Luke 11:37-54
37 And as He spoke, a certain Pharisee asked Him to dine with him. So He went in and sat down to eat. 38 When the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that He had not first washed before dinner.
39 Then the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness. 40 Foolish ones! Did not He who made the outside make the inside also? 41 But rather give alms of such things as you have; then indeed all things are clean to you.
42 “But woe to you Pharisees! 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. 43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. 44 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.”
45 Then one of the lawyers answered and said to Him, “Teacher, by saying these things You reproach us also.”
46 And He said, “Woe to you also, lawyers! For you load men with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. 47 Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. 48 In fact, you bear witness that you approve the deeds of your fathers; for they indeed killed them, and you build their tombs. 49 Therefore the wisdom of God also said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute,’ 50 that the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the temple. Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation.
52 “Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered.”
53 And as He said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to assail Him vehemently, and to cross-examine Him about many things, 54 lying in wait for Him, and seeking to catch Him in something He might say, that they might accuse Him.
The Pharisee who invites Jesus to dine in his home is astonished that Jesus doesn’t perform the ceremonial washing prescribed by Jewish tradition. He thought that performing such outward observances truly cleansed. Jesus responds: “You Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness.” The Pharisees have misunderstood the entirety of God’s law because they think it only concerns the outward man, not the whole man, including the the heart. All the woes Jesus pronounces on the Pharisees condemn them for this hypocrisy. Outwardly they appear clean. Inwardly they are filthy with sin.
The scribes—those who teach the law—fare no better. Their fathers persecuted the prophets who spoke God’s law to them, and they ratify their persecutions and murders by building the prophet’s tombs. This is how the self-righteous hypocrites have behaved toward the righteous from the beginning when Cain murdered righteous Abel. In persecuting the prophets’ doctrine and teaching the people their own traditions as if they were God’s doctrine, they took away the key of knowledge. They didn’t enter into God’s kingdom themselves and they deterred their students from entering. Jesus upbraids them so that they might repent and seek the righteousness that God gives through the divinely-instituted washing of holy baptism, which is “not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God” (1 Peter 3:21).
We cannot cleanse our hearts from sin and guilt. But “according to His mercy [God] saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). Man-made ceremonies can be used to disciple our sinful flesh, but only the washing of water combined with God’s Word gives a new heart and new spirit within, by which we are cleansed from sin and enlivened by the Holy Spirit to begin to live righteously.
Let us pray: Heavenly Father, cleanse our hearts by Your gospel, and give us Your holy Spirit so that we may live as ones whom you have cleansed and declared righteous. Amen.
