Woe to the Hypocrites! Jesus lays it down on the religious and political elite - Luke 11 part 2

(Click here to read Luke 11)
(see the previous entry for part one of Luke 11)

More dramatic and intense than the woes to the rich of Luke chapter 6 are the severe and dramatic warnings Jesus levels toward the Pharisees and lawyers, the cultural religious and political elite, at the end of chapter 11.

Luke 11:37-38 (ESV)

³⁷ While Jesus 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.

When Jesus is judged by a pharisee for not following the custom of ritual washing before a meal, it seems that he's finally had enough. Whether because they've followed him looking for criticisms (Luke 5:30-6:11 and notes), or seem to honestly come upon them at dinner parties (Luke 7:36-50 and notes), Jesus can't make one decision trivial or righteous without some comment by these cultural watchdogs. And he's had it.

Here come the woes.

Luke 11:39-41

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.

WOE #1 – You have greed instead of integrity (vv39-41)

Jesus uses the metaphor of cleaning a dish only on the outside to look good for others. But he goes further than just suggesting the inside of their dishes must be cleaned. He says that the contents should be given to the poor. So this double edged sword suggests that not only are their outer lives a false front, but that their inner lives are full of greed and self indulgence. Only generosity can cure this ill.

(Jesus doesn't actually say “woe” here. He just calls them fools. He's still warming up. Some put this first woe with the next one, making only six woes total.)

Luke 11:42

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.

WOE #2 – You have wrong priorities (v42)

The pharisees interpreted every action of the law. Defining every command to the finest detail. Yet in the details, they'd forgotten the entire point of the law to begin with. In Chapter 10, a lawyer tries this same trick, asking Jesus the specifics of who he is commanded to love or not love when told he must love his neighbour. Jesus did not allow him the control and comfort of a perfect legal boundary. The purpose and point of the law is love and justice. Beyond that is missing the point.

Luke 11:43

⁴³ Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.

WOE #3 – You are people pleasers (v43)

It is the nature of the empires of the world to seek the affirmation of others. It is the nature of the Kingdom of God to be a servant of all. In taking praise and honour from people, they are stealing credit that belongs to God alone, and tempting others with idolatry. There is only one Rabbi, and we are all disciples. The humility of discipleship in Jesus is greater than the greatest honour of being a teacher or spiritual leader in the world.

Luke 11:44

⁴⁴ Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.”

WOE #4 – Your influence makes people unclean without their knowledge (v44)

Jesus tells the pharisees they are like unmarked graves. This is a terrible accusation. The Jewish law said that to come into contact with a grave made a person ceremonially unclean. Jesus is suggesting that the pharisee's influence actually makes people unclean before God, but the appearance of holiness and religion makes it appear as though this is not so. Their laws and regulations do nothing to purify a person, but they do ease the conscience. This would make a person even worse off then they were to begin with. It's a double hypocrisy.

Here is where a lawyer speaks up, saying that Jesus is insulting them as well.

Luke 11:45

⁴⁵ One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.”

Rather than letting up, he turns his fury from the pharisees onto the lawyers that accompany them.

Luke 11:46

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.

WOE #5 – Your religious rules are unbearable (v46)

By quantifying every detail of the people's lives, the lawyers had taken a faith intended to let people know the God that had set them free from slavery, and turned its practices into a slavery itself. What a perversion. Ironically, as “experts” in the law, they likely knew ways to follow its letter without the same depth of consequence, just as a person with greater resources may do today. This is probably why Jesus implies that the burdens aren't as great for themselves.

Luke 11:47-51

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.

WOE #6 – You are as guilty as your forefathers (vv47-51)

Jesus accuses the lawyers of being the same as all the generations before them who had ignored the pleas of prophets who had called on the people to return to justice. He is crying out in the same way for people to leave behind their control and striving and burdensome selfish powergames for the truth of the gospel of the Kingdom found in himself. They reject him as others rejected the prophets of old. Their guilt is the same.

Luke 11:52

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.”

WOE #7 – Your perversion of scripture has hidden the truth of salvation from yourself and all you teach (v52)

Because the lawyers had turned the faith intended to teach of justice and love into a meaningless set of minute personal rituals, the path of faith in Jesus had been obscured. The scriptures revealed Jesus, but they had turned them into an impossible set of rituals. They were self deceived, and they in turn deceived others. Woe indeed.

The pharisees and lawyers are not convicted by Jesus' angry sermon. Their efforts to trap him are redoubled.

(Jesus is not given the right to remain silent.)

Luke 11:53-54

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.

Prayer, Persistence, and Excuses - Luke 11 part 1

(Click here to read Luke 11)

Luke 11:1-4 (ESV)

Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” ² And he said to them, “When you pray, say:

“Father, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.

³ Give us each day our daily bread,

⁴ and forgive us our sins,

for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

And lead us not into temptation.”

Prayer is very important in Luke's gospel. Jesus spends a night praying before choosing his disciples. He spends a night praying before asking them who they say he is (chapter 9).

When the disciples see him praying, they ask him to teach them. The prayer he teaches them is commonly called “the Lord's Prayer, or “Our Father.

"Our Father" is a corporate prayer. Our daily bread. Our debts. Our debtors. Lead us. Deliver us. Though we often imagine prayer as a personal, private activity, Jesus' prayer is one to be shared. It is corporate. Even when praying alone, we pray in unity.

We are a family, and God is our Father. Yahweh was called “our Father” in the Old Testament as well (Deuteronomy 14:1, 32:6, Psalm 103:13, Hosea 11:1). Only Jesus called him “my Father”.

To pray for God's will to be done is as submitted and humble a Kingdom prayer as can be prayed. This is the prayer of Jesus in Gethsemene “not my will, but yours be done”, before going to the cross.

Our daily bread – We pray for God’s provision for everyone, everywhere, remembering that we are his body. We remember that everything we have to sustain our life has been provided by God. We do not need to store up food for ourselves (James 5:1-6), but trust God to provide for us each day. Also, when we each pray that God would provide for “us”, we give opportunity for God to remind us that it is often through us that he wants to provide. When our cupboards are full, it may seem strange to pray for God's daily provision. But as a corporate prayer, it applies. When one person is still hungry, we can still pray.

Notice that this verse shows that this is a daily prayer.

Daily repentance. Praying for God to forgive others (our debts) will lead us also to forgive others.

God does not tempt us with evil – James 1:13. Though James also says in the same chapter that we should consider in trials to have “pure joy” (1:2), we are still to pray that God would keep us from trials that could tempt us from him. In the Garden of Gethsemene, Jesus told his disciples to pray so that they would not be tempted (Matthew 26:41). Prayer is essential for remaining in Jesus.

We rely on God both for forgiveness when we fail, and for the grace to have victory over temptation. Whether we fly or fail and are forgiven, it is all the work of Jesus. His is the power and the glory. Forever. Amen.

1 Chronicles 29:11-13 – the oft quoted scribal addition (for yours is the kingdom, and the power . . .) is scripturally sound.

Continuing his teaching on prayer, Jesus reminds the disciples to be persistent in their prayer, using a parable of a friend making a request at an inconvenient time. This isn't to say that God is unjust or that we ever inconvenience him, but that our prayers needn't be passive. We pray as though we truly expect God to answer. Passivity isn't humble. We can persistently pray “your will be done” with humility.

In contrast to the humility of an open hand and heart praying for a good God to forgive and provide daily, the pharisees and crowds demand signs and make excuses for not following Jesus' teachings. The pharisees accuse Jesus of being in league with Satan. That they would consider that authority and power such as Jesus possesses - to heal and feed and teach and set free – would come from Satan shows the depth of their own corruption. In fact, Jesus himself says that the darkness is in their own eyes. They are unable to see the truth of the light of the freedom Jesus demonstrates. With their eyes closed, their spirits are darkened.

When asked for a sign to prove his identity, Jesus refuses. He has willingly taught, healed, and performed miracles. He has commissioned disciples with his authority. He has been transfigured before his friends. But in the presence of those demanding a sign with dark eyes and hard hearts, Jesus will not oblige. The prophets have spoken. It is enough.

Jesus' call to come into God's way is not abstract, it is not inward and individual. It is not psychic or academic. It is active. It is real. It is now. He does not accept excuses. He calls to surrender.

Luke 11:28 - Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!

(part 2 of Luke 11 - Woes to the Hypocrites - will be posted in one hour.)