Luke 11:37-54 Woe is Me
Good morning! Turn with me in your bibles to Luke 11:37, that’s on page 870 in the pew Bibles. We are going to pick up where we left off last week in this great confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees and teachers of the Law.
Let’s pray.
Last week we dealt with how Jesus pointed out that the inside should match our outside; that outward cleanness, that is appearing to be spiritually clean on the outside, is of no value without cleanness on the inside. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were only concerned with outward appearances and Jesus exposed their hypocrisy.
In the rest of the passage Jesus proclaims six woes to the Pharisees and the lawyers.
According to the “New Bible Dictionary, Third Edition,” When Jesus says ‘Woe unto you’, he is not so much pronouncing a final judgment as deploring the miserable condition in God’s sight of those he is addressing. Their wretchedness lies not least in the fact that they are living in a fool’s paradise, unaware of the misery that awaits them. The state of the materially-minded blinded by wealth to their spiritual needs, of the self-satisfied, of the impenitent and unsympathetic, and of those who are universally popular is declared by Jesus to be wretched (Lk. 6:24–26). Similarly, the woeful condition of the Pharisees and scribes (Lk. ‘lawyers’) lies, Jesus tells them, in the hypocritical zeal, the lack of proportion, the love of display and the self-complacency which disfigure their religion.
So let’s look at our text from Luke 11 together and see what we can glean from it.
37 While Jesus 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.
The Pharisees, as we talked about last week, were a sect of the Jewish people who were known for a strict adherence to the Law of Moses, so strict that they added all kinds of other rules and traditions on top of the Law of God but taught that those rules were just as important.
The lawyers, on the other hand, were those whose interpretations of the Law formed the basis of the whole Pharisaical system. So these two groups walked hand in hand as we saw in our text. If Jesus insulted one, He insulted the other.
The problem of both of these groups was the same, the outward exercise of religion versus the inward cleanness of faith.
Jesus was pointing out the difference between reputation and character, reputation being what other people think you are and character being what God knows you are.
When you focus on the former and neglect the latter you become a hypocrite.
For these individuals this was a big problem, but the bigger problem was that these individuals were leaders and influencers of others and their influence was not positive.
So in Jesus’ exposure of their uncleanness and hypocrisy he pronounces six woes, three to each group.
The first is in verse 42.
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.
The word, “tithe,” means to give a tenth of one’s income. This principle was introduced in Leviticus 27:30-32.
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… 32 And every tithe of herds and flocks, every tenth animal of all that pass under the herdsman’s staff, shall be holy to the Lord.
The Pharisees were careful to count out every tenth mint leaf but neglected justice and the love of God.
As Calvin defines it, “Judgment is taken for equity, or uprightness, the effect of which is, that we render to every man what belongs to him, and that no man deceives or injures others. Mercy proceeds farther, and leads a man to endeavor to assist his brethren with his property, to relieve the wretched by advice or by money, to protect those who are unjustly oppressed, and to employ liberally for the common good the means which God has put into his hands. Faith is nothing else than strict integrity; not to attempt anything by cunning, or malice, or deceit, but to cultivate towards all that mutual sincerity which every man wishes to be pursued towards himself. The sum of the Law, therefore, relates to love.”
Though we are set free from the Law’s strict requirement to tithe, it is a great starting point for us when it comes to our cheerful worship in giving. Jesus told the Pharisees that they should do one without neglecting the other and the same holds true for us, justice, equity, uprightness, mercy, love for our neighbor, love for God as well as generosity in giving.
43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.
Again Jesus reminds them of their focus on outward appearances and pride. They sought to sit at the head table, to sit up front in the synagogue where the dignitaries and important people sat.
In Just a few chapters from now in Luke 14:8-11, Jesus instructed His followers,
8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, 9 and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. 10 But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. 11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
This is exactly the opposite of the attitude of the Pharisees, they exalted themselves all the time, only now they were getting dressed down for their pride and presumption.
Next is the woe that bothers me the most.
44 Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.
This basis for this statement is found in Numbers 19:16, which says, 16 Whoever in the open field touches someone who was killed with a sword or who died naturally, or touches a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.
The trouble I have with this statement is that the people who followed the Pharisees, who admired their guidance, and who sat under their teaching, were actually being defiled instead of being made clean. The uncleanness of their legalism and pride was actually infecting those who followed them and they didn’t even know it.
As a teacher this troubles me greatly. I pray that I don’t add to anyone’s problems because of my own sins and failures.
So in the middle of Jesus’ proclamation of woes on the Pharisees, one of the experts in the Law stands up and says to Jesus, “When you insult the Pharisees, you’re insulting all us lawyers too!”
I wonder what kind of response this lawyer was looking for… “Sorry, my bad, you guys are cool!”
Yeah, nope.
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.
The problem Jesus is pointing out is not the Law. The Law wasn’t the problem it was the lawyers.
Jesus is pointing out the lawyers’ unscrupulous, hypocritical, shameless, inconsistent enforcement of the Law of God, loading people up with the burdens of religion without lifting a finger to help them.
This is exactly the effect legalism has. You have to dress this way, you can only use this version of the Bible, you have to sing out of this book, you can play only these instruments, you can’t work, or shop, or walk around on Sundays… You get the picture.
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free, don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery to empty religion and powerless religious rituals. Religion buries the Word of God under mounds of traditions.
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.
Abel, in Genesis 4:8, was the first martyr, murdered by his brother because of jealousy, because he offered a right sacrifice before God and God was pleased by it.
Zechariah was the last martyr in the Hebrew organization of the Old Testament, as recorded in 2 Chronicles 24:20-21, stoned to death in the Temple.
Alistair Begg said, “The same hate that filled the hearts of their fathers towards the prophets is actually filling their hearts.”
In Acts 7:51-53 the words of Stephen, the first martyr of the New Testament: 51 “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, 53 you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”
Proverbs 29:1 says, He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing.
These men were held responsible for the blood of all the prophets because they did listen to them, they didn’t learn from them, they didn’t recognize that they were all pointing them to Jesus whom they were persecuting and plotting against.
And finally, 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.”
Jesus said in Matthew 23:13, For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.
Jesus is the key to the whole Bible, both Old and New Testaments. Instead of pointing people to Him as the fulfillment of the Old Testament and its prophecies they stood opposed to Him, rejected Him, and eventually had Him killed.
They refused to turn from their sin, from their empty religion, and turn to Jesus in faith and instruct others to do the same and so they would not enter the kingdom of heaven and hindered others who were entering.
I know this is long but we still have to ask, what is our take away, what can we learn from this confrontation?
Don’t be like that.
Don’t count on outward appearances, don’t count on empty religious practices and not on true faith in Jesus, don’t withhold justice and mercy and generosity, don’t neglect the love of God and your neighbor, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and let Him left you up, honor the Lord by obeying His Word as it’s given, not adding to it nor taking away from it, enter the kingdom of God through simple faith in Jesus and invite others to join you.
Amen.
