DAY #112: Luke 11:37-54

Again Jesus was invited to a meal with a Pharisee. Jesus offended his host, however, because he did not first perform the ceremonial washing. This washing was done not for health reasons but as a symbol of washing away any contamination from touching anything unclean. Not only did the Pharisees make a public show of their washing, but they also commanded everyone else to follow a practice originally intended only for the priests.

Obsessed about ceremonial “purity,” the Pharisees neglected their own internal defilement. They washed on the outside, like one would wash a cup or a dish, but they left the inside full of greed and wickedness, never bothering to deal with those sins. They were no more pure than a dirty cup. Jesus condemned the Pharisees and religious leaders for outwardly appearing saintly and holy but inwardly remaining full of corruption. Jesus accordingly castigated these Pharisees as fools. God who made the outside of each person also made the inside. In other words, God is just as concerned with the inside as with the outside. He is not only concerned about what you do, but also about who you are.

The Pharisees loved to think of themselves as “clean,” but their stinginess toward God and the poor proved that they were not as clean as they thought. Jesus wanted to stress the importance of the inward over the outward, here focusing on the importance of a right attitude when giving to the poor. The inner attitude must match the outward act in order for them to be clean all over.

Jesus condemned the Pharisees for their love of public importance and honor. The elders sat on the seats of honor in the synagogues, at the front, near the place where the scrolls of the Torah were kept. Those seats faced the congregation. To receive respectful greetings was a highly treasured honor. Jesus condemned the attitude that focused on the “perks” of position, while they forgot their responsibility to be teachers. The Pharisees loved to receive honor and deference from ordinary people; yet they did not love or desire to serve those people. Instead, they often showed contempt for them as “lower” than themselves.

Jesus condemned these hypocrites for crushing people beneath impossible religious demands. These “demands” were the details the Pharisees had added to God’s law. To the commandment, “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy”, for example, they had added instructions regarding how far a person could walk on the Sabbath, which kinds of knots could be tied, and how much weight could be carried. Instead of teaching God’s law so that people could love, understand, and obey the God who gave it, they turned the law into such a confused maze of do’s and don’ts that it had become a burden to the people. The legal experts refused to lift a finger to help the people.

The tombs of the prophets were revered. People even decorated the graves of those long dead who seemed worthy of such honor. Building tombs over the graves of the martyrs was ironic because most of these prophets had been killed by the ancestors of this present religious establishment. In essence, these religious leaders were agreeing with the deeds of their ancestors in killing these prophets. Jesus was saying that these leaders were no different from their ancestors who had killed God’s messengers because, in a sense, they were simply completing their work. The attitude of hatred for God’s messengers would carry through, and Jesus himself would face it as well.

It may come as no surprise that these leaders were furious at Jesus. He had challenged these professed experts, so they hoped to trip him up and arrest him for blasphemy, heresy, or lawbreaking. They had to find a legal way to get rid of Jesus, so they grilled him with many hostile questions, trying to trap him. Jesus had pointed out the blatant hypocrisy of so much of Israel’s leadership, and there would be no turning back. The opposition was mounting; Jesus had become a threat to the establishment.

SO WHAT? (what will I do with what I have read today?)

Lord, search me and know me.

"Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Psalm 139:23-24 (NIV)

Remove any guile or pretence or any sense of hypocrisy from my life.

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth" Psalm 139:13-15 (NIV)

Everything I do today, may it be for Your honor and Your glory.

"O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. You hem me in--behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. 7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?" Psalm 139:1-7 (NIV)