Sunday, 31 March Luke 11:37-54
Written by Dr Graham Leo. ©2019.
If we thought yesterday’s reading was difficult, then today’s is even harder. On the surface, we might conclude that Jesus was rather an ungrateful and impolite guest.
He’d been invited to a meal, hadn't observed the customary ritual that he knew would be important in this household, and when the host expressed surprise, Jesus lets him have it, with both barrels. Further, one of the other guests, an expert in the law, pointed out that Jesus had insulted him and his colleagues also. Then Jesus gave him a serve, too.
We don't need to give Jesus the ‘benefit of the doubt’; that would be irreverent. But we do need to give him his due, as the Son of God. He loves mercy and kindness, forgiving sins and showing compassion. He always does what is right. He never acts wrongly. Therefore, we have to assume that there is some background to all of this which we don't understand. We need to find it out.
Context is everything. We ought to note that this diatribe against the Pharisees and legal experts followed directly after Jesus’ talk of darkness and light. Jesus had some important words for those who claimed to be the religious leaders and teachers. We’re looking for meaning. Let’s list his critiques and see what patterns emerge:
1. You are scrupulous with externals, but ‘inside you are full of greed and wickedness’ (v39). Solution: share your food and your goods with the poor; stop consuming it all on yourselves.
2. You are scrupulous with tithes to an exasperatingly pernickety level (v42), but ‘you neglect justice and the love of God’. Solution: Start addressing both these, while not neglecting the former.
3. You are proud and arrogant, seeking to be known and seen as Very Important People (v43). Solution: None given.
4. You are rotten inside, and people fall into your emptiness like a man falling into a pit (v44). Solution: None given.
His critique of the Experts in the Law include the following:
5. You load the ordinary people with legalistic burdens they can't manage on their own, and you don't even try to help them.
6. You're hypocritical in the way you revere the prophets of old – because it was your sort who killed them in their day – and you don't listen to them now.
7. With your legalistic complications and your making complex what ought to be simple, your big words and fancy terms, your arguments over tiny little irrelevant details, you’ve removed the capacity of the ordinary person and the young seeker to find out truth about God. Your actions have locked your own selves out of the possibility of truth, and have hindered others from finding it out, too.
These Pharisees and legal experts had set themselves up as the religious gatekeepers. Any ordinary person couldn't read Torah (i.e. the law and the scriptures of Israel) themselves, without having it interpreted by such as these. And they made obedience to the law impossible for a working man or housewife. They locked up every conceivable daily action with 613 different rules that only they could interpret.
They were wealthy because they had imposed intolerable burdens on the poor. They knew that He who oppresses a poor man insults his Maker (Prov. 14:31); but they did it anyway. They lived off the offerings of the poor, in fine houses and with many servants. Look at all the stories where Jesus is invited to the fine houses of these leaders.
These people were the Shepherds of Israel. They guarded the temple and its worship. They must have read the prophets and should have known what they said. ‘The prophets’, says Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, ‘consistently singled out the leaders … as the ones responsible for the sins of the community.’
Hear this, O priest! … For the judgement belongs to you. (Hos. 5:1)
The Lord enters into judgement with the elders and princes of his people: it is you who have devoured the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing the people, by grinding the face of the poor? (Isaiah 3:14-15)
Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against the shepherds. I will require my sheep at their hand. (Ezek. 34:10)
Imagine a country where all the priests and ministers make up a whole lot of finicky rules – kinds of acceptable clothing, how you should speak, where you can live, how you can cook food, what you can read, who you can marry, what you can do inside your own house and so on. They give themselves social advantages over the poor, systematically removing their income and wealth from them. Then they say, ‘You're not allowed into church unless you get a 100% mark on the test that we will set. And what’s more: you won't get to heaven if you don't come to church. We are the setters of the rules and the examiners – your opinion doesn't count.’
The path to God had been so overgrown with man-made rules and regulations that Joe and Mary just couldn't make it. Unless you were educated, well-off, and had loads of spare time and servants, you couldn't possibly manage to be religious enough.
And this was the nation to whom God had granted the truth about himself, and through whom all the rest of the world was supposed to come to know him as well! These religious leaders had locked the gate and hidden the key. It’s no wonder Jesus, in his role as Last Prophet, dragged these charlatans into his court of justice.
– Have I set up rules and limits that I think all Christians should follow?
– Have I let people know, even just by the way I hold my head and sniff, that I think that some people or practices in this church are not very acceptable?
– Does my behaviour during church, on the way into church, and after church in the foyer make Christianity look really attractive to any chance visitor who might come in?
– Would my work colleagues or neighbours or family choose to worship and believe just exactly the way I do, because of the way that I live out my faith and do my work?
Being on the road to Jerusalem meant that the judgement of God was about to come into the world. But judgement must always begin at the house of God.
Prayer: Dear God, you cannot abide hypocrisy. You demand that I care for the lost and the poor. Please make me aware of my pretences and supercilious attitudes, so that I can root them out and become more like you. Thank you. Amen.
