Luke 11: 29-53

29 As the crowds increased, Jesus said, "This is a wicked generation. It asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. 30 For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation. 31 The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom; and now one greater than Solomon is here. 32 The people of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and now one greater than Jonah is here.
33 "None of you lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead you put it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. 34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness. 35 See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. 36 Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you."
37 When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table. 38 But the Pharisee was surprised when he noticed that Jesus did not first wash before the meal.
39 Then the Lord said to him, "Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. 40 You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? 41 But now as for what is inside you—be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.
42 "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 practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.
43 "Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces.
44 "Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which people walk over without knowing it."
45 One of the experts in the law answered him, "Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also."
46 Jesus replied, "And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.
47 "Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your ancestors who killed them. 48 So you testify that you approve of what your ancestors did; they killed the prophets, and you build their tombs. 49 Because of this, God in his wisdom said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute.' 50 Therefore this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all.
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."
53 When Jesus went outside, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely and to besiege him with questions, 54 waiting to catch him in something he might say.

Points of Interest:

• ‘This is a wicked generation’—this is the second time recently that Jesus has talked about the faithlessness of this generation. Last time, it was in response to the disciples’ inability to free the demon-possessed boy (Luke 9:41). This time, it’s in response to people accusing him of defeating demons with demonic power. Jesus is dismayed by just how difficult it is to help this generation escape from the devil’s traps.

• ‘none will be given it except the sign of Jonah’—Jonah was an Israelite prophet whom God sent to preach to Nineveh, a powerful enemy city. Jesus is contrasting the Jews of his own day with Jonah’s Ninevites. Jesus’ listeners are asking for a sign to prove that he is from God; but the people of Nineveh—though they didn’t know God, didn’t have any reason to respect an Israelite, and were so wicked that God had decided to destroy them—believed Jonah’s words without any miracles and immediately declared a fast to show their humility and repentance. If the Ninevites believed Jonah without any signs, why should Jesus—who’s actually done very many miraculous signs already—have to continue to do miraculous signs to prove himself to his listeners? They’ve seen and heard enough already.

• ‘The Queen of the South’—this is the fabled Queen of Sheba. Sheba may have been Ethiopia, or it may have been a kingdom in the far south of the Arabian peninsula; either way, it was the farthest known civilization to the south of Israel. The Queen of the South heard that God had blessed Solomon with supernatural wisdom, and she traveled all the way from her own faraway land to hear what Solomon had to say. If this stranger would travel so far to hear Solomon’s words, why won’t Jesus’ fellow Jews—people raised on the Law and Prophets that testify to him—listen to him?

• ‘Your eye is the lamp of your body’—this is a confusing image to me, but I think that Jesus is referring to the fact that when they look at him, they see a demon. If they are looking at someone casting out demons by the power of God, but see a demon-possessed madman, there’s something very wrong with their eyes (spiritually speaking, that is). With such poor spiritual vision, it will be very difficult for them to ever see well again; because their bad eyes affect everything they see. They are attracted to darkness and repelled by light, making them essentially blind.

• ‘Jesus did not first wash before the meal’—this is referring to ceremonial washing for religious purposes. Such washing wasn’t required by God in any of the laws of Moses; the Pharisees had developed the idea, under the theory ‘Better safe than sorry.’ They wanted some extra precautionary measures to insure that neither they nor their food was ritually unclean before eating.

• ‘you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup’—the Pharisees spend so much time cleaning their hands that they completely neglect the state of their hearts. It’s like polishing the outside of a pot so that you can see your reflection in it, but leaving the inside completely filthy. If the Pharisees are so concerned to show honor to God, why wouldn’t they clean both inside and out? Or, do they think that God only cares about how things look on the surface?
Even now, Jesus seems to think, cleaning out their hearts wouldn’t be so difficult—maybe even less difficult than all of the washing they do—just a little bit of generosity to the poor would take care of that greed quite nicely.

• ‘you give God a tenth of your mint’—Moses commanded that the first ten percent of the harvest be offered to God as a way of saying thanks. This offering is called ‘the tithe.’ Along with the Sabbath, the tithe was a favorite of the Pharisees, because it lent itself easily to precise measurement; you could be absolutely certain whether or not you were tithing, at least as far as the Pharisees understood it. Jesus is saying here that the Pharisees go so far as to tithe from the herb plants in their little kitchen gardens.

• ‘You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone’—Jesus doesn’t criticize them for their scrupulousness in giving God a tenth; it’s a good thing that they want to give proper thanks to God. However, it doesn’t mix well with the fact that they don’t show much concern for the larger things God cares about—or even for showing genuine love toward God himself. It seems like what they love is following the rules.

• ‘you are like unmarked graves’—the Pharisees are like zombies. They look alive, but they are really dead. This is an eerie enough image for anyone, but it would have been especially horrifying to the Pharisees. As I mentioned during our discussion of the story of the neighborly Samaritan, according to the Law of Moses, touching a corpse makes a person temporarily ritually unclean. As they were prone to do, the Pharisees took the rule a couple of steps further; to make extra sure that they didn’t become unclean they would not allow their shadow to pass over a gravestone. (Bible Background Commentary 221). Thus, in calling them unmarked graves, Jesus is saying that they’re not just unclean; they’re dead, and they’re spreading uncleanness to everyone they touch.

• ‘you insult us also’—the legal expert is pointing out that, while the Pharisees love following the rules, the legal experts love making those rules up. So, in criticizing the Pharisees, Jesus is indirectly criticizing the teachers and experts as well. It seems like the legal expert thinks that pointing this out might quiet Jesus down, but instead it starts him on a whole new round: ‘Don’t get me started on you . . . ‘

• ‘it was your ancestors who killed them’—like most of us, the legal experts think of themselves as being good guys. If they had been around during the time of the prophets, they would have listened to them, rather than ignoring them and punishing them like the poor, benighted people of the time did. I do the same thing all the time: I like to think that I wouldn’t have supported segregation or stolen land from the natives if I lived a hundred years ago, but the odds are that I actually would have. Jesus is saying that the law experts aren’t as different from their ancestors as they like to think they are; in fact, they are about to prove just how similar they are, by killing him.

• ‘from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah’—Abel’s death at the hand of his jealous brother (Genesis ch. 4) was the first murder in the Jewish Bible, and Zechariah’s martyrdom at the hands of an angry mob (2 Chronicles 24:20-22) was the last—the standard order for the books of the Bible was a little different in Jesus’ day from today. So, Jesus is saying they have a share in every murder of God’s people, from the first to the last. It’s just a happy coincidence that in English it works out as going from A to Z.

• ‘You yourselves have not entered’—apparently, the experts enjoy teaching the Law of Moses more than doing it. Also, the complexity of their teaching made it more difficult for others to follow; so, the net result of all of their attention to the law is that no one was actually performing it.

• ‘When Jesus went outside’—I wonder if Jesus left immediately, or if he stayed until dinner was over. I’m imagining a very awkward silence for the rest of the meal.

Taking it home:
• For you and your family: Ask God to give you good eyes. Pray that you would be able to easily spot and welcome good things God is doing for you. Ask God to help you to see clearly what is good and what is harmful.

• For your friends: Ask God to give your friends good experiences with the Bible. Pray that they would somehow encounter life-giving guidance from the Bible, rather than joyless and oppressive rules.

• For our city: Pray for an increase of faith in our city. Ask God to give us the same readiness to hear him and respond to him as Jonah found in Nineveh.