Daily Devotions
Luke
Luke 11:37-54 "BUT WOE TO YOU PHARISEES..." Luke 11:42"
Day 154 – Luke 11
Text: Luke 11:37-54
“BUT WOE TO YOU PHARISEES…” Luke 11:42
The planned dinner at the home of the unnamed Pharisee turned out disastrously! Why did the Pharisee invite Jesus to his home in the first place? He should have known that there could be full harmony only if everybody in the dinner party was a Pharisee.
Jesus was no ordinary Teacher of Righteousness. Where He saw wrong, he would address that problem. He was totally unafraid of anybody, no matter how intimidating the individual, or the group may be.
Did the Pharisees and their lawyer friends think that they could intimidate Jesus by “putting Him in His place” at a dinner party? Did they think that they would “show him up” when He did not display the nice little dinner etiquette the Pharisees practised?
The Pharisees were in for a rude shock if they thought that they could cow Jesus into fearful submission! This was one person they could not intimidate or dominate in any way!
This was as good an occasion as any to address the problem of the Pharisees! Whether bidden or unbidden, Jesus raised serious concerns about the way the Pharisees practised their supposed faith in God!
Jesus began to upbraid them with these words… “Woe to you Pharisees…”
“THESE YOU OUGHT TO HAVE DONE…”
There is no denying that the Pharisees had a strong external religious front. Let’s look at how far they practised their beliefs. In the Old Testament, God taught the children of Israel to practise tithing. The tithe went towards the support of the Levites and Priests.
The Pharisees took the principle of tithing most literally. They even “tithed mint and rue and all manner of herbs…” Luke 11:42
The Pharisees believed in the principle of tithing and religiously tithed everything they owned. Mint and rue were herbs that some grew in their garden. The religious Pharisees believed that they must tithe even their garden herbs!
The religious fervour of the Pharisees was not faulted or penalized by the Lord Jesus Christ! In fact He commended them with these words…
“These you ought to have done,
without leaving the others undone.”
Luke 11:42
“WITHOUT LEAVING THE OTHER THINGS UNDONE…” Luke 11:42
On the one hand, the Pharisees practised the principle of tithing religiously, but on the other hand, they failed in many other areas miserably.
The Pharisees were rebuked because they…
“pass by justice and the love of God.”
Luke 11:42
If they were truly religious, and desired to please God, then they would have also had a great love for their fellow man. They would not have allowed injustice to go unchallenged.
If their religious zeal was correct, then they would also have had a great love for God. However, they were not noted to have a great love for man nor God!
“WOE TO YOU PHARISEES… WOE TO YOU SCRIBES…” Luke 11:43, 44
The Lord Jesus went on to upbraid the Pharisees and Scribes for other noted flaws in their lives…
“Woe to you Pharisees!
For you love the best seats in the synagogues
And greetings in the market places.
Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees,
Hypocrites!
For you are like graves which are not seen,
And the men who walk over them
Are not aware of them.”
Luke 11:43-44
The key word in this rebuke is “Hypocrite”. What is a hypocrite? It is not a person who has tried and failed to live up to his expectations! From time to time, we will experience failure! However, failure does not make a person a hypocrite!
A hypocrite is a person who makes a pretence of his faith. He proclaims that he is a believer in God, but in fact he believes in himself. He is a self-righteous person who puts up a show of faith.
The Pharisees obviously believed that they deserved the best seats in the synagogue. The best places would refer to seats of honour reserved for special guests or dignitaries. When they step into a synagogue they would make their way to these seats of honour. They were so full of themselves!
They want people to recognize them when they walk in the market places. They want to be known by all and held in high respect by the common people. After all, they were “famous Pharisees”. The Pharisees were “famous” for practising the principle of “separation”. They feel that if they do not keep themselves apart from common people, they would become defiled by them.
Tombs were considered unclean places. They were thus carefully painted white so that people would know that these caves were tombs and thus unclean places to be avoided. The Pharisees who were so concerned about separating themselves from others so that they may remain “clean” were in fact guilty of defiling others by their false religious fronts. They were no more than hypocrites!
It is not likely that too many have spoken to the Scribes and Pharisees so directly! Jesus dared to rebuke them for their hypocritical ways. They posed themselves off as good and holy people. They were the exact opposite! How we must guard against such religious hypocrisy!