Luke 11.37-54
Delivered on Sunday 31 August 2008 in All Saints', Preston-on-Tees and Stockton Parish Church
Luke 11.37-54 - 'How never to get invited to dinner again'
Imagining Jesus
I wonder what picture of Jesus you have in you head? What kind of things do you think of when you think of Jesus? Maybe he's sitting under a tree in a white toga, with flowing brown hair and beard, leather sandals, birds flying around him, children in his arms, a dreamy smile on his face.
[Show pictures]
Perhaps you think of the beatitudes, or the way Jesus wept at the grave of his friend Lazarus. I'll bet you don't think of him as an awkward so-and-so who insults you and all your friends?
Shortly before our passage Jesus condemns what he calls the 'wicked generation' of people around him. The people of Ninevah repented when Jonah preached to them, and Jesus is greater than Jonah, but the people are not repenting.
The Pharisees would have agreed with Jesus. They looked all around them and saw wickedness and sin. Their generation certainly was wicked—but that didn't include them. They were above it all, they were the righteous ones.
But when one of them invited Jesus to dinner, he condemns not the world, but the Pharisees. He tells them they are no better than anyone else He calls them 'hypocrites', and in Matthew, 'blind guides', 'a brood of vipers.'
Now, if I came round for dinner at your house and said, 'Woe to you, hypocrite,' and called your family a 'brood of vipers'—it would be slightly rude. You've invited round, and I'm sitting there having a go. You would be quite within your rights to kick me out.
So why is Jesus behaving like this? Luke reminds us in verse 39, Jesus is 'the Lord.' He is God, and that means he is the judge of all. We do not have the right to condemn sinners. Jesus did, and he still does, because he was, is God. He knows the secrets of our hearts, and so can judge us fairly.
Let's look at what he says to the Pharisees and scribes.
1. The Pharisees... 'looked' good (39-44)
[Read verses 39-42]
The Pharisees were ever so concerned about their outward appearance. I don't mean they spent an hour doing their hair every morning! They were concerned about ritual cleanness, ceremonial washing. You see, in the Law God gave his people various laws about religious cleanness. Before they ate, before they went to work, and so on, they had to wash themselves. The point wasn't so they would look clean, it was to show that in every area of their lives they were trying to live a holy life for God. It was intended to be an outward sign of what was going on in here [tap heart].
In the same way, they were supposed to tithe, to give the first ten percent of their earnings, their crops, their livestock. By doing this they showed that they were putting God first in every area of their lives.
But, just like it would be pointless to have road-signs pointing to 'Newcastle' if it didn't exist, so it is pointless to perform religious signs, if what they point to—a godly heart, which puts God first in everything, and so on—doesn't exist.
Now, what Jesus says in verse 42 is really important:
'Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practised the latter without leaving the former undone.' (TNIV)
Jesus does not say that the outward things are unimportant. Far from it—in verse 41 he says that God made every bit of us, inside and outside. He says that the outward religious signs are important, but that they only mean anything if they come from the heart.
If, like the Pharisees, we do them out of a desire to look good in front of other people, we're in trouble. And if we do them because we long to serve God with all we have, with all we are, we won't stop there.
For if we truly love God and want to serve him, we won't just give to the poor, we'll seek justice. We won't just give to the church, money or time or gifts, we'll try to love everyone in it, support and pray for it, build it up. That's what happens when our inside is changed—the outside takes care of itself.
2. The Pharisees... over-burdened others (45-46)
Next, one of the scribes, a religious lawyer, pipes up. I admire his bravery actually, interrupting Jesus in mid-flow. I can hear the hurt in his voice: 'Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also!' Whereas the Pharisees were a Jewish sect, this guy was from the establishment, mainstream Judaism.
And so Jesus turns on him: 'And you experts in the law, woe to you too!' Ouch.
The scribes and Pharisees missed the point when it came to religious observance, doing it for its own sake rather than out of love. But they make matters worse in Jesus' eyes by piling up unnecessary laws, above and beyond the Law.
As John told us last week, the Pharisees put a fence around the 613 laws in the Old Testament, the idea being that these much stricter 'fence' laws would help people not to break the actual laws. At first glance this might seem like a sensible idea, a bit like having a bumper on a car to stop it getting scratched. But the Pharisees treated their own rules as if they were God's Law. It's a bit like someone with body-coloured bumpers on their car, which they desperately don't want to get scratched. The point is, the bumpers aren't important, but what's inside.
The Pharisees condemned people for breaking their rules. They made it easier for people to offend God, and harder for them to please him. It should have been the other way round, Jesus tells them they should be helping people enter the kingdom, not hinder them from doing so. The people of Israel were struggling under the weight of the Pharisees' demands.
Well let me assure you that the Christian life is nothing like this. Jesus says that his burden is light. On the cross he took away all our burdens, and replaced them with his Spirit, who works in us to produce a godly character. So, let us be careful not to put all those burdens back onto people's backs. Let us all remember that we are all sinners, that Jesus died—and had to die—for us all.
3. The Pharisees... ignored Scripture (47-51)
The Pharisees claimed to honour the prophets, by building monuments to them, literally and metaphorically. But by ignoring their teachings they showed that they would have rejected and killed the prophets, just like their ancestors. And of course they proved it by killing Jesus.
The Pharisees claimed to spend their time reading, studying the Scriptures. They claimed to honour the prophets. But they refused to listen to what they said. The prophets told the people to love mercy, to seek justice, to walk humbly before God. These are the most important things, they said, because they show that there's something going on in here [tap chest], they show that our religious signs are not empty.
But the Pharisees ignored that message. How easy it is to ignore Scripture. It simply sits there on our desk, it doesn't jump up and say, 'read me! read me!' And sometimes even when we do read it, we don't listen to its message because it's too hard. The Pharisees were like that. They must have read the bits of the prophets which tell us what God's priorities are. But they ignored those bits and carried on regardless.
Jesus said, that path leads to judgement. Let us sit humbly before Scripture and listen to its encouragement, its warnings, its truth, to the way God wants us to live our lives. How can we do that? By reading the Bible with each other, by looking at commentaries, by talking to each other about it, to help us see things from a different angle. If I only looked at my house from the road, I'd think it only had four windows and a door. I'd miss the rest of the house completely!
You know, in Singapore I saw this amazing skyscraper that was triangular, so from most angles it actually looked flat, like nothing was holding it up. Sometimes the way we read the Bible is like that. We need to find ways of looking around Scripture, seeing it differently. If we do that, it will be harder for us to ignore what it says.
4. The Pharisees... closed heaven's door (52)
The scribes, the experts in religious law, were supposed to open up the Scriptures for the people, showing them how God wanted them to live, helping them to live a faithful life. But because they themselves didn't understand it, they not only didn't give others the key, they actually shut heaven's door in their face! Jesus says in verse 52,
'Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.' (TNIV)
The key to the kingdom is not how many rules you obey, it's not anything you can do. The key to the kingdom is grace. Jesus doesn't choose people who are better than everyone else. He simply gives us new life as a free gift, which he won and purchased for us through his blood on the cross. That's what 'grace' means: a free gift, that we don't deserve. A free gift, that's the opposite of what we deserve!
Of course, living a godly life is important. We must live a life worthy of the calling we have received. Jesus didn't die so we can go on living in sin! Living a godly life is important. But so is grace, and that's the key to the kingdom. We need to walk the balance between bearing the fruit of a godly character, and living by grace, between imitating Jesus in everything we do, and trusting only in his free gift of life.
5. The Pharisees... hated Jesus (53-54)
Jesus said more than 'blessed are those who...'. He also said, 'woe to you Pharisees, who...'.
The Pharisees hated Jesus for what he said to them. They hated being branded 'sinners'. They were too proud to hear what he said. After Jesus' outburst they questioned him, cross-examined him. They tried to trip him, they tried to show the onlookers that they were right, and he was wrong.
What might he be saying to us now? Similar things perhaps to what he said to the Pharisees. I'm not Jesus, you'll be glad to know, so I wouldn't dare list four 'woes', but I will suggest four encouragements and warnings for us as a church.
1. Word and Spirit
When Susie and I visited last August, what 'sealed the deal' for me was the preaching. I won't tell you who it was, but it is sadly rare for a church to be able to keep the balance between passionate Spirit-filled worship, and solid biblical preaching. I would love it if this church would grow more and more in this.
2. The Body of Christ
While our individual faith is of course important—we must all know, love and follow the Lord Jesus for ourselves—we must never forget that God made us to be a church together. It's not all about me and my relationship with Christ, it's also about each of us looking to build each other up and mature together in Christ, using our gifts for the good of the church.
3. Informal Worship
I love informal worship. I love freedom to express myself and sing. I'm looking forward to the return of the drums at our services! I think we are really good here at getting a good mix of songs between expressing personal feelings about God, and praising him for his majesty and glory. Let's keep it up!
4. Fully Christian
Christian life is about passionate worship, godly life, and mission. Jesus wants it ALL. Let us not water down Christian life, making it sound easy, like all we have to do is turn up at church once a week. But equally, let us not pile up burdens a mile high, crushing people under the weight of law. Let us remember that although we must live out the life that Christ gives us, that life is based on grace, it is a free gift.
The Pharisees are a stark warning of people who rejected Jesus, who were so full of self-righteousness, they didn't recognise God's righteousness when he was standing right there.
All Saints is a successful church, it's large, it's buzzing. But God can convert 3,000 people in a day! This is nothing compared with what God can do.
As we head into the autumn term, looking at our vision, let's make sure we work to God's priorities, not our own. Let's get rid of any pride we have as a church and follow God humbly into the future he has for us.
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