Luke 11:33-54
Even fairly young children learn pretty quickly how to be hypocrites. They love to point out when their siblings have done something wrong, and they love to ask questions like, “Why does he do it, Mommy? I would never do that!” But although children learn quickly how to be hypocrites, learning how to cover up for the hypocrisy of someone else is a talent that takes much longer to master. I think the following anonymous little story illustrates this quite well.
"One day when they had guests for dinner, Mother asked 4-year old Johnny to give thanks for the food. “But I don’t know what to say!” the boy complained. “Oh, just say what you hear me say,” his mother replied. Obediently the boy bowed his head and mumbled, “Oh, Lord, why did I invite these people over?”
So how is it that we all end up being hypocrites? And I mean all of us. You are not being honest with yourself if you believe you have never hidden your moral weaknesses from others, whether it is done by sins of commission (telling something that gives a better impression than the reality) or sins of omission (allowing an unduly good impression to go uncorrected). We all do this! But why?
I think the simple plain ugly answer is that we care far too much what other people think of us. In fact, we care far more what other people think of us than we care about what we really are. Deep down, we know that we have some serious character problems, and most of us have tried to solve some of these things in our own strength since we were little children, and we have failed completely. Yet we look at those around us, and (because they also are hypocrites) we don’t see that they have the problems we have. This makes us feel even more inadequate, and so we try to cover up our problems with hypocrisy. Not only this, we can feel jealous of those around us who don’t seem to have any of these problems. This jealousy leads to a hidden resentment, a resentment at God (why do I have these problems, God?), a resentment at the world in general (you goody-two-shoes world, I could care less about you!), and a resentment at the people whose lives seem to be all together. Because of this, we can secretly rejoice when other people fall, because it makes us feel a little better (hey, at least I’m not that bad!), which brings me back to the little child who says, “Why does he do it Mommy? I would never do that!”
If you think carefully about it, you will realize that the “simple” sin of hypocrisy can easily incorporate violating six of the ten commandments! It is a form of worshiping the god of self over the true God, it can be an idol (as we become unwilling to part with our hypocrisy), and it can misuse the name of God as we blame Him. It can even be a form of murder (as we hate the “perfect people” – Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount that to hate someone is like murdering them), it obviously includes lying and bearing false witness, and it can easily include coveting (wanting to be like the perfect people).
Even many non-Christians seem to know that Jesus hated hypocrisy and spoke harshly against the religious people in His day because of their hypocrisy. But I don’t think that they understand that all people are hypocrites. Even people who say “I don’t go to church because I don’t want to be a hypocrite” still show hypocrisy in other ways. You cannot find a person on this earth that doesn’t have any “buttons” that, when pressed, reveal a self-righteous anger that betrays their own hypocritical attitudes and beliefs. Why did Jesus focus His harshest attacks on the religious hypocrites? We will look at this in the passage today.
"No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead he puts it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be completely lighted, as when the light of a lamp shines on you." – Luke 11:33-36
If you are like me, you may read this and think, “I don’t get it.” What exactly are we talking about? I want to break this passage down verse by verse so that we can understand it.
First, some context: last week, we looked at the verses right before this. Jesus had just explained that the people who were asking miraculous sign after sign were missing the most important sign of all, Jesus Himself. He said that the Queen of Sheba would rise at the judgment and condemn these people because she had come from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, yet here, in the person of Jesus, was someone incomparably greater than Solomon. And He said that, similarly, the men of Ninevah would rise at the judgment and condemn these people because they had completely repented at the preaching of Jonah, yet here, in the person of Jesus, was someone incomparably greater than Jonah.
And so when Jesus says that no one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl, but instead puts it on a stand so that those who come in may see the light, who do you think He was talking about? He was talking about Himself! He is saying, “You don’t get another sign; I am the greatest sign you would ever need! I am not hiding myself. Here I am!”
But what about the next part of the passage? What does it mean when it says that your eye is the lamp of your body? I think this can get confusing because light is a central part of what lamps do and a central part of what eyes do but what they do is quite different. Lamps produce light, but eyes simply let light in. In Jesus’ analogy here, we have to get past the idea that eyes let light in, and think of them as things that, like lamps, produce light.
A lamp is the light of a room – that is, it is the device that can make the room brightly lit. If it is a good lamp (picture an oil lamp here, like they had at the time of Jesus) then there is no sputtering or flickering and the light produced is bright, strong, and unwavering. If it is a bad lamp, then the light is weaker, and it flickers and fades. If you have ever tried to read by candlelight, you will have a good appreciation of the difference between a good lamp and a bad lamp.
So Jesus says that our eye is the lamp of our body. What we see, what we perceive about our world, about God, about ourselves, makes all the difference as to whether we are actually in light or in darkness. In the context of Jesus’ speaking here, His point was that He was telling His hearers profound truth, but how the “eyes of their hearts” interpreted what He was saying. Some of them heard Jesus and thought – wow, He really is a powerful messenger of God – and they took to heart what He was saying. Others, though heard the same words and thought – why am I even listening to Him? He is obviously a fake, or a friend of demons, or something. Others heard the same words and thought – I don’t like Him! He acts like one of the perfect people. I know that He is a messed-up sinner; who does He think He is, saying He is greater than Jonah or Solomon?
When Jesus warns them, saying, “See to it that the light within you is not darkness,” He is saying that everyone thinks that the eyes of their hearts are working well, that they are open to what He is saying, but the reality is that many of them are unwilling to even really hear what He is saying. And as that was true then, it is true today.
Can we as believers do this? You bet! It is especially common when someone is reproving us – we don’t want to hear what the person is really saying. It bursts our bubble and reveals our hypocrisy.
When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited Him to eat with him; so He went in and reclined at the table. But the Pharisee, noticing that Jesus did not first wash before the meal, was surprised. – Luke 11:37-38
Now we move on to a diner invitation. As we have seen with other dinner invitations, it is likely that the disciples were also invited, and in addition, many Pharisees attended this dinner to hear what Jesus would say. By the time this whole event was over, I strongly suspect that the Pharisee was thinking just like the mother in my story: “Oh, Lord, why did I invite these people over!”
Now the washing here is not like the washing we do – a scrubbing with soap and water. Often a servant would help a guest clean up and look presentable before even meeting with the master of the house. The washing we are witnessing here is a purely ceremonial washing – this was a social thing people did sort of like how in a business meeting in Japan you might be expected to have tea and join in casual conversation for quite a long time before you can get down to talking about business. To skip the tea and conversation would be considered rude, and in a similar way, in the culture at the time of Jesus, what Jesus did was just plain rude. In fact, it was more than rude – it violated the “traditions of the elders” – a large set of rules that were developed by the Pharisees to ensure that they not only didn’t break the Law of Moses, but didn’t even get close to breaking that Law. The traditions of the elders were seen as a hedge around the Law to keep you safe.
The Jewish historian Josephus, someone who lived through these times, wrote this:
“The Pharisees have delivered to the people a great many observances by succession from their fathers, which are not written in the laws of Moses; and for that reason it is that the Sadducees reject them, and say that we are to esteem those observances to be obligatory which are in the written word, but are not to observe what are derived from the tradition of our forefathers. And concerning these things it is that great disputes and differences have arisen among them, while the Sadducees are able to persuade none but the rich, and have not the populace obsequious to them, but the Pharisees have the multitude on their side.”
Now the purpose of the ritual handwashing was to make sure you were ceremonially clean before eating, just in case you somehow happened to become ritually unclean while in the house. The key words, like they were in so many of the Pharisees’ customs, were “just in case.”
The ritual handwashing was done with a fair amount of flair – usually two people would take turns washing each others’ hands. One person would place his hands over a bowl, and the other with a flourish, would lift up a pitcher and gently pour a little water down over the first person’s hands, for just the right amount of time, using just the right amount of water, all the while over-exaggerating a smile, and showing extreme politeness. And then after drying his hands with a towel, the two would reverse roles. It was like a little game. Forgive me for saying this, but if I try to think of a modern cultural group that might be attracted to something like this, I immediately think of the French.
So why did Jesus skip this dainty little custom with “important” religious overtones? Was it an oversight? Was Jesus just so hungry that He wanted to dispense with pleasantries and get on with chowing down? Let’s find out!
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. You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? But give what is inside the dish to the poor, and everything will be clean for you. – Luke 11:39-41
I have no doubt that Jesus said this in response to the reaction of the Pharisee after seeing that Jesus did want to play the hand-washing game with him. It seems clear to me that Jesus specifically chose to skip that tradition so as to make this powerful object lesson from it.
Just like the ritual handwashing ceremony was actually useless for making hands clean, washing the outside of a cup is useless for making clean the part you drink out of. And just as washing the outside of a cup is useless, so are any attempts to make people clean on the outside only. Jesus was not just condemning the washing ceremony – He was condemning the entire concept and motivation behind the “traditions of the elders!”
Fastidiously keeping and observing the “hedge” around the Law didn’t make you able to keep the Law any more than washing the outside of something makes the inside clean!
And to give just one example of their heart problems, Jesus tells them to simply give more to the poor. It wasn’t that this in itself would fix their problems and make them righteous; I believe He used it simply to prick their hearts – the fact that they became uncomfortable at the thought of giving was a sign that not all was right inside their “hedge.”
Was Jesus done? No; He was just getting warmed up! He went on:
"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. Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without knowing it." – Luke 11:42-44
Wow! The word “woe” is not a word we use very often in conversation. The Greek here conveys less a sense of anger, as we might be tempted to understand it, given the hard words that follow, but instead is something more like, “I feel really sorry for you guys, given that this is what you are like…” Woe to you, Pharisees…
Again we see exposed more traditions of the elders. The Jews were required to tithe to support the temple and the priests and Levites. But were they required to tithe a tenth of each kind of spice? Of course not! Now it is interesting that Jesus does not actually condemn this practice – I think perhaps He saw it as a bit silly, but not in any way sinful. The problem was that there were real sin issues going on, and they were being ignored. They were neglecting justice, meaning that they participated in injustice, and they were neglecting the love of God, a violation of the first commandment. In fact, isn’t neglecting justice and the love of God just another way of saying that they weren’t loving the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength, and they weren’t loving their neighbor as themselves? It’s hard to imagine a more serious sin issue.
What was the real problem? It was that they were hypocrites! Whatever the original purposes of the “traditions of the elders” were, they were being used to make the Pharisees appear better than they really were.
And then we come to Jesus’ second woe. They loved to be honored in public. They wanted the best seats in the house, the seats for the important people. I think we all struggle at times with the desire to be noticed and have people say, “Wow, look at you!” This is a form of pride, plain and simple. It’s a very subtle form of pride, one that in computer lingo, “runs in the background.” It tries not to let itself be known. And getting rid of it is just as difficult as trying to get rid of spyware or computer viruses on your computer.
The third woe may be more easily understood with some background. According to the Law of Moses, a person became unclean when they came in contact with a dead body (Numbers 19). Touching a grave would also make a person unclean. Jesus turned this around and said that they were like unmarked graves themselves! What does this mean? It means that when people unknowingly “walked over them,” in other words, when they came into contact with their teachings, they became defiled! In other words, the very traditions the Pharisees were supposedly using to keep them closer to God were actually making other people fall away from Him! It is hard to imagine a more stinging rebuke.
One of the experts in the law answered him, "Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also." 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. – Luke 11:45-46
Now Jesus, with the fourth woe, turned His criticism to the experts of the law. There were constantly new questions coming up about how to properly observe the “hedge” around the Law. In effect, the hedge was getting bigger and bigger, or to put it another way, they were building hedges around the hedges. Jesus condemned them for this, because they were just making it harder and harder for regular folks to try to serve and follow God. And by adding new rules in areas like farming that didn’t affect them personally, they were institutionalizing and codifying a kind of hypocrisy.
"Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your forefathers who killed them. So you testify that you approve of what your forefathers did; they killed the prophets, and you build their tombs. 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.' Therefore this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world, 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. – Luke 11:47-51
It seems like a special kind of hypocrisy in which you build elaborate tombs honoring people that you yourselves would have hated and wanted to kill, but this is exactly what Jesus accuses the scribes of. And Jesus’ fifth woe here is a kind of prophecy about Himself, for the scribes were certainly responsible in part for the trial with trumped up charges that led to Jesus being crucified.
"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." – Luke 11:52
It seems fitting that there were a total of 6 woes – Biblically, again and again, 6 was a sign of incompleteness, sin, and even demonic powers (in contrast to 7 which was a sign of completeness and fullness). This sixth and final woe might be the harshest of them all. The experts in the law are not only accused of making creating burdens for regular folks and for the hypocrisy of making tombs for people you would have hated and persecuted, but now they are accused of “taking away the key to knowledge.” What does this mean? It means that although they had great knowledge about the scriptures, rather than using these gifts to enlighten others, they chose to not seek God themselves, and furthermore, to discourage others from humbly seeking Him as well.
When Jesus left there, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose Him fiercely and to besiege Him with questions, waiting to catch Him in something He might say. – Luke 11:53-54
As we have talked about before, people do not generally like to be rebuked, and Jesus’ true but biting criticisms of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law caused the animosity between Jesus and these people to rise to a new level. We will see the many repercussions of this in the coming weeks.
I want to talk about some practical applications of this passage for us. The first question I would ask is “Are you aware of your hypocrisy?” We human beings are masterfully capable of hiding the truths from ourselves. Here are some questions that may help us all become aware of when we do this.
Are you criticizing someone for something you yourself are doing? It is very easy for spouses to do this to each other and it is very easy for parents to do this to their children.
Are you acting like a good Christian when around other Christians? Ask yourself what you do differently when you are around your Christian friends versus what you do when by yourself or with non-Christian friends.
Are you doing good things for selfish reasons? Desire of recognition is a key one of those selfish reasons. Would you do the same things if you knew nobody would ever find out that you were the one who did it?
Now, how should we respond when we discover hypocrisy in us?
The answer is easy to say, but not so easy to do. I would be a hypocrite if I told you it was easy. But scripturally, I believe the answer is twofold:
Confess your sins to God.
Confess your sins to those who have been damaged by your hypocrisy.
For example, if you use coarse language at work, and because of it, you don’t let anyone at work know you are a Christian, you should confess your sins to God and you should (and this is hard) talk to your friends at work, letting them know that you are a Christian but haven’t acted like it, apologizing for your behavior. This is hard because you are vulnerable, and your friends may never treat you the same – the reality is that by doing this, you are drawing attention to their hypocrisy, and as I have said, nobody likes this. It’s also hard because now you will be held to a much higher standard, and you will probably need to apologize again. But I do not exaggerate when I say that this is the difference between us being unmarked graves and being springs of living water to a lost and dying world.
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