Rules or Grace



Luke 11:37-54
37While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table. 38The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. 39And the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. 40You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? 41But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you. 42“But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. 43Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. 44Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.” 45One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.” 46And he said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. 47Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. 48So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. 49Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ 50so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, 51from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. 52Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.” 53As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things, 54lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say.

The power dance between Jesus and the Pharisees continues with so many interesting interactions between them. The Pharisees do not retreat from trying to trap Jesus and He does not ever fail to point out their lack of faith and false religion. In today’s reading we even find Him dining with these men who hated Him at what was probably a Sabbath (Friday evening, heading into Saturday) meal.

Jesus hands them a breech in protocol by not (ceremonially) washing His hands before the meal. He cares not one bit about their made up rules for righteousness and does not participate in them. This gives them a reason to question His piety. Handed this wonderful opportunity to teach them something Jesus points out that they are so concerned with all of their outward actions that they have no concern for what is going on in their hearts, for in their hearts is found a complete disregard for the love of God. Thus He speaks the “six woes”. These woes are the antonyms to Jesus’ beatitudes spoken to his disciples (see Luke6). No one in the room could have missed His message here. And so, they plot to catch Jesus in a mistake.

While I think it might be a stretch to claim that we are seeking to “trap Jesus” in a theological mistake, I do believe that we have to examine our own motives and actions because falling to the judgmental practices of the Pharisees is fairly easy. What I run into most frequently are people who make their personal preferences into something that everyone must accept and practice. Those practices become “sacred” and if you aren’t following them then you are doing it wrong or (and I find this even more troubling) offense is chosen rather than grace. It can become a relational stumbling block.

Lest we let all of this point in the direction of others, perhaps we spend a few moments recognizing where we ourselves might look like cups that are clean on the outside and filthy within, for each of us must own that characterization. Each of us is in need of a Savior. Jesus came to clean out the inside of our hearts so that we might be found righteous before the Father. It is only in His blood that this can happen. May our eyes be open to our own Pharisaical practices so that we might offer the grace of Jesus instead of our rules to those around us.

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