The Scripture reading for today is found in Luke 11:33-54. At the
beginning of this pericope, which covers Luke
11:14–54, we see the crowds marveling at Jesus
when He casts out the demon from the man, thus allowing the man to speak.
Next
we saw that Jesus said that the divide in the human race is not based
off of the amount of melanin in your skin, but the divide is a spiritual one,
where
you are either a saint or an ain’t, “He who is not with Me is against
Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.” (Luke 11:23). Last time
we studied that when you try to reform yourself morally and not with God, you
always end up worse than before (01.
Personal Reformation Gone Bad-Luke 11:24-26); the importance of being obedient
to the Word of God (02. Adhere to the
Word of God-Luke
11:27-28); and that 03. An Evil Generation Seeks a Sign (Luke 11:29–32).
What we will study this time in A Lamp, A Pharisee and a Lawyer…01. A Lamp (Luke 11:33-36); 02. A Pharisee (Luke 11:37-44); and 03. A Lawyer (Luke 11:45-54).
01. A Lamp (Luke 11:33–36)
Jesus uses similar illustrations
about light in Matthew
5:14-16; Mark
4:21–22 and Luke 8:16-17.
Luke
11:33 “No one,
when he has lit a lamp, puts it in a secret place or under a basket,” The Greek word for “secret place” here is (G2927)
κρυπτην, a crypt (same
word) or hidden place from κρυπτω [kruptō], to hide, and it can be
translated as “in a cellar”.[1]
Luke
11:33 “but on a
lampstand, that those who come in may see the light.”
The Greek verb, used here that is translated as “may see” is (G991) βλέπωσιν (blĕpōsin) and is
written in the present, active, subjunctive, third person, plural version of βλέπω (blĕpō), and it means to look at[2], to perceive with the eye, see[3]. The
way that this is written in the Greek is that whenever (present tense) people (those=
third person, plural) come in contact with you, they should see the light if
you allow it to shine through you (subjunctive).
The lamps that were used in Israel at this time typically
were made of clay and in the form of a small bowl or saucer with a spout and
handle. These clay lamps were simple and cheap, and typically olive oil was
used to light the wick made from flax (cf. Isaiah
42:3).
The purpose of a lamp is to give
light, so to light a lamp and then put it under a cover or in your cellar is
just ridiculous, especially since doing so will extinguish the flame on the
lamp or keep the light from the lamp hidden. Instead, lamps need to be put on a
lampstand or on a shelf so that all those who come in may use the light to see.
The lamp here is a picture of the Word
of God (Psalm 18:28; Psalm 19:8; Psalm 119:105; Psalm 119:130; Proverbs 6:23; 2 Peter 1:19), and just as the purpose of light is
to let one see something else, not
focusing on the light,[4] so
too are we not to keep the Word of God hidden, but to proclaim it (Matthew 5:14–16; Matthew 10:27; John 12:46; Philippians 2:14–16)
because “it is the
power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also
for the Greek.” (Romans 1:16) In
direct violation of Scripture, many believers today want the attention for
themselves and not on Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:5–7). Take a walk through Christian
book stores, or look at what people are reading and posting on Facebook and
Instagram, and it’s mainly stuff on how to have Your
Best Life Now while Making
Everyday a Friday, living a life that is Audacious
while having The
Purpose Driven Life. It’s all about appealing to the senses and the “pleasures of life”
(Luke 8:14)
and not on Jesus. Jesus had lit a light within the apostles, and it was their
responsibility to spread the light, the Word of God to others, as it is ours
since we are the spiritual descendants of the apostles. We see this in Paul’s
defense before Herod Agrippa (Acts 25:23-26:32), where Paul told Herod
Agrippa that Jesus had sent him to both the Jews and Gentiles “to open their eyes, in order to turn them from
darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may
receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified
by faith in Me.’” (Acts 26:18) Paul writing to the church at Colossae
tells us that God “has delivered us from the power
of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,” (Colossians
1:13). Peter describes Christians as “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you
out of darkness into His marvelous light;” (1 Peter 2:9). Paul thanked the Christians in
Rome “that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.” (Romans 1:8;
cf. Romans 16:19) and to the church
at Thessalonica he wrote “For from you the word of the
Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every
place. Your faith toward God has gone out, so that we do not need to say
anything.” (1 Thessalonians 1:8) If you have no desire to
share with the lost about God’s redemptive work of salvation available to them,
then maybe you are not a genuine disciple.
Luke
11:34 Matthew records Jesus saying this as well in Matthew 6:22–23. Now
Jesus tells us that the eye is the “lamp”, the source of light for the body. Here the
analogy is simple, for if your eyes are bad, such as having cataracts or some
other eye disease, no light can come in and you are left in darkness because of
your eye disease. But light will shine whether there is something to receive it
or not, it will just keep shining (John 1:5). The eye
is not the light, but it is the organ that receives the light. It is the only
organ that channels light to the mind. But when it’s bad, your body is full of
darkness and no light can enter. But
“an evil generation” that “seeks a sign” (Luke 11:29–32) has a
spiritual eye disease that refuses to let light enter, which leaves their
hearts in the dark like the sodomites wanting to rape the angels in Sodom (Genesis 19:1-11; cf. Jeremiah
17:9-10; Ephesians
4:17–19; 2 Corinthians 4:1-4), hard (Psalm 81:12; Isaiah 6:9–10; Isaiah 44:18; Jeremiah 5:21; Matthew 13:13–15; Mark 6:52;
Mark 8:17;
John
12:39-41; Acts
28:25–28; Romans 11:17; 2 Corinthians 3:14) and having “their own conscience seared
with a hot iron” (1 Timothy 4:1-3). Those “who hear the word of God and keep it” are “blessed” (Luke 11:28) because their hearing is “mixed with
faith” (Hebrews 4:2) and as Paul tells us “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17) This type of hearing happens when the stronger sets free the captives of
the strong man (Luke
11:21-22) delivering us from the kingdom of Beelzebul into the
Kingdom of God (Luke 11:17–20).
Luke
11:35 It is a pitiful situation if the
very light is darkness. This happens when the eye of the soul is too diseased
to see the light of Christ[5] (Proverbs 16:25; Proverbs 26:12; Isaiah 5:20–21; Jeremiah 8:8–9; John 9:39–41; Romans 1:22; Romans 2:19–23; 1 Corinthians 1:19–21; 1 Corinthians 3:18–20; James 3:13–17; Revelation 3:17).
Luke
11:36 Jesus confirms what He said in Luke 11:34 and that if you are
receptive to the Word of God and do it (Luke 11:28) shows that you are full of light.
02. A Pharisee (Luke 11:37–44)
Luke
11:37 “to dine” is from the Greek verb ἀριστήσῃ aristēsēi from the Greek word
(G709) ἀριστάω aristaō, and it
is the morning meal (breakfast or lunch) after the return from morning prayers
in the synagogue.[6]
“sat down to eat” or Sat down
to meat in the KJV (ἀνεπεσεν [anepesen]). Second aorist active
indicative of ἀναπιπτω [anapiptō], old verb, to recline, to fall
back on the sofa or lounge.[7]
Reclining at the table if you remember when we studied Luke 7:36-50 (Anointing the Anointed One) where
the prostitute came and anointed the feet of Jesus, we saw that reclining at
the table to eat was the common position of the day. Alfred
Edersheim writes in his book The Temple-Its Ministry and Services that when they
were eating, they would place their place their “left elbow…on the table, and the head rested on the hand,
sufficient room being of course left between each guest for the free movements
of the right hand. This explains in what sense John ‘was leaning on Jesus’
bosom,’ and afterwards ‘lying on Jesus’ breast,’ when he bent back to speak to
Him (John 13:23, 25).”[8] He writes in The
Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah that “They were all...lying…around the table, the body resting on the
couch, the feet turned away from the table in the direction of the wall, while
the left elbow rested on the table.”[9] At this time, you walked everywhere and all the roads
were either dusty of muddy, so it was wise to keep your feet as far away from
the table as far as possible. Alfred Edersheim writes
in his book The
Temple-Its Ministry and Services that “it is the manner of slaves to eat
standing, therefore now they eat sitting and leaning” [10]
Luke
11:38 The Pharisee marveled not because he was concerned about Jesus’
personal hygiene, but the fact that Jesus did not
wash His hands with the ceremonial washing that the Pharisees required from
their oral tradition of the Law. This was never a requirement of the Law found
in the Old Testament given by God to Moses; it was their interpretation of the
Law. The ceremony of washing of the
hands was as follows: another would pour water out of a jar onto your hands
with your fingers pointed up. Once the water dripped off of the wrists, then
you can have the water poured again over both hands, but this time you had to
have your fingers pointed downwards. After that, you would then have to rub
each hand with your other hand in a fist.
Luke
11:39 “Then the Lord said to him,” The marvel from His host led to
these words of rebuke from Jesus.
Luke
11:39 “Now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean,
but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness.” Jesus
now addresses the hearts of the Pharisees, which leads them to their rejection
of Jesus as the Son of God, the coming prophesied Messiah, and that is their
hypocrisy. He basically says that the Pharisees are
like a cup or a dish that appears to be clean on the outside, but in reality
they are “full of
greed and wickedness.”
Luke
11:40 God is the One who creates both the outside and the inside, and both are required to be cleaned,
but the inside needs to be cleaned first for the outside to really clean. Since
the fall of mankind, man has been trying to clean up the outside, like Adam and
Eve putting on the fig leaves to hide their nakedness and shame (Genesis 3:7-8).
Luke
11:41 Jesus is now stating that the Pharisees ought to be more
concerned with inner morality and not just external ceremonies. So
what that means is that the inner righteousness of a man is expressed in the
external by the giving of alms from a faithful heart to God and not for the
attention of men (Matthew 6:1-4). The phrase “of such things as you have” is two words in the
Greek (τὰ ἐνόντα) and it means what is inside, the contents.[11]
The giving of material possessions does not always mean
that you are internally clean, and it definitely does not atrone for your sins
and make you righteous before God, but it does show a right relationship to
God.
Luke
11:42 “But woe
to you Pharisees!” This is the first of three woes on the Pharisees
for being more concerned about the outside
than the inside (cf. Luke 11:39-41).
Luke
11:42 “For you
tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass by justice and the love of
God. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.”
The first woe against the Pharisees is Jesus is pointing out
their hypocrisy in focusing on the minor stuff, meticulously tithing small
garden herbs that were not required to tithe from (Leviticus 27:30) and instead
they ignore the commands of God to take care of those in need of justice and
not showing the love of God (Luke 10:27).
Luke
11:43 The second woe pronounced by Jesus is that the Pharisees who
were full of pride, wanting to sit in the important seats in the synagogues,
which were on a bench that was in a semi-circle facing the congregation. They
loved to parade around in their robes so that when they went to the market,
they would get noticed,
Luke
11:44 The third woe pronounced by Jesus because rather
than guiding the people aright, they caused people who followed them to be
contaminated, just as unmarked graves,
when walked on, would defile a Jew without his knowing it (Numbers 19:16). The Pharisees
feared contamination from ritual uncleanness, but Jesus pointed out that their
greed, pride, and wickedness contaminated the entire nation.[12]
Those
who touch a grave will be ceremonially unclean for seven days (Numbers 19:16).
Jesus called the Pharisees “whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly,
but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.” (Matthew 23:27) The tombs were whitewashed as a
warning so that the Jews would not accidently touch the tomb and become
ceremonially unclean for seven days. Overall, Jesus pronounced on the
Pharisees three woes because they focused on an outward display of piety but
neglected to show justice and the love of God to people.
03. A Lawyer (Luke 11:45–54)
Luke
11:45 After the tongue-lashing issued by Jesus towards the
Pharisees, a lawyer speaks up and says “Teacher, by saying these things You reproach us also.” The Greek word for reproach is (G5195) ὑβρίζω (hubrizō), which is where we get the
English word for “hubris”, and it means more than reproach
as it is translated here into English, for it means to insult with mockery.[13] [14] [15]
This verse can be translated as “You insult even us, for we lawyers are
superior to ordinary Pharisees.”[16] The lawyer
knew the Law of God, for he was an expert in the Mosaic Law[17],
and was a member of the Pharisaic party
that included teachers of the Torah (Luke 5:17; Acts 5:34) and scribes. As a
lawyer, he was “concerned about the administration and understanding of the law
(cf. Matthew
22:35; Luke 7:30; Luke 14:3).”[18]
A modern day equivalent of a lawyer would be a seminary professor, an Old
Testament scholar. Paul tells us “Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ,
that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.” (Galatians 3:24–25) and Solomon wrote “The law (H8451 תֹּרָה tôrâh)[19]
of the wise is a fountain of
life, To turn one away from the snares of death.” (Proverbs 13:14) Paul grieves over the fact that most of his fellow Jews had
misinterpreted the Torah, the Law of God in Romans 10:1–4, and what Paul says there can be
applied to the lawyer in the account that we are studying.
Luke
11:46 The lawyers were the seminary professors of the day, and the
Jesus pronounces the first woe against them because they made the Law a burden
for the people. David wrote that keeping the Law is a blessing to the Jews (Psalm 119:1–2). Yet
it was because of these lawyers that made the Law difficult, for they “load men with burdens hard to
bear”. They did this by adding the Oral Law, which was their
interpretation of the Mosaic Law, and was later written down as the Mishnah and
the Gemarah. But in their loading the people “with burdens hard to bear,” they refused to carry
the same load as Jesus rightly accused them when He said “and you yourselves do not touch
the burdens with one of your fingers.” The Greek word for “touch” is (G4379 προσψαύω (prŏspsauō) and it is a medical word that
was used to describe a doctor feeling
gently a sore spot or the pulse.[20]
Luke
11:47-48 The Greek word for “build” (G3618 οἰκοδομεῖτε) is
written in the present tense, which implies habitual action, for it was common
for these lawyers to build and worship at the tombs of past prophets as if they
disapproved what their fathers did, yet they oppose the current prophets in the
same way that their fathers did.
Luke
11:49-50 We see this in Stephen’s discourse before the Sanhedrin (Acts 6:12)
before he was stoned, when he said in Acts 7:52 “Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they
killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have
become the betrayers and murderers,”
Luke
11:51 The blood of Abel is the first
shed in the Old Testament (Genesis 4:10), that of Zechariah the last in the O. T. canon which ended with Chronicles (2 Chronicles
24:22). Chronologically the murder of
Uriah by Jehoiakim was later (Jeremiah 26:23), but this climax is from
Genesis to 2 Chronicles (the last book in the canon).[21] Jesus was basically saying
“from Genesis to Chronicles”, all of Scripture up until that time, what we know
as the Old Testament. When this lawyer brings up the point that Jesus
was also insulting with mockery the lawyers (Luke 11:45), it gives Jesus the
opportunity to show how guilty the lawyers were of an even greater sin than the
Pharisees, and that was their connection in the genocide
of the prophets.
Luke
11:52 What Jesus is saying here is that these lawyers have locked up
the truth of the Word of God from the people and thrown away the key so that
the truth of God’s Word is kept from the people, and instead imposing upon them
the traditions of men instead.
Luke 11:53-54 The Pharisees and lawyers began to oppose Jesus fiercely. They were constantly
questioning Him, plotting against Him, and hoping to catch Him saying something wrong.[22]
[1] Robertson, A. T. (1933). Word Pictures in the New Testament (Lk 11:33). Nashville, TN:
Broadman Press.
[2] Strong, J. (2009). A
Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible
(Vol. 1, p. 19). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.
[3] Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament
and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 179). Chicago: University
of Chicago Press.
[4] Robertson, A. T. (1933). Word Pictures in the New Testament (Lk 8:16). Nashville, TN:
Broadman Press.
[5] Robertson, A. T. (1933). Word Pictures in the New Testament (Lk 11:35). Nashville, TN:
Broadman Press.
[6] Robertson, A. T. (1933). Word Pictures in the New Testament (Lk 11:37). Nashville, TN:
Broadman Press.
[7] Robertson, A. T. (1933). Word Pictures in the New Testament (Lk 11:37). Nashville, TN:
Broadman Press.
[9] Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah
[Peabody; Hendrickson, 1993], Bk 3, Ch 21, p389, 1.565
[11] Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament
and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 334). Chicago: University
of Chicago Press.
[12] Martin, J. A. (1985). Luke. In J. F. Walvoord & R.
B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge
Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 237). Wheaton, IL:
Victor Books.
[13] Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W.
(1985). Theological Dictionary of the New
Testament (p. 1201). Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans.
[14] Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W.
(1985). Theological Dictionary of the New
Testament (p. 1201). Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans.
[15] Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament
and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 1022). Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
[16] Vine, W. E., Unger, M. F., & White, W., Jr. (1996).
Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of
Old and New Testament Words (Vol. 2, p. 526). Nashville, TN: T. Nelson.
[17] Strong, J. (2009). A
Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible
(Vol. 1, p. 50). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software
[18] Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1985 W. Gutbrod, nomikós, p655
[19] Strong, J. (2009). A
Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible
(Vol. 2, p. 123). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.
[20] Robertson, A. T. (1933). Word Pictures in the New Testament (Lk 11:46). Nashville, TN:
Broadman Press.
[21] Robertson, A. T. (1933). Word Pictures in the New Testament (Lk 11:51). Nashville, TN:
Broadman Press.
[22] Martin, J. A. (1985). Luke. In J. F. Walvoord & R.
B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge
Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 237). Wheaton, IL:
Victor Books.
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