Dining With The Enemy Series

Luke 11: 37 – 54

Dining With The Enemy

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.

I recommend that you do not try this at home.

During my young reckless days I use to pull this prank on people that I did not like. Say, a bunch of guys and gals had gone to this restaurant. Somehow, some loud mouth was showing off and dominated the gathering. I would merely just let Mr. ‘Show Off’ do his thing. Then after I was about 90 % finished with my food, I would excuse myself expressing that I was going to the men’s room. The only thing I forgot to mention was that the men’s room was not at the restaurant that we were eating at. It was at my home. I wound up just walking out the door and sticking Mr. Impressive with the bill.

In today’s story of course our Wonderful Lord and Savior would not do anything like the things I would pull because I am sinful and He Is not. He was willing to be guided by our Precious Holy Spirit into whatever situation that was orchestrated by The Awesome Holy Ghost.

37 And as He spoke, a certain Pharisee asked Him to dine with him. So He went in and sat down to eat.

I apply the old adage, ‘Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. I am who God created me to be and if you know me personally, then let me say before the words are on your lips, that He didn’t make a mistake. Yeah, that’s right, He made me on purpose.

I was a street kid since I was nine years of age. I have a serious problem with trusting people. And having this characteristic, I have gotten burned a lot by people. I have come to forgive people for the harm that they have done to me, but I also do not hang around them so they can get another shot at me. If they don’t like my position then they can call me anything they want, but call me now, ‘long distance’.

If you have been studying the Holy Word of God with us in the Gospels then you know that our Lord was faithfully obedient to the Holy Spirit and went back to dine time in and time out in the enemies lairs. Look what happens right after He sits down.