On Line Bible Study - For the Week December 20-26, 2010.

Lesson 471

Luke 11: ³⁷ When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table. ³⁸ But the Pharisee was surprised when he noticed that Jesus did not first wash before the meal... 39-54

We are looking at what Bible scholar Darrell Bock calls "one of the strongest condemnation discourses." Our interest this week is in Luke 11:37-54. You will link to the full text by clicking on the verse above and scrolling down to the appropriate verses.

We might summarize this section of Luke's gospel by saying: People who live in glass houses should not throw stones! The precipitating event for Jesus' list of "woes" is that he did not properly wash before eating a meal at the home of a Pharisee. Was it the awkward "glance" of the host toward him that set him off?

Jesus then lays into the Pharisees - they neglect the poor (verse 41), are indifferent to the call of justice (42), are prideful (43), and are death-traps for innocent people (44). For them to be critical of his washing technique is a bit like them noting the splinter in his eye while neglecting the plank in their own. (It's so easy to do that!)

Let's look at verse 44 -
Luke 11: ⁴⁴ “Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which people walk over without knowing it.”

I'm not sure I can come up with a contemporary equivalent to this statement. The assumption is that a person might fall into an unmarked grave, thus coming in contact with a dead body and be rendered ceremonially unclean. The image of falling into a grave next to a dead and deteriorating corpse is a most unpleasant one! Jesus is saying the Pharisees are, metaphorically, like that. In a sense, he is suggesting that there is nothing good about coming into contact with a Pharisee! Note: Jesus is saying this while the guest at the table of a Pharisee. (Darrell Bock says this image is "stark, tragic, and deadly".)

Jesus is interrupted by a Scribe who complains that Jesus' words to the Pharisees are also condemning to them. The man would have been better off to have said nothing, for this only causes Jesus to turn his full attention to the "teachers of the law" (or 'lawyers').

Jesus then chastises these teachers for laying burdens on others.

It's very hard here to avoid the temptation to criticize religion in general. Does your relationship with Jesus liberate you, or burden you? I don't mean to imply that it's all easy; but the relationship should be one that brings joy, freedom, hope, healing - just like any other meaningful relationship you have. I have to work at my marriage; but my relationship with my wife brings more joy than I can say, more love than I can describe. And no one has forgiven me more than she has.

Isn't that what the relationship with God is supposed to do? It comforts, heals, encourages, corrects, forgives. The religion of the Pharisees and Scribes has been heavy on rules and short on joy! They have turned heaven into hell for people, and Jesus is giving them hell for it.