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.
38 When the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that He had not first washed before dinner.
Our parents have thrown this remark at us all our lives – ‘Did you wash your hands?’. In the pursuit of proper hygiene they are right in this instruction. However, what the religious phonies were arguing with our Lord Jesus Christ was not just a normal hand wash.
I did a little research and came up with some information relative to ritual hand washing. Just think about this information and consider if you could always maintain compliance with just this one traditional rule.
The ritual hand washing is called Netilat yadayim ("Raising [after ritually washing] the hands"), also known as Mayim Rishonim. which is done with a blessing, prior to eating any bread with a meal. Before you sit down to eat a meal with bread, you are to wash your hands and make a special blessing. Go to the kitchen, or the nearest sink in the house. Fill a large cup with water. Pass the cup to your left hand and pour three times over your right hand. Repeat by pouring on your left hand. As you wipe your hands recite the blessing: Baruch atah A-donoy, Elo-heinu Melech Ha’Olam, asher kidshanu bemitzvotav vetzivanu al netilat yadayim.
Now this is just one traditional ceremony. Just think if you were required to memorize all the various imposed religious traditions. Boy would that be hard to do and it would also be a pain in the neck.
One time I was at this Pastor’s conference and this one Pastor who I know is a great kidder. The people running the conference made the mistake of asking him to pray for the meal. Now picture 300 hungry guys and this guy gets up and says, ‘Now before I say ‘Grace’ how about we have a quick review of the book of Leviticus?’ In all truth, I thought the guys would take him out and string him up on the nearest tree.
The Pharisees attempt to please God by going through all this un-necessary ritual was not pleasing to the Holy Son of God. He was just proving this fact by sitting down and to a large degree saying, ‘Let’s eat’
Now apparently our Lord and Savior did not read Dale Carnegie’s ‘How to win friends and influence other.’ I love His response to these evil men.
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.
We all need to understand the truth our Precious Holy Spirit imparts to us in the book of Proverbs chapter 16, verse 22, “Understanding is a wellspring of life to him who has it. But the correction of fools is folly.” I have learned not to give my advice unless the person insists. I usually in counseling say to the person or couple, ‘Would you like me to sugar coat my answer or tell you plainly what I think?’ Almost all of the time, I get in response, that they want my thoughts ‘straight up’ without restraint. By their defensive remarks and actions afterwards, reveals that is not what they wanted.
Our Lord cut straight to the heart of the matter and revealed to these religious phonies where their real thoughts were. Do you think they liked those remarks? ‘Oh, thank you dear Jesus, for pointing out to us who we really are.’ I don’t think so.
Well, if you are on a roll, you might as well give them both barrels.
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.”
Let me digress for a moment and comment on something that angers and frustrates people and that issue is ‘tithing’ Some church’s insist that you aught to tithe while others say that you do not. Some people say that tithing is an Old Testament rule for the Jews because they live in an agricultural society, not for us who live in the New Testament times.. Now who is right?
Well, our Lord Jesus is in the New Testament and what does He say, 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.”
You see what our Lord just said about tithing? He said, ‘Yes you should.’ Now there is a problem today regarding this position of our Lord. You see most people live far above their means. These church’s say that you need to step out in faith and give 10% even though you cannot afford to give that much. So, a sincere man or woman wants to be obedient to our Lord and responds to the pressure of these churches and what happens? The person gets into deep financial difficulty. Who gets the blame when this happens? Sadly our Lord gets the blame for He didn’t bless us as we were told.
I know of one guy who obeyed his church’s instruction and gave 10%. He hardly had enough money to feed his family. One day he and his wife went together to buy some hamburger helper for their family’s dinner and spotted the Pastor who insisted they obey the rule of tithing. The Pastor and his wife had two shopping carts full of steak and lobster and all kinds of goodies. Because of this Pastor’s insistence, the man walked away from God.
In the book of 2 Corinthians 9 ,”Now concerning the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you; 2 for I know your willingness, about which I boast of you to the Macedonians, that Achaia was ready a year ago; and your zeal has stirred up the majority. 3 Yet I have sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this respect, that, as I said, you may be ready; 4 lest if some Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we (not to mention you!) should be ashamed of this confident boasting. 5 Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren to go to you ahead of time, and prepare your generous gift beforehand, which you had previously promised, that it may be ready as a matter of generosity and not as a grudging obligation. 6 But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. 9 As it is written: “He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor; His righteousness endures forever.” 10 Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, 11 while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God. 12 For the administration of this service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God, 13 while, through the proof of this ministry, they glorify God for the obedience of your confession to the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal sharing with them and all men, 14 and by their prayer for you, who long for you because of the exceeding grace of God in you. 15 Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!
What I tell people is this - Obey the word of God. But in order to give 10% to the Lord, first go and get your house in order. Pay off your bills; get rid of all your credit cards, except one for emergencies. As you are doing this set aside some money that you can give towards the Lord’s work. When you are in balance financially then do the right things and tithe.’
Now I love this response from some of the lawyers.
45 Then one of the lawyers answered and said to Him, “Teacher, by saying these things You reproach us also.”
No joke shy lark. You heard the joke about how you can tell the difference between a dead deer and a dead lawyer on the side of the road. The dead deer has skid marks before it. Or the one about a person commenting about the weather, that it was so cold outside, that he saw a lawyer with his hands in his own pockets.
Do you think our Lord would respond, ‘Oh, I’m sorry that you feel hurt by what I just said.’ No, He responds to them.
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.”
Have you ever noticed that many people do not become famous until they are dead? Look at some of the greatest painters. It wasn’t until they died did people recognize how great their skill was. Look at Abraham Lincoln. The poor guy was only able to talk in some officer and his fiancée to go with him and his wife to Ford’s Theatre. Yes, it is a lonely travel through this life.
The prophets of God were not only ignored by the people but they were put to death for their faithfulness in proclaiming God’s message. Here we find out from God Himself how Zechariah was killed. Then in future generations the people make up a monument to give praise and thanks to the very one their ancestors put to death.
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.
Here the very Creator Who received the insults, abuse, misuse, and mistreatment from the ones He created.
Remember back in the beginning why our Lord was at this person’s house. He was invited to dinner. Pass the ‘Tums’ please.
