37 Jesus finished speaking. Then a Pharisee invited him to eat with him. So Jesus went in and took his place at the table. 38 But the Pharisee was surprised. He noticed that Jesus did not wash before the meal.
39 Then the Lord spoke to him. “You Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish,” he said. “But inside you are full of greed and evil. 40 You foolish people! Didn’t the one who made the outside make the inside also? 41 Give freely to poor people to show what is inside you. Then everything will be clean for you.
42 “How terrible it will be for you Pharisees! You give God a tenth of your garden plants, such as mint and rue. But you have forgotten to be fair and to love God. You should have practiced the last things without failing to do the first.
43 “How terrible for you Pharisees! You love the most important seats in the synagogues. You love having people greet you with respect in the market.
44 “How terrible for you! You are like graves that are not marked. People walk over them without knowing it.”
45 An authority on the law spoke to Jesus. He said, “Teacher, when you say things like that, you say bad things about us too.”
46 Jesus replied, “How terrible for you authorities on the law! You put such heavy loads on people that they can hardly carry them. But you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.
47 “How terrible for you! You build tombs for the prophets. It was your people of long ago who killed them. 48 So you show that you agree with what your people did long ago. They killed the prophets, and now you build the prophets’ tombs. 49 So God in his wisdom said, ‘I will send prophets and apostles to them. They will kill some. And they will try to hurt others.’ 50 So the people of today will be punished. They will pay for all the prophets’ blood spilled since the world began. 51 I mean from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah. He was killed between the altar and the temple. Yes, I tell you, the people of today will be punished for all these things.
52 “How terrible for you authorities on the law! You have taken away the key to the door of knowledge. You yourselves have not entered. And you have stood in the way of those who were entering.”
53 When Jesus went outside, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law strongly opposed him. They threw a lot of questions at him. 54 They set traps for him. They wanted to catch him in something he might say.
Read Luke 11:37-54 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
During one of the times when Jesus was invited to the home of a Pharisee, the Pharisee and guests were surprised that Jesus didn’t ceremonially wash before sitting down for the meal. While we don’t know what Jesus specifically did or didn’t do, the Pharisee-host’s surprise prompts Jesus to share some pretty challenging words to those present.
Perhaps the group of Pharisees and religious leaders who were present represented the highest ranks in the region, or maybe Jesus simply was aware that this group of leaders needed to be spiritually challenged more than many others.
Jesus begins His response by talking about being clean before God, but He then quickly shifts to some other issues as well. Jesus calls the Pharisees out by saying, “How terrible it will be for you Pharisees! You give God a tenth of your garden plants, such as mint and rue. But you have forgotten to be fair and to love God. You should have practiced the last things without failing to do the first. How terrible for you Pharisees! You love the most important seats in the synagogues. You love having people greet you with respect in the market. How terrible for you! You are like graves that are not marked. People walk over them without knowing it.” (v. 42-44)
Jesus shares three big issues that defined the Pharisee culture, and they all have to do with focusing on the details while missing the heart.
The first issue is that the Pharisees emphasized tithing to an extreme, and according to Jesus, they even tithed on their seasonings and personal “garden plants” as well. But while this was correct to do, they had pushed aside having love in their hearts for God and being fair. Reading this description sounds like these leaders were perhaps a little resentful towards God for requiring a tithe from them.
The second issue stems from pride and wanting to look good to others. These Pharisees searched out opportunities to get the best seats in church (i.e. the synagogue) and getting respect and compliments when meeting other during the week. The root issue is that they were trying to build themselves up rather than focusing on building God up and passing glory up to Him.
The third issue challenges the Pharisees excessive lists of rules. They had created so many rules that it would be impossible for someone to come and obey them all. In other words, there were so many rules that even God couldn’t keep them all. When there were so many rules, and many that conflicted with one another, there was no way to avoid breaking something. People broke Pharisee rules every day without even knowing it. The Pharisees had gone too far with trying to develop regulations to help keep people from sinning, and Jesus challenges them on this point as well.
With these issues, we learn a key truth about God. With God, it doesn’t seem to be about the lists of rules we keep or about the things we do in His name. Instead, God looks for examples of us loving like He loved, caring like He cared, and being humble like He is humble. God is looking for people reflect and represent Jesus.
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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