Luke 11:37–54
37 While Jesus1 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.
1 Greek he
Section Overview
The opposition to Jesus crystallizes in this account, as he is invited to a meal with a Pharisee. The text can be divided into four main sections: (1) initial interaction between Jesus and the Pharisee, in which the Pharisee is astonished that Jesus does not wash before dinner (Luke 11:37–38); (2) Jesus’ condemnation of the Pharisees (vv. 39–44) for their outward show of piety that is not matched by inward godliness, their majoring on the minors, their love of human praise, and their defiling of others; (3) Jesus’ condemnation of the lawyers (vv. 45–52) for not helping others with their burdens and for following the example of those who killed the prophets, being responsible for the death of the righteous, and hindering others from entering the kingdom; and (4) the response of the scribes and Pharisees in attempting to trap Jesus in his words (vv. 53–54).
Section Outline
IV. Galilee to Jerusalem: Discipleship (9:51–19:27)
A. The Journey Begins (9:51–13:21) . . .
3. Controversy with Opponents (11:14–54) . . .
e. Woes for Scribes and Pharisees (11:37–54)
Response
Harold O. J. Brown once applied the words of Jesus to various denominations and to our government today. Even though the article was written years ago, it still speaks to us today. He points out that in the Episcopal Church ministers were required to believe that women should serve as priests and pastors, even though the church throughout all her history believed that women should not serve as priests or pastors. They even insisted that all who serve as priests must have no mental reservations whatsoever about women’s serving as priests, and yet one could serve as an Episcopal priest and deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Is this not an example of leaving out the weighty things of God’s law?
All of us face the danger of living like the Pharisees. We are warned about being like the Pharisees, not because the Pharisees were the worst people of their day but because Pharisees were the best people could be without God. We are all tempted to live like Pharisees, and so we must heed the words of Jesus here. We may be concerned that everything is done just right in church so that others will be impressed, but in the meantime we may indulge in gossip and evil talk about others. We might be scandalized if someone does not close her eyes during prayer or if a man wears a baseball hat in church but not even notice that we are losing our temper with the people we live with every day. We may make sure that we thank God before every meal even while allowing lust and pornography to fill our hearts.
Our goal in life may be for people to esteem us and greet us with respect and give us honor. Slowly, step by step, our faith can insidiously become a platform for our own pride and exaltation. Perhaps we begin to find that what we enjoy most about the church is the way others treat us with respect and honor. When this begins to happen, our faith has actually become a pathway to idolatry. Nothing is scarier than this. Let us pray that the Lord will keep us from such idolatry. Let us pray that the Lord will be gracious to us, that he will have mercy on us and draw near to us so that we will not live like Pharisees. Let us pray that our greatest joy will be to please God, know Jesus Christ, and be filled with the Spirit. We need mercy all the way and every day.
Greek he
11:37–38 During the course of Jesus’ ministry a Pharisee asks Jesus to dine with him (cf. 7:36; 14:1). The Pharisee is shocked that he does not wash his hands before eating. The washing of hands was not for hygiene but for ritual purity, and the Pharisees believed that those who did not wash their hands were defiled (Mark 7:2–5). It inconceivable to them that Jesus would not follow this custom. “A later rabbinic tradition likens eating bread without previously washing the hands to having intercourse with a harlot (b. Soṭah 4b).” The Pharisees were a popular lay movement in Jewish circles, and they encouraged the people to live in purity, believing that God would fulfill his promises if the people became more obedient.
11:39–41 We do not know if the Pharisee speaks to Jesus or if Jesus reads his thoughts (cf. Luke 5:22; 6:8; 11:17). In any case, Jesus is not impressed, nor does he apologize for not following the custom. In fact, he identifies the Pharisees as “fools,” which does not mean that they are intellectually deficient but states that they live like those who say there is no God (Ps. 14:1). Jesus argues that the Pharisees have things upside down, focusing on outside cleanliness but not inward godliness. They are careful with doing things right, purifying and cleansing cups and dishes. The problem is that they are not truly obedient in their hearts. Inside they are grasping for evil and full of ungodly desires. Jesus reminds them that the God who made the outside also made the inside.
The meaning of verse 41 is difficult, and scholars differ about what Jesus means in saying, “Give as alms those things that are within.” This is probably a contrast between the inside and the outside in a way that speaks to a Jewish concern. Giving alms was an indication in Jewish thought that one was generous and godly. We read in Tobit 12:9, “Almsgiving saves from death and purges away every sin. Those who give alms will enjoy a full life” (NRSV; cf. also Tob. 4:7, 16; 12:8; Sir. 7:10; 12:3; 35:4). Jesus, of course, is not opposed to almsgiving but warns that it can lead to self-adulation (Matt. 6:2–4). To put it another way, it can contribute to a notion of outward righteousness while inwardly we are full of unrighteousness. Thus Jesus’ point is that true almsgiving begins in the heart, in transformed affections. If the heart is generous and loving, then everything is clean. We can become preoccupied with outward conformity to what is right and fail to see the evil residing in our hearts.
11:42 Three woes are now pronounced on the Pharisees (cf. Luke 6:24–26) as Jesus follows the pattern of the prophets, who indicted Israel for its sins (e.g., Isa. 3:9, 11; 5:8, 11; Jer. 6:4; 22:13; 23:1; Ezek. 13:13; 16:23). “The woe is akin to a curse that warns against catastrophe, which looms should the current behavior be continued.” The Pharisees are concerned to do things exactly right, and thus they give a tenth of even the smallest plants: mint, rue, and every herb (cf. Luke 18:12). They probably appeal to Leviticus 27:30, “Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord” (cf. Deut. 14:22). Perhaps they emphasize that they are bringing in the “full tithe” (Mal. 3:10) and thus will be blessed by God. Perhaps this is an exaggeration, as rue is “exempt from being tithed according to m. Šeb. 9:1 and ‘mint’ is never mentioned in rabbinic literature.” Jesus is not against giving a tenth, saying that they should not neglect tithing. Still, he pronounces a woe against the Pharisees because they neglect justice and love for God (cf. Luke 10:27). They are fixated on relatively minor issues and missing what should truly characterize one’s relationship with God.
11:43–44 Another woe is pronounced in light of how the Pharisees love the adulation they receive for their piety, being granted seats of honor in synagogues and greetings in the market (14:7; 20:46). The Pharisees claim they serve God but they actually feed off of the acclaim, respect, and applause they receive from their contemporaries. The last woe pronounced against the Pharisees compares them to “unmarked graves.” Touching a grave would render someone unclean for seven days (Num. 19:16). The Pharisees, of course, claim to be clean, but Jesus says they are not what they profess. People think they are being drawn closer to God under the tutelage of the Pharisees, but actually those who are under Pharisaic influence are being contaminated by them. Those influenced by the Pharisees do not realize the negative influence the Pharisees have on them.
11:45–46 One of the experts in the Mosaic law enters the discussion, complaining that Jesus’ words also offend the lawyers. Apparently he expects Jesus to apologize, but Jesus proceeds to pronounce three woes on the lawyers as well. First, they load heavy burdens on the people they instruct but do not move a finger to help them. The point here is not that the lawyers do not keep the law themselves but that they do not assist those they teach (cf. Matt. 11:28–30).
11:47–48 The second woe at first seems like a compliment. The scribes build the tombs of the prophets. Presumably they decorate their tombs to honor the prophets their ancestors murdered. Jesus interprets the activity ironically. In building the tombs of the prophets they engage in the same activity as their predecessors. Their parents murdered them; the children, so to speak, bury them. Jesus’ point is that the lawyers do not accept the message he proclaims. More specifically, they reject Jesus, and in rejecting God’s messenger they do the same thing their parents did.
11:49–51 The previous point is clarified. God’s wisdom speaks about the entire course of history, in which both OT prophets (cf. Jer. 7:25; Luke 13:34; Acts 7:52) and apostles were sent to Israel. But Israel has not responded humbly to these messengers but instead kills and persecutes them (cf. Acts 7:59). The murder of those whom God has sent from the beginning will be charged to the generation rejecting Jesus. The point is not that previous generations were free from guilt, nor is the generation of Jesus’ time literally guilty of the sins of every previous generation. Instead what is envisioned is the execution of Jesus himself, who is the culmination of all of God’s messengers (cf. Luke 20:9–18). In that sense Jesus’ generation bears unique responsibility in that they bring to completion, in turning against the Messiah, the whole of Israel’s previous history. The OT history of God’s people begins with Cain’s murdering Abel (Gen. 4:1–8) and culminates with the murder of Zechariah by King Joash’s friends (2 Chron. 24:20–22). In the Hebrew arrangement of the Bible, 1–2 Chronicles is the last book, and thus we see the murder of Abel at the beginning of the book and the murder of Zechariah at the end. Now the generation in which Jesus lives will bring this history to a terrible culmination by murdering the Christ (cf. 1 Thess. 2:15).
11:52 The lawyers have a particular responsibility to disseminate knowledge, especially the knowledge of salvation. Their failure in this area leads to Jesus’ third woe against them. They remove the “key of knowledge” from others, which means that instead of teaching the truth they lead others astray. As a consequence, they will not enter the kingdom themselves, since they hinder those who are seeking life from finding it. Instead of helping people understand the truth, they prevent them from grasping it (cf. Matt. 23:13).
11:53–54 Jesus’ strong words against the scribes and Pharisees incite them, not surprisingly, so that they hold a grudge against him. They are not open to his critique but are deeply wounded and hold it against him, so they “begin to oppose him fiercely” (CSB). From this point on they encourage him to speak, hoping to find something in what he says to indict him. In doing so, ironically enough they fulfill the very thing Jesus has warned them about and are sealing their own condemnation.