Luke 11:37-46

Transcript

00:00:01:03 – 00:00:28:32
Clint Loveall
Hey, everyone. Welcome back. Thanks for joining us on this Tuesday’s. We continue through the gospel. Luke, good to have you with us. Good to see you guys. Appreciate you giving us some time as we look at the gospel together. One of those passages today, each gospel has one or more sections which could be. How would you characterize it, Michael?

00:00:28:37 – 00:01:04:25
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I mean, you’d have to say negative. I think some people would would label a passage like this negative. But it’s a passage in which Jesus expresses warning, condemnation, unhappiness in Matthew and Luke. These are summarized with the with a very short word, woe. And the woes are woven through this passage. And so, Jesus, this is one of those moments where we catch Jesus saying some hard things, some difficult things to hear, certainly some difficult things to understand in some cases.

00:01:04:30 – 00:01:24:56
Clint Loveall
But we will work our way through and we’ll see what we can find and see what it says to us today. So we’re in the 11th chapter, 37th verse says here, while he was speaking, a Pharisee invited him to dine with him. So he went in, took his place at the table. The Pharisee was amazed to see that Jesus did not wash before dinner.

00:01:25:01 – 00:01:50:25
Clint Loveall
Then the Lord said to him, Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you’re full of greed and wickedness. You fools did not the one who made the outside make the inside. So give alms for things that are within and see everything will be clean for you. So this this continues yesterday’s theme a little bit.

00:01:50:27 – 00:02:11:34
Clint Loveall
Yesterday we had this passage on the light of the body and being light inside instead of dark inside the clash between light and dark. And we continue that theme in a sense today with the idea of inside and outside. And there’s this moment that hand-washing here is not just a good idea. That’s a ceremonial thing. It’s a ritual thing.

00:02:11:34 – 00:02:36:25
Clint Loveall
It was required of Jews before dinner, and some of them evidently made a show of it. Jesus does not. And he he hears the thoughts of the host who is sort of judged mentally thinking, why doesn’t Jesus follow our customs? Why isn’t he doing what he’s supposed to do? And then Jesus launches into what I think is probably well known for people who read the Bible.

00:02:36:25 – 00:03:03:06
Clint Loveall
This is probably an image that you’ve heard in the other gospels. You clean the outside of the cup, but you leave the inside unclean. You look good on the outside, but on the inside you’re full of greed and wickedness. And again, continuing that idea of what is inside, of what guides us spiritually, what fills our souls, and what is it that we set our compass to?

00:03:03:10 – 00:03:20:24
Clint Loveall
And Michael, I don’t know what else really we add to this other than another clear instance where Jesus doesn’t want to talk about appearance, but wants to talk about what is at the heart. And I think that’s helpful language.

00:03:20:29 – 00:03:58:54
Michael Gewecke
So a theme that is dominant in Jesus’s encounters with the religious leaders, Clint, is hypocrisy. And this is a clear, almost distilled version of that theme, because here Jesus takes to task the religious leaders for the things that they are displaying, but not the things that are at the deepest core of who they are. Examples of that here that we’ve had thus far, this idea of public cleanliness, which is this part of ritual cleanliness, this idea of looking and and making our bodies reflect a kind of cleanliness.

00:03:58:55 – 00:04:27:13
Michael Gewecke
That idea. Jesus is accusing them of making external and not internal. And then this idea in verse 41 here, give alms for those that are within everything will be clean for you. This this idea, once again, it’s a ritual expectation that you give and this idea that when you do that publicly or when you do that in a way that is showy, that it in that moment becomes something that’s more about you than about the actual purpose of the task itself.

00:04:27:14 – 00:05:00:39
Michael Gewecke
And Clint, one way that this has been interpreted amongst the church and we’ll see this more as we continue on, but one way that this has historically been interpreted is look at how bad the Pharisees are. Look at how bad these people are and look at how badly Jesus needs to come. And he needs to reprimand them. The problem with that interpretation is it fails to see the inherent critique of Christians as well.

00:05:00:39 – 00:05:26:22
Michael Gewecke
The idea that we too might become more fixated in the rituals of faith or the regular practices of faith than in the living out of the faith itself. I think it’s worth noting that it’s important we not make enemies of these people, because in Jesus’s day, the Pharisees were far closer to Jesus in his theology than any other group of Jewish leadership.

00:05:26:22 – 00:05:54:09
Michael Gewecke
I mean, some of the things that the Pharisees believed were things that Jesus also taught and believed. And so there’s actually a lot of similarities there. This critique seems to be because of his closeness to them as opposed to his distance from them. And that kind of thing is a very, I think, compelling critique. If we are tempted ourselves to make this about our finger pointing it look at how bad they are and we don’t find the critique to ever land on ourselves.

00:05:54:23 – 00:06:29:17
Clint Loveall
The Scriptures are particularly hard on people who lead for their own purposes, for their own glory, for their own self-interest. And we have here a section six woes. And the word woe is it’s a lot of things packed together. In a small word, it’s warning it. It is a rebuke. It is a negative word. It is the sense that something is going to happen to them or that they stand under condemnation.

00:06:29:22 – 00:06:55:41
Clint Loveall
So we we move into these. And in each one, Jesus not only tells us something about the Pharisees, but as you rightly point out, Michael, he gives us a warning for ourselves as well. So verse 42, we start to see this Woe to you Pharisees, for you tithe mint and RU and herbs of all kinds and neglect, justice and the love of God.

00:06:55:46 – 00:07:20:25
Clint Loveall
It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the other. And so this is the condemnation or the criticism of being faithful with little things being wrapped up over details and yet missing the point of saying, I’m going to tithe to that to the smallest kernels of spices, and yet I’m not going to be fair to my neighbor.

00:07:20:25 – 00:07:55:01
Clint Loveall
I’m not going to live a just life. And so this is a condemnation of a of a religion that is legalistic and yet in its legalism is immune from doing the right thing that protects itself with little things, with small thinking and small mindedness. And and that is so in contrast to what Jesus understands and teaches us faith that he calls it out here and he he accuses the Pharisees of being faithful in small things while neglecting the big things.

00:07:55:10 – 00:08:23:04
Michael Gewecke
Because they’re missing the point. Right? Ultimately, here in verse 42, what we see is they’re doing the thing they’re tithing, they’re giving of what has been given to them, even to your point, Clint, in the small, tiny aspects of life, and yet whether they are neglecting the justice that is intended to be reflected by these actions, in other words, you get so fixated on the doing that it becomes separated from its meaning.

00:08:23:16 – 00:08:50:46
Michael Gewecke
And Jesus is so critical of these leaders because they are the ones responsible for the proclamation of the meaning, for the carrying on the observance of the deepest realities of faith. And it is these leaders who have completely left that post unmanned. They are fixated on the tiny, small details of life, and therefore they miss God’s ultimate call for justice, which we see time and time again.

00:08:50:46 – 00:09:15:54
Michael Gewecke
That’s not reflected directly in this text, but indirectly. I think it’s here and it’s certainly explicit throughout the rest of the Gospels that Jesus’s vision for justice extends actually beyond Israel and the Pharisees can’t even get beyond the daily small, tiny tithing of of essentially what we would call your your herbs, you know, your seasonings, these kinds of things.

00:09:15:54 – 00:09:25:37
Michael Gewecke
And they’re fixated on that as the letter of the law and not the God of the law, the one who is the giver and the one who furthers the law.

00:09:25:46 – 00:09:50:15
Clint Loveall
I think essentially what Jesus says here is you’re being faithful in little things and being unfaithful in the big things. And this isn’t Jesus dismissing the other things. Notice you should be faithful with both. But it is to say that a faith that only practices the minutia is not a a life giving faith. It’s not a just righteous kind of faith.

00:09:50:15 – 00:10:17:28
Clint Loveall
And probably should also point out, Michael, that in criticizing the Pharisees and calling them out by name, Jesus is running the risk of angering people. The Pharisees are a pretty respected class of people. They have a significant amount of religious standing and religious power. And so to be so obvious in critiquing them is going to draw attention to Jesus in in all kinds of ways.

00:10:17:33 – 00:10:53:24
Clint Loveall
So then the next thing we see here, woe to you Pharisees, for you love to have the seat of honor in the synagogues and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces. Again, a self-aggrandizing faith, a self congratulating faith, a faith that is about being noticed, a faith that is about getting attention, making sure people know that your import and making sure people know you were there, that that this is the wrong motive, that this is simply not faith, this is self-serving and it’s not God honoring.

00:10:53:24 – 00:11:04:19
Clint Loveall
And so a pretty stinging critique here of a of a kind of put yourself in the middle approach to to religion.

00:11:04:24 – 00:11:43:17
Michael Gewecke
This is a little bit of deep water. And, you know, I gather just caution. This is stepping certainly outside of Luke’s intention. But the spirit of this comment is to bring this into our present experience. And, you know, a question that this raises for me is what would Jesus have to say about a world in which so much of our lives are lived in a kind of public display when we broadcast ourselves, when we take 1000 pictures a day and then share that in circles that our, you know, maybe our closest friends and family, maybe sometimes to the Internet writ large.

00:11:43:17 – 00:12:12:31
Michael Gewecke
The fact that you and I right now are broadcasting this to the Internet in a way that gets stored and people come and watch that there is a temptation in our lives to do this self-aggrandizement, to have this seat of honor, to be greeted with respect. We we do in our culture, put celebrities at such an incredibly high level that I think words like this, at least in our time and place, as they have throughout all time, resonated, I think, in our time and place.

00:12:12:36 – 00:12:42:07
Michael Gewecke
There should be a warning for us in this. We should be cautioned for when we desire to be lifted up, to be pointed out, to be clearly celebrated by others in places of honor and aggrandizement that’s so built into culture and such a significant part of our leadership, an idea of authority right now that I think words like this from Jesus should certainly command our respect and attention.

00:12:42:12 – 00:13:09:27
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I think that, you know, the implication is pretty clear that if we’re going to live a public faith, which we should, it ought to match with our private faith. You know, we ought not find ourself praying over dinner at some restaurant and then practice gluttony and leave no tip just because people won’t notice those things. If we’re going to put a cross or a fish on our car, we should drive graciously in a way that respects it.

00:13:09:32 – 00:13:37:17
Clint Loveall
This is the idea here, is that what we portray to the public and what we do in private, or to match that there ought to be coherency between being perceived as a person of faith and actually living as a person of faith. And this is a is a damning criticism against the Pharisees, the idea that they practice for recognition, you know, that that’s Jesus being his least generous.

00:13:37:17 – 00:14:03:07
Clint Loveall
We know that there are well-meaning Pharisees, but as Jesus sees some of the practice of some of the Pharisees, he’s moved to to condemn it as self-serving. Then we move to the next one Woe to you. You’re like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without realizing. So again, maybe you grew up with this. I did. When we went to cemeteries, I was told, never stop, you know, in front of the gravestones.

00:14:03:21 – 00:14:32:38
Clint Loveall
Don’t walk on a grave. It’s kind of an old sign of respect, maybe even superstition. But what Jesus is saying here is that the Pharisees don’t give people good bearings. They don’t give them good directions. They don’t function for people as signs and they fail as leaders because they’re unmarked graves and people people break the law. People offend God without realizing it, because the Pharisees aren’t helping them.

00:14:32:38 – 00:14:48:29
Clint Loveall
The Pharisees are so busy doing these other things for themselves to make themselves feel spiritual and to get the attention of others that they’re not actually fulfilling their purpose, which is to show people what a life of faith looks like and help guide them.

00:14:48:34 – 00:15:14:04
Michael Gewecke
Well. And we’ve already had this language about washing your hands in this ritual, pure purity. Another thing that we might not know because it’s not built into our culture, is that within that strain in Israel, there was also this idea that one might be on pure if you stepped on to an unmarked grave. And so there’s a really fascinating kind of critique in this statement.

00:15:14:04 – 00:15:45:37
Michael Gewecke
What Jesus is saying is that people are following you. They are finding your faith compelling and they are unwittingly walking over dead graves that they’re on willingly making themselves on pure impure because of your impurity. And that Clint is fighting words, that that is Jesus certainly putting the Pharisees on notice that he has something to say to them.

00:15:45:37 – 00:16:12:09
Michael Gewecke
And this is one of the really interesting components of Bible study, I think, is because we read all of the gospel and depending upon how closely we read and how deeply entrenched in the texts we are, we might actually get to the Holy week as we call it, those last days before Jesus’s life. In some ways we might wonder to ourselves, why in the world why is this so serious?

00:16:12:09 – 00:16:35:25
Michael Gewecke
How does this man end up dying? For what? To us seem like not that significant of crimes? And the case I would make, Clint, is if we read this text and we hear the sharp critique in these wars of people who had great standing. In fact, they were respected in the seat of honor. They were greeted with respect in the marketplace.

00:16:35:25 – 00:17:00:59
Michael Gewecke
That was a thing that actually happened, that when Jesus offered this kind of stinging rebuke, this is the thing that now will move into motion the processes that will lead Jesus to his death. So let’s not miss how significant of rhetoric this is. Jesus has identified those people in power who are enjoying the power and not standing on behalf of the people.

00:17:01:12 – 00:17:14:07
Michael Gewecke
And by calling them out in this way, he’s initiated the kind of public rebuke and alienation and political response which is ultimately going to end with his own death and his own trial.

00:17:14:22 – 00:17:41:02
Clint Loveall
Well, I think it would be it might be easy to read over what an insult or how insulting these words are, you know, but think them through. He Jesus has just criticized the Pharisees for wanting to be important. You want the best seats, you want the honor, you want respect in the marketplace. But you are like unmarked graves, no surprise.

00:17:41:04 – 00:18:18:51
Clint Loveall
Who’s in an unmarked grave? Somebody of no importance, somebody of no connection, nobody of notoriety, nobody of of true importance is going in an unmarked grave. And so Jesus is saying here, you think you’re one thing, but you’re another thing. You’re you’re irrelevant. You don’t matter. You’re an unmarked grave and people walk over you without realizing. So it’s both a critique of their leadership, but also an insult of of this desire for them to try and be something that they’re not.

00:18:18:55 – 00:18:40:01
Clint Loveall
Let’s try to get through one more, Michael, verse 45 here. One of the lawyers. And when the scripture says lawyers here, it means this is tough for us, but sort of religious expert, an expert in the law, in Jesus day, in Jesus tribe, in Judaism of Jesus Day, the idea of secular law and religious law is not a distinction.

00:18:40:06 – 00:19:06:49
Clint Loveall
The idea is that there is law, and law is God’s law. Yes, there are Roman laws, etc. but the Jews are deciding things to the best of their ability through the lens of the Old Testament, what we call the Old Testament. And so when this says lawyer, it’s not what we think of. It is a religious expert, a not maybe a non Pharisee, maybe not, but this group of people.

00:19:06:54 – 00:19:34:10
Clint Loveall
So one of them answers, Jesus, teacher, when you say these things, you insult us too. And he said, Woe also to you lawyers for you load people with burdens that are hard to bear and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them. And again, here, not just a critique of leadership, which is valid, but of religious leadership.

00:19:34:15 – 00:19:56:35
Clint Loveall
You put these burdens on people, you tell them what to do and you don’t do it again. The hypocrisy not only do you not do it, you don’t help them do it. You put things upon people that you’re not willing to bear, which is the mark for Jesus of hypocrisy, of poor leadership, of abuse and oppression of people.

00:19:56:40 – 00:20:19:55
Clint Loveall
And so this, again, is a pretty stinging critique. You are quick to load others down, but you won’t do anything to help. And again, the form of faith without the substance of faith. And that’s always going to set Jesus off and he’s always going to have hard words for that.

00:20:20:00 – 00:20:48:13
Michael Gewecke
This is another way of saying what you said, but maybe it puts it in a different perspective so we can see it differently. Whenever Jesus encounters someone who is using religion as a tool to any end, any end furthering one’s own power, furthering one’s own self of importance, furthering one’s own deepest brokenness, to use that word, abuse of others in any way.

00:20:48:18 – 00:21:11:16
Michael Gewecke
When Jesus encounters religion that is used as a tool, he decries it unequivocally and with very strong language. For Jesus, religion is at its core, always an encounter with the living God. And that shouldn’t be a surprise to us because Jesus Christ is the human encounter with the living God. That is what the Gospels are trying to do.

00:21:11:27 – 00:21:41:18
Michael Gewecke
They’re trying to show us what happens when humans encounter God. And one of the aspects of humans encountering God is we see in clear light of day the brokenness of the religious tool that has been used to oppress. And so here, when Jesus offers this stinging rebuke of the lawyers, he’s not fundamentally against studying the law. He’s not against the idea of intellectual, he’s not against the idea of deeper study fact.

00:21:41:18 – 00:22:08:10
Michael Gewecke
Jesus is the definition of wisdom. What Jesus is saying in words like this is that you should not put on others a burden that they can’t bear. Because, by the way, who’s the one who bears the burden? Jesus says. And so that that’s the the turn that happens. And I think that that’s the thing that we see in a much more clear light when we see these woes that Jesus offers is that he’s not against religious ordering of life.

00:22:08:15 – 00:22:18:55
Michael Gewecke
He’s against it when that ordering is used against the people, it was designed to serve and help in their encounter with the living God. And Jesus makes it very clear his perspective on it.

00:22:18:57 – 00:22:49:57
Clint Loveall
When you care more about the laws than you care about the people, then you’re creating a scenario in which you’re not helping people. You’re judging them, you’re pointing out their sin, you’re pointing out their failures, but you’re not actually helping them get better. So when you care more about people’s failures or people’s responsibilities than you care about the actual people, you’re practicing a way of ministry of leadership that is flawed through the lens of the gospel.

00:22:49:57 – 00:23:09:02
Clint Loveall
It’s it doesn’t work. The the point of the gospel is that God loves people. And yes, God has a way that God wants them to live. But when you care more about their shortcomings than their souls, you’re you’re off of the Jesus path.

00:23:09:07 – 00:23:39:20
Michael Gewecke
We want to thank you for making it this far with us in the study here today. If you found this content helpful, please do subscribe here on YouTube that helps other people find the content that you found helpful. We really appreciate that. As a word of update, for those of you who are with us every day for the study, remember that tomorrow we will not be having our live study as we are going to take a break day, but we will be tomorrow at this time 2:00, releasing the first of a new series that we are trying.

00:23:39:25 – 00:23:57:01
Michael Gewecke
And tomorrow’s topic is the discussion of deconstruction, faith, deconstruction. We’re going to talk a little bit about what that means and what that might have to teach us about our faith. So certainly hope that you will avail yourself of that if you find it interesting and then you’ll join us as we continue on our study of Luke together on Thursday.

00:23:57:03 – 00:23:58:08
Michael Gewecke
Until then, be blessed.

00:23:58:10 – 00:23:58:55
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everybody.