essence that their symbolic acts lacked spiritual substance, as did their entire religious system! In fact it is characteristic of false religions, that the more symbols and symbolic acts they use, the less spiritual reality there is. And what does all the external symbolism hide? It hides the sinful state of the heart.
The Pharisees were concerned with what one does, while Jesus points out they lacked concern for what one is.
Steven Cole on applying this section - Before we look specifically at the theme, take note that Jesus accepted social invitations from unbelievers. But, also note that He did not hesitate to confront unbelievers with their sin! He deliberately provoked this confrontation by doing something that surprised His host. But we need to be careful about how we apply this. Jesus was in a cultural context that understood the bold language of the prophets. Also, He is the Lord and as such has both the insight and authority to speak in this manner. Paul instructs us, “Walk with [NASB, margin] wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person” (Col. 4:5, 6). The metaphor of salt implies that we can and should be provocative, but we also must speak in a gracious and sensitive manner. But in every social contact with unbelievers, keep your purpose clear. You’re there to be the instrument of the Holy Spirit in convincing the person about sin, righteousness, and judgment, and to proclaim the good news of God’s grace in Christ.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-11-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteYou foolish ones - Jesus said not to call anyone a fool (Mt 5:22-note), but that was a different context (where one was using it as a coarse, disparaging epithet) and a different word (moros). The word Jesus uses here (aphron) conveys the sense of one who is unwise or imprudent which is an accurate description of the mindset of most of the Pharisees. Paul used aphron in his letter to the saints at Ephesus exhorting them "So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." (Eph 5:17)
Did not He Who made the outside make the inside also - These men who were supposedly teachers of the Law ignored the repeated teaching in the Old Testament that God had always been interested in man's heart. David could not have stated it more clearly then when he wrote "For Thou dost not delight in sacrifice (EXTERNAL), otherwise I would give it; Thou art not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart (INTERNAL), O God, Thou wilt not despise." (Ps 51:16-17)
THE FIRST WOE: TITHING WITHOUT JUSTICE AND LOVE
What is interesting is that their own extra-biblical writings in the Mishnah said that rue is exempt from any tithe. These men were not even paying attention to their own traditions! They were fastidious with their minutia on the outside and oblivious to justice and love that came from the inside, from the heart.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-11-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteTHE SECOND WOE: LOVE OF THE "SPOTLIGHT"!
The root of this sin is pride. seats that were provided for dignitaries that actually faced the Jews gathered in the synagogue. The advantage of these seats was that they could be seen by all! They loved the publicity and prestige!
They want to be loved and admired and accorded reverence and have elevated position and be venerated and be admired and have all kinds of titles and to be distinguished from everybody else by all the stuff they wear, so that somehow you think they’re holy. “Woe to you for wanting to be up in front where everybody can see you. Woe to you for all your elaborate titles, terms of exaltation....And this applies not only to Pharisees but all across the board, even into the modern time to all religious hypocrites.
THE THIRD WOE: "CONCEALED TOMBS"
Here, Jesus accuses the Pharisees, who were meticulous about such laws of cleanliness, of defiling the Jewish nation through their own spiritual death! The charge must have shocked them! The application is that the sin of legalism contaminates unsuspecting people. It turns off unbelievers and keeps them from the truth of the gospel, because they can see the hypocrisy of the legalists. It contaminates young believers, who are mistakenly taught that if they do certain things and do not do other things, they will grow in holiness and be pleasing to God. But invariably, the things that they are told to do and not do are not the important issues of the Bible, such as the love of God and neighbor (as summed up in the Ten Commandments). Rather, they are petty things, often things that Scripture does not directly command. One reason many kids who grow up in Christian homes later reject the faith is that the parents and the church have been shot through with legalism. Instead of the joy of knowing God and of having our sins forgiven through His grace, the focus was on the rules and the outward conformity that had to be maintained so that everyone else would think that the kids (and parents) were good Christians. I’m not saying that Christian homes should not have any rules. But the emphasis in our homes and church should be on the joy of knowing God.
Hendriksen - According to a Jewish custom, just before the arrival of vast caravans of people traveling to Jerusalem to attend the Passover, graves were whitewashed. The reason this was done was that they might be clearly visible, so that no one would ceremonially defile himself by walking over a grave. But at times some graves were inadvertently left unwashed, unmarked.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-11-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteAN EXPERT IN THE LAW CHIMES IN
Lawyers (3544)(nomikos from nomos - law) means related to the law and generally refers to a legal scholar, an expert in the Mosaiac law, in interpreting Jewish law. Many of them were also Pharisees and as noted below they are also called scribes.
Lawyers were closely related to scribes. In fact it may be inferred that “scribes” is a generic name, and lawyers are the specialized ones skilled in law and jurisprudence of the Law of Moses. In this last section Jesus seems to interchange lawyer and scribe, first addressing them as lawyers (Lk 11:45) and then as scribes (Lk 11:53).
WOE NUMBER FOUR: YOU BURDEN MEN
You weigh men down with burdens hard to bear - This is a reference to the lawyers' interpretations of the Law and also their giving priority to the traditions of men. The NLT paraphrases it "you crush people with impossible religious demands." all their rules and regulations that were impossible to "carry" out. They were placing the people under legalism with all of their man-made rules and regulations concerning matters of no real importance.
The Jewish Mishnah (see also What is the Mishnah? What is a midrash?) actually had a statement that men's traditions took precedence to God's Word.
Leon Morris explains the so-called "logic" of the Mishnah - The reasoning is that if it was a serious matter to offend against the Law which was sometimes hard to understand, it was a much more serious matter to offend against the interpretation which, the scribes thought, made everything clear.
The lawyers had mastered the art of manipulating the rules so that they themselves were not burdened by them! They were experts in evasion! They were hypocrites, demanding absurd degrees of obedience from the "little" people but bypassing the rules themselves.
HYPOCRISY OF HOMAGE TO THE PROPHETS
Henry Morris feels that "The wisdom of God" is here used as a synonym for "the Scriptures," which is surely the source of the true wisdom in all matters it addresses. The passage paraphrased is 2 Chronicles 36:15,16. It may be also here that Jesus is actually calling Himself "the wisdom of God," thus asserting His right to paraphrase or expand on Scripture as He will."
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-11-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteHendriksen - The question is asked, “But was it fair to punish the Jews of Christ’s time for the blood that had been unrighteously shed ‘since the founding of the world’?” The biblical answer is that responsibility increases with the years. Every new generation that fails to take to heart the lessons of the preceding generation is adding to its own guilt and therefore also to the severity of its punishment. This is clear, for example, from such passages as Prov. 29:1; Jer. 7:16; Ezek. 14:14; Luke 13:34. And see especially Dan. 5:22.
KEY TO THE KINGDOM TAKEN AWAY BY THE LAWYERS
The lawyers adulterated the pure Word to the extent that what remained could give no spiritual insight to God and no entree into the Kingdom of God (i.e., no salvation from God). They should have been teachers of Scriptural truth, but they so obscured it with their man-made rules that the people could not discern God's truth from their error.
MacArthur - As their rejecting Christ reveals, the scribes and Pharisees could not correctly understand the Old Testament, which pointed to Him (John 5:39; cf. Luke 24:27; Rev. 19:10). Their traditions increasingly obscured the truth contained in the Old Testament, turning it into a maze of riddles, allegories, secret meanings, and obscure interpretations, all designed to reinforce their cleverness and sell their false system of self-righteousness. Not only were they unable to enter the kingdom of God themselves, they also hindered those who were entering. That is the most severe condemnation given by our Lord.
MacArthur - As their rejecting Christ reveals, the scribes and Pharisees could not correctly understand the Old Testament, which pointed to Him (John 5:39; cf. Luke 24:27; Rev. 19:10). Their traditions increasingly obscured the truth contained in the Old Testament, turning it into a maze of riddles, allegories, secret meanings, and obscure interpretations, all designed to reinforce their cleverness and sell their false system of self-righteousness. Not only were they unable to enter the kingdom of God themselves, they also hindered those who were entering. That is the most severe condemnation given by our Lord.
JESUS' DIATRIBE INCITES A HOSTILE REACTION
Hendriksen - “The scribes and the Pharisees began to be violently enraged against him.” Why? For the answer see Luke 18:9, 11, 12. Jesus had exposed the depths of their sinful nature. When that happens, hearers frequently divide into two groups: (a) some would like to stone the minister; (b) others, by God’s grace, cry out, “O God, be merciful to me, the sinner.”
Guzik - The religious leaders responded the way many do when they are faced with the correction and the truth of God. Instead of humbly receiving the correction, they responded with outraged accusations. Proverbs tells us what those who refuse correction do. First, they hate those who correct them (Pr 9:8, Pr 15:12). Second, they do not listen to the one correcting them (Pr 13:1). Third, they despise their own soul (Pr 15:32).. Proverbs also tells us the character of those who refuse correction. They are stupid (Pr 12:1) and they are foolish (Pr 15:5).
Questions and findings:
ReplyDelete1. Why didn't Jesus wash? Why was the Pharisee surprised?
To be clear, Jesus didn't engage in a complex "elder's tradition" ritual. One reason, He didn't engage was probably to create a teaching moment with the Pharisee. I think the Pharisee was surprised because it was probably considered rude not to join the Pharisee in this tradition.
2. Why did Jesus encourage the Pharisees to pay attention to the minutiae?
Jesus was rebuking the Pharisee for following the "light commandments" and neglecting the "heavy commandments". The Pharisee was living under the Law, so Jesus was not discouraging him of neglecting the "light commandments". Luckily, we live under the Law of Christ, so we don't have complex rituals and duties.
3. What did Jesus mean by unmarked graves?
Jewish people would become unclean if they walked over a grave. During festivals, the Jewish leaders would have graves whitewashed so that people wouldn't become inadvertently unclean. If they missed one, it was an unmarked grave and people would be in danger of inadvertently becoming unclean, and have to leave the festival.
Jesus was comparing the Pharisees to unmarked graves because they were traps. Anyone who came into contact with them would become unclean.
4. How are the lawyers getting away with not touching the burdens?
The tradition of the elders (the Mishna) was very complicated. The lawyers came up with a ton of loopholes to allow them to do pretty much what they wanted. While, the rest of the people were tied down by a ton of rules that severely limited them (to the point of being impossible to follow).
5. Why does "this generation" get charged with all the murders?
My opinion is that since the people of that generation were going to murder Jesus, the Messiah, they became guilty of murdering the culmination of all the prophets.
6. How have the lawyers taken away the key to knowledge?
The lawyers were such quibblers over the Law, they basically "loopholed" it to death. They added so much that God did not intend to the traditions and took out so much of what God did intend, it became useless to people who wanted to live according to God's will.
Additionally, Jesus was (and is) the key to knowledge. The lawyers didn't believe in Jesus and discouraged everyone else to believe.
7. How do we act like the Pharisees and lawyers?
Whenever we make rules or rituals that are not specifically commanded in the Bible, or weaken what is in the Bible, we become just like the Pharisees and lawyers. This usually happens when we desire the approval of others. Or, when we want to put up barriers so that not "just anyone" can join us.
Or put up banners so that anyone can join us..without repentance.
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