Verses 1-54
Chapter 11
11:1-4 Jesus was
praying in a certain place, and when he stopped, one of his disciples
said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." He
said to them, "When you pray, say,
O Father, let your
name be held in reverence. Let your kingdom come. Give to us each day
our bread for the day. And forgive us our sins as we too forgive
everyone who is in debt to us. And lead us not into temptation."
It was the regular custom for a Rabbi to teach his disciples a
simple prayer which they might habitually use. John had done that for
his disciples, and now Jesus' disciples came asking him to do the same
for them. This is Luke's version of the Lord's Prayer. It is shorter
than Matthew's, but it will teach us all we need to know about how to
pray and what to pray for.
(i) It begins by calling God Father. That was the characteristic Christian address to God. (compare Galatians 4:6; Romans 8:15; 1 Peter 1:17).
The very first word tells us that in prayer we are not coming to
someone out of whom gifts have to be unwillingly extracted, but to a
Father who delights to supply his children's needs.
(ii) In Hebrew the name means much more than merely the name by
which a person is called. The name means the whole character of the
person as it is revealed and known to us. Psalms 9:10
says, "Those who know thy name put their trust in thee." That means far
more than knowing that God's name is Jehovah. It means that those who
know the whole character and mind and heart of God will gladly put their
trust in him.
(iii) We must note particularly the order of the Lord's Prayer.
Before anything is asked for ourselves, God and his glory, and the
reverence due to him, come first. Only when we give God his place will
other things take their proper place.
(iv) The prayer covers all life.
(a) It covers present need. It tells us to pray for our daily
bread; but it is bread for the day for which we pray. This goes back to
the old story of the manna in the wilderness (Exodus 16:11-21).
Only enough for the needs of the day might be gathered. We are not to
worry about the unknown future, but to live a day at a time.
"I do not ask to see
The distant scene--one step enough for me."
(b) It covers past sin. When we pray we cannot do other than
pray for forgiveness, for the best of us is a sinful man coming before
the purity of God.
(c) It covers future trials. Temptation means any testing
situation. It includes far more than the mere seduction to sin; it
covers every situation which is a challenge to and a test of a person's
manhood and integrity and fidelity. We cannot escape it, but we can meet
it with God.
Someone has said that the Lord's Prayer has two great uses in
our private prayers. If we use it at the beginning of our devotions it
awakens all kinds of holy desires which lead us on into the right
pathways of prayer. If we use it at the end of our devotions it sums up
all we ought to pray for in the presence of God.
11:5-13 Jesus said to
them, "Suppose one of you has a friend and goes to him towards midnight
and says to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves because a friend of mine
has arrived at my house from a journey and I have nothing to set before
him'; and suppose his friend answers from within, 'Don't bother me; the
door has already been shut and my children are in bed with me; I can't
get up and supply you'--I tell you, if he will not rise and supply him
because he is his friend, he will rise and give him as much as he needs
because of his shameless persistence. For I say to you, 'Ask and it will
be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to
you. For everyone who asks receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him
who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks any father among you for
bread, will he give him a stone? Or, if he asks a fish, will he, instead
of a fish, give him a serpent? Or if he asks an egg, will he give him a
scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know to give good gifts to your
children, how much more will your Father who is in Heaven give the Holy
Spirit to those who ask him?'"
Travellers often journeyed late in the evening to avoid the
heat of the midday sun. In Jesus' story just such a traveller had
arrived towards midnight at this friend's house. In the east hospitality
is a sacred duty; it was not enough to set before a man a bare
sufficiency; the guest had to be confronted with an ample abundance. In
the villages bread was baked at home. Only enough for the day's needs
was baked because, if it was kept and became stale, no one would wish to
eat it.
The late arrival of the traveller confronted the householder
with an embarrassing situation, because his larder was empty and he
could not fulfil the sacred obligations of hospitality. Late as it was,
he went out to borrow from a friend. The friend's door was shut. In the
east no one would knock on a shut door unless the need was imperative.
In the morning the door was opened and remained open all day, for there
was little privacy; but if the door was shut, that was a definite sign
that the householder did not wish to be disturbed. But the seeking
householder was not deterred. He knocked, and kept on knocking.
The poorer Palestinian house consisted of one room with only one
little window. The floor was simply of beaten earth covered with dried
reeds and rushes. The room was divided into two parts, not by a
partition but by a low platform. Two-thirds of it were on ground level.
The other third was slightly raised. On the raised part the charcoal
stove burned all night, and round it the whole family slept, not on
raised beds but on sleeping mats. Families were large and they slept
close together for warmth. For one to rise was inevitably to disturb the
whole family. Further, in the villages it was the custom to bring the
livestock, the hens and the cocks and the goats, into the house at
night.
Is there any wonder that the man who was in bed did not want to
rise? But the determined borrower knocked on with shameless
persistence--that is what the Greek word means--until at last the
householder, knowing that by this time the whole family was disturbed
anyway, arose and gave him what he needed.
"That story," said Jesus, "will tell you about prayer." The
lesson of this parable is not that we must persist in prayer; it is not
that we must batter at God's door until we finally compel him for very
weariness to give us what we want, until we coerce an unwilling God to
answer.
A parable literally means something laid alongside. If we lay
something beside another thing to teach a lesson, that lesson may be
drawn from the fact that the things are like each other or from the fact
that the things are a contrast to each other. The point here is based,
not on likeness, but on contrast. What Jesus says is, "If a churlish and
unwilling householder can in the end be coerced by a friend's shameless
persistence into giving him what he needs, how much more will God who
is a loving Father supply all his children's needs?" "If you," he says,
"who are evil, know that you are bound to supply your children's needs,
how much more will God?"
This does not absolve us from intensity in prayer. After all, we
can guarantee the reality and sincerity of our desire only by the
passion with which we pray. But it does mean this, that we are not
wringing gifts from an unwilling God, but going to one who knows our
needs better than we know them ourselves and whose heart towards us is
the heart of generous love. If we do not receive what we pray for, it is
not because God grudgingly refuses to give it but because he has some
better thing for us. There is no such thing as unanswered prayer. The
answer given may not be the answer we desired or expected; but even when
it is a refusal it is the answer of the love and the wisdom of God.
11:14-23 Jesus was
casting out a dumb demon. When the demon came out the dumb man spoke and
the crowds were amazed. Some of them said, "He casts out demons by the
help of Beelzebul, who is the prince of demons." Others, trying to put
him to the test, sought a sign from heaven from him. He knew what they
were thinking. "Every kingdom," he said, "that is divided against itself
is devastated; and every house that is divided against itself falls; so
if Satan is divided against himself how will his kingdom stand? You
must answer that question because you say that I cast out demons by the
help of Beelzebul. If I cast out demons by the power of Beelzebul, by
whose power do your sons cast them out? You have become your own judges.
But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out the demons, then the
kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man in full panoply
guards his own homestead, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger
man than he comes and conquers him, he will take away the armour in
which he trusted, and will divide his spoil. He who is not with me is
against me; and he who does not gather with me scatters."
When Jesus' enemies were helpless to oppose him by fair means
they resorted to slander. They declared that his power over the demons
was due to the fact that he was in league with the prince of demons.
They attributed his power not to God but to the devil. Jesus gave them a
double and a crushing answer.
First, he struck them a shrewd blow. There were many exorcists
in Jesus' time in Palestine. Josephus, traces this power back to
Solomon. Part of Solomon's wisdom was that he was skilful with herbs and
had invented incantations which--drove out demons in such a way that
they never came back; and Josephus states that he had seen Solomon's
methods used with success even in his own day. (Josephus, Antiquities of
the Jews 8: 5: 2) So Jesus delivers a home-thrust. "If I," he said,
"cast out devils because I am in league with the prince of devils, what
of your own people who do the same thing? If you condemn me, you are
only condemning yourselves."
Second, he used a really unanswerable argument. No kingdom in
which there is a civil war can survive. If the prince of devils is
lending his power to defeat his own emissaries he is finished. There is
only one way for a strong man to be defeated and that is for a still
stronger man to master him. "Therefore," said Jesus, "if I cast out
devils, so far from that proving that I am in league with the prince of
devils, it proves that the devil's citadel is breached, the strong man
of evil is mastered, and the kingdom of God is here."
Out of this passage emerge certain permanent truths.
(i) It is by no means uncommon for people to resort to slander
when honest opposition is helpless. Gladstone was interested in the
reformation of the fallen women of the streets of London. His enemies
suggested that he was interested in them for very different and very
inferior reasons. There is nothing so cruel as slander, for it is apt to
stick because the human mind always tends to think the worst and very
often the human ear prefers to hear the derogatory rather than the
complimentary tale. We need not think that we are free of that
particular sin. How often do we tend to think the worst of other people?
How often do we deliberately impute low motives to someone whom we
dislike? How often do we repeat the slanderous and the malicious tale
and murder reputations over the tea-cups? To think of this will not
cause complacency but call for self-examination.
(ii) Once again we must note than Jesus' proof that the kingdom
had come was the fact that sufferers were healed and health walked where
disease had been. Jesus' aim was not only soul salvation; it was also
whole salvation.
(iii) Luke finishes this section with the saying of Jesus that
he who was not with him was against him and that he who did not help to
gather the flock helped to scatter it abroad. There is no place for
neutrality in the Christian life. The man who stands aloof from the good
cause automatically helps the evil one. A man is either on the way or
in the way.
11:24-28 When the
unclean spirit goes out of a man, it goes through waterless places
seeking for rest. And when it does not find it, it says, "I will go back
to my house from which I came out." So it comes and finds the house
swept and in order. Then it goes and gets in addition seven spirits
worse than itself, and they enter in and settle there; and the last
state of that man is worse than the first.
When he was speaking a
woman lifted up her voice from the crowd and said, "Happy is the womb
that bore you and the breasts at which you sucked." "But," he said,
"rather, happy are those who hear the word of God and keep it."
Here is a grim and terrible story. There was a man from whom an
unclean spirit was expelled. It wandered seeking rest and found none.
It determined to return to the man. It found his soul swept and
garnished--but empty. So the spirit went and collected seven spirits
worse than itself and came back and entered in; and the man's last state
was worse than his first.
(i) Here is the fundamental truth that you cannot leave a man's
soul empty. It is not enough to banish the evil thoughts and the evil
habits and the old ways and leave the soul empty. An empty soul is a
soul in peril. Adam C. Welch liked to preach on the text, "And do not
get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the
Spirit" (Ephesians 5:18).
When he did so his opening sentence was, "You've got to fill a man with
something." It is not enough to drive out evil; good must come in.
(ii) That means we can never erect a real religion on negatives.
Take a very clear example--the problem of Sunday observance is still
not solved in the church today. Too often it is approached with a tirade
against the things which people allow themselves to do on Sunday and a
catalogue of forbidden things. But the man to whom we speak has a
perfect right to ask, "Well, what may I do?" And unless we tell him, his
last state is worse than his first, for we have simply condemned him to
idleness, and Satan is adept at finding mischief for idle hands to do.
It is always the peril of religion that it may present itself in a
series of negatives. Cleansing is necessary; but after the rooting out
of evil, there must come the filling with good.
(iii) The best way to avoid evil is to do good. The loveliest
garden I ever saw was so full of flowers that there was scarcely room
for a weed to grow. In no garden is it enough to uproot weeds; flowers
must be sown and planted until the space is filled. Nowhere is this
truer than in the world of thoughts. Often we may be troubled with wrong
thoughts. If we go no further than to say to ourselves, "I will not
think about that," all we do is fix our thoughts upon it more and more.
The cure is to think of something else, to banish the evil thought by
thinking a good thought. We never become good by not doing things, but
by filling life with lovely things.
Luke 11:27-28
show Jesus speaking sternly but truly. The woman who spoke was carried
away by a moment of emotion. Jesus pulled her back to reality. The
moment of emotion is a fine thing; but the greatest thing is a life of
obedience in the routine things of everyday. No amount of fine feeling
can take the place of faithful doing.
11:29-32 When the
crowds were thronging upon him, he began to say, "This generation is a
wicked generation. It seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it
except the sign of Jonah; for just as Jonah was a sign to the people of
Nineveh so the Son of Man will be to this generation. The queen of the
south will rise up in judgment with the men of this generation and will
condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the
wisdom of Solomon, and--look you--something greater than Solomon is
here. The men of Nineveh will rise up in judgment with this generation
and will condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah,
and--look you--something greater than Jonah is here."
The Jews wanted Jesus to do something sensational to prove that
he really was the anointed one of God. Later than this, about the year
A.D. 45, a man called Theudas arose claiming to be the Messiah. He
persuaded the people to follow him out to the Jordan with the promise
that he would cleave the river in two and give them a pathway through it
to the other side. Needless to say he failed, and the Romans dealt
summarily with his rising; but that is the kind of thing the people
wanted Jesus to do to prove his claims. They could not see that the
greatest sign that God could ever send was Jesus himself.
Just as once long ago Jonah had been God's sign to Nineveh, so
now Jesus was God's sign to them---and they failed to recognize him.
When Solomon was king the Queen of Sheba recognized his wisdom and came
from far to benefit from it; when Jonah preached the men of Nineveh
recognized the authentic voice of God and responded to it. In the day of
judgment these people would rise up and condemn the Jews of Jesus'
time, because these Jews had had an opportunity and a privilege far
beyond anything they had ever had and had refused to accept it. The
condemnation of the Jews would be all the more complete because their
privileges were so great.
Privilege and responsibility go ever hand in hand. Think of two of our greatest privileges and how we use them.
(i) Available to everyone is the Bible, the word of God. It did
not cost nothing. There was a time when it was death to teach the
English Bible. When Wycliff wrote to a certain scholar, about the year
A.D. 1350, asking him to teach the common people the gospel stories in
the English tongue, he answered, "I know well that I am holden by
Christ's law to perform thy asking, but, natheless, we are now so far
fallen away from Christ's law, that if I would answer to thy askings I
must in case undergo the death; and thou wettest well that a man is
beholden to keep his life as long as he may." Later on, Foxe was to tell
us that in those days men sat up all night to read and hear the word of
God in English. "Some gave five marks (equal to 40 British pounds),
some more, some less for a book; some gave a load of hay for a few
chapters of St. James or St. Paul in English." It was Tyndale who gave
England its first printed Bible. To do so, as he said himself, he
suffered, "poverty, exile, bitter absence from friends, hunger and
thirst and cold, great dangers and innumerable other hard and sharp
fightings." In 1536 he was martyred. When, some years before, the
authorities had burned the book, he said, "They did none other thing
than I looked for; no more shall they do if they burn me also."
There is no book which cost so much as the Bible. To-day it is
in serious danger of deserving the cynical definition of a classic--a
book of which everyone has heard and which no one reads. We have the
privilege of possessing the Bible and that privilege is a responsibility
for which we shall answer.
(ii) We have freedom to worship as we think right; and that,
too, is a privilege which cost the lives of men. The tragedy is that so
many people have used that freedom in order not to worship at all. That
privilege, too, is a responsibility for which we shall answer.
If a man possesses Christ, and Christ's book, and Christ's
church, he is the heir of all the privileges of God; and if he neglects
them or refuses them he, like the Jews in the time of Jesus, is a man
under condemnation.
11:33-36 No one lights
a lamp and puts it in a cellar or under a bushel, but upon a
lamp-stand, so that those who come in may see the light. The lamp of the
body is your eye. When your eye is sound your whole body is full of
light; but if the eye is diseased the whole body is full of darkness.
Take care, then, lest the light that is in you is darkness. If, then,
your whole body is fun of light, without any part of darkness, it will
be altogether bright as when the lamp with its ray gives you light.
The meaning is not easy to grasp, but probably it is this. The
light of the body depends on the eye; if the eye is healthy the body
receives all the light it needs; if the eye is diseased the light turns
to darkness. Just so, the light of life depends on the heart; if the
heart is right the whole life is irradiated with light; if the heart is
wrong all life is darkened. Jesus urges us to see that the inner lamp is
always burning.
What is it that darkens the inner light? What is it that can go wrong with our hearts?
(i) Our hearts may become hard. Sometimes, if we have to do
something unaccustomed with our bands, the skin is irritated and we have
pain; but if we repeat the action often enough the skin becomes
hardened and we can do what once hurt us without any trouble. It is so
with our hearts. The first time we do a wrong thing we do it with a
tremor and sometimes with a sore heart. Each time we repeat it the
tremor grows less, until in the end we can do it without a qualm. There
is a terrible hardening power in sin. No man ever took the first step to
sin without the warnings sounding in his heart; but if he sins often
enough the time comes when he ceases to care. What we were once afraid
and reluctant to do becomes a habit. We have nobody but ourselves to
blame if we allow ourselves to reach that stage.
(ii) Our hearts may become dull. It is tragically easy to accept
things. In the beginning our hearts may be sore at the sight of the
world's suffering and pain; but in the end most people become so used to
it that they accept it and feel nothing at all.
It is all too true that for most people the feelings of youth
are far more intense than those of age. That is specially true of the
cross of Jesus Christ. Florence Barclay tells how when she was a little
girl she was taken to church for the first time. It was Good Friday, and
the long story of the crucifixion was read and beautifully read. She
heard Peter deny and Judas betray; she beard Pilate's bullying
cross-examination; she saw the crown of thorns, the buffeting of the
soldiers; she heard of Jesus being delivered to be crucified, and then
there came the words with their terrible finality, "and there they
crucified him." No one in the church seemed to care; but suddenly the
little girl's face was buried in her mother's coat, and she was sobbing
her heart out, and her little voice rang through the silent church, "Why
did they do it? Why did they do it?"
That is how we all ought to feel about the cross, but we have
heard the story so often that we can listen to it with no reaction at
all. God keep us from the heart which has lost the power to feel the
agony of the cross--borne for us.
(iii) Our hearts may be actively rebellious. It is quite
possible for a man to know the right way and deliberately to take the
wrong way. A man may actually feel God's hand upon his shoulder and
twitch that shoulder away. With open eyes a man may take his way to the
far country when God is calling him home.
God save us from the darkened heart.
11:37-44 After Jesus
had spoken a Pharisee asked him to dine with him. He came in and
reclined at the table. The Pharisee was surprised when he saw that he
did not dip his hands in water before he ate. The Lord said to him, "You
Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you
are full of grasping and wickedness. Fools! Did he who made the outside
not make the inside also? But cleanse the things that are within--and
look you--all things will be pure for you.
But woe to you
Pharisees! because you give tithes of mint and rue and every herb and
pass by justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done
without omitting the others. Woe to you Pharisees! because you love the
chief seats in the synagogues and greetings in the market places. Woe to
you! because you are like tombs which are not seen, and the men who
walk over them do not know that they are doing it."
The Pharisee was surprised that Jesus did not wash his hands
before eating. This was not a matter of cleanliness but of the
ceremonial law. The law laid it down that before a man ate he must wash
his hands in a certain way and that he must also wash them between the
courses. As usual every littlest detail was worked out. Large stone
vessels of water were specially kept for the purpose because ordinary
water might be unclean; the amount of water used must be at least a
quarter of a log, that is, enough to fill one and a half egg-shells.
First the water must be poured over the hands beginning at the tips of
the fingers and running right up to the wrist. Then the palm of each
hand must be cleansed by rubbing the fist of the other into it. Finally,
water must again be poured over the hand, this time beginning at the
wrist and running down to the fingertips. To the Pharisee, to omit the
slightest detail of this was to sin. Jesus' comment was that, if they
were as particular about cleansing their hearts as they were about
washing their hands, they would be better men.
There were certain dues which the meticulously orthodox would never omit to pay.
(a) The first fruits of the soil. The first fruits of the seven
kinds--wheat, barley, vines, fig-trees, pomegranates, olives and
honey--were offered in the Temple.
(b) There was the Terumah (Hebrew #8641).
The first fruits were given to God, but the Terumah was a contribution
to the upkeep of the priests. It was the presentation of the first
fruits of every growing thing. The amount to be given was one-fiftieth
of the total yield.
(c) There was the tithe. The tithe was paid directly to the
Levites, who, in turn, paid a tithe of what they received to the
priests. It was one-tenth of "everything that can be used as food and is
cultivated and grows out of the earth." The meticulousness of the
Pharisees in tithing is shown by the fact that even the law said it was
not necessary to tithe rue. No matter what their inner hearts and
feelings were like, however much they neglected justice and forgot love,
they never omitted the tithe.
The chief seats at the synagogue were the seats out in front
facing the audience. In the congregation itself the best seats were at
the front and they decreased in honour the further back they got. The
advantage of these seats was that they could be seen by all!
The more exaggerated the respect of the greetings the Pharisees received in the streets the better they were pleased.
The point of Luke 11:44 is this. Numbers 19:16
lays it down that "whoever in the open field touches a grave shall be
unclean seven days." To be unclean was to be debarred from all religious
worship. Now, it might be that a man might touch a grave without
knowing that he was doing it. That did not matter; its touch made him
unclean. Jesus said that the Pharisees were exactly like that. Although
men might not know it their influence could do nothing but harm. All
unawares, the man who came in contact with them was being touched for
evil. Men might not suspect the corruption but it was there; all the
time they were being infected with wrong ideas of God and of his
demands.
Two things stand out about the Pharisees and for these two things Jesus condemned them.
(i) They concentrated on externals. So long as the externals of
religion were carried out that was all that mattered. Their hearts might
be as black as hell; they might be utterly lacking in charity and even
in justice; but so long as they went through the correct motions at the
correct time they considered themselves good in the eyes of God.
A man may be regular in his church attendance; he may be a
diligent student of his Bible; he may be a generous giver to the church;
but if in his heart there are thoughts of pride and of contempt, if he
has no charity in his dealings with his fellow men in the life of the
everyday, if he is unjust to his subordinates or dishonest to his
employer, he is not a Christian man. No man is a Christian when he
meticulously observes the conventions of religion and forgets the
realities.
(ii) They concentrated on details. Compared with love and
kindness, justice and generosity, the washing of hands and the giving of
tithes with mathematical accuracy were unimportant details. Once a man
came to Dr Johnson with a tale of woe. He worked in a paper factory; he
had taken for his own purposes a very little piece of paper and a very
little bit of string, and he had convinced himself that he had committed
a deadly sin and would not stop talking about it. At last Johnson broke
out, "Sir, stop bothering about paper and packthread when we are all
living together in a world that is bursting with sin and sorrow." How
often church courts and church people get lost in totally unimportant
details of church government and administration, and even argue and
fight about them, and forget the great realities of the Christian life!
11:45-54 A scribe
answered, "Teacher, when you talk like that you are insulting us." Jesus
said, "Woe to you scribes too! because you bind burdens upon men that
are hard to bear and you yourselves do not lay a finger on the burdens.
Woe to you! because you build the tombs of the prophets whom your
fathers killed! So you are witnesses that you agree with the deeds of
your fathers, because they killed them and you build them tombs. Because
of this God in his wisdom said, 'I will send prophets and apostles to
them, some of whom they will slay and persecute, so that the blood of
all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, will be
required from this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of
Zacharias who perished between the altar and the Temple.' Yes, I tell
you, it will be required from this generation. Woe to you scribes! You
did not enter in yourselves and you hindered those who were trying to
enter."
As Jesus went away
from them, the scribes and Pharisees began to watch him intensely, and
to try to provoke him to discuss on many subjects, for they were laying
traps for him, to hunt for something out of his mouth which they could
use as a charge against him.
Three charges are levelled against the scribes.
(i) They were experts in the law; they laid upon men the
thousand and one burdens of the ceremonial law; but they did not keep
them themselves, because they were experts in evasion. Here are some of
their evasions.
The limit of a Sabbath day's journey was 2,000 cubits (1,000
yards) from a man's residence. But if a rope was tied across the end of
the street, the end of the street became his residence and he could go
1,000 yards beyond that; if on the Friday evening he left at any given
point enough food for two meals that point technically became his
residence and he could go 1,000 yards beyond that!
One of the forbidden works on the Sabbath was the tying of
knots, sailors' or camel drivers' knots and knots in ropes. But a woman
might tie the knot in her girdle. Therefore, if a bucket of water had to
be raised from a well a rope could not be knotted to it, but a woman's
girdle could, and it could be raised with that!
To carry a burden was forbidden, but the codified written law
laid it down, "he who carries anything, whether it be in his right hand,
or in his left hand, or in his bosom, or on his shoulder is guilty; but
he who carries anything on the back of his hand, with his foot, or with
his mouth, or with his elbow, or with his ear, or with his hair, or
with his money bag turned upside down, or between his money bag and his
shirt, or in the fold of his shirt or in his shoe, or in his sandal is
guiltless, because he does not carry it in the usual way of carrying it
out."
It is incredible that men should ever have thought that God
could have laid down laws like that, and that the working out of such
details was a religious service and the keeping of them a matter of life
and death. But that was scribal religion. Little wonder that Jesus
turned on the scribes, and that the scribes regarded him as an
irreligious heretic.
(ii) The attitude of the scribes to the prophets was
paradoxical. They professed a deep admiration for the prophets. But the
only prophets they admired were dead; when they met a living one they
tried to kill him. They honoured the dead prophets with tombs and
memorials, but they dishonoured the living ones with persecution and
death.
"Your new moons," said Isaiah, "and your appointed feasts my
soul hates." "He has showed you, O man, what is good," said Micah; "and
what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love
kindness and to walk humbly with your God?" That was the essence of the
prophetic message; and it was the very antithesis of scribal teaching.
No wonder the scribes, with their external details, hated the prophets,
and Jesus walked in the prophetic line. The murder of Zacharias is
described in 2 Chronicles 24:20-21.
(iii) The scribes shut the people off from scripture. Their
interpretation of scripture was so fantastic that it was impossible for
the ordinary man to understand it. In their hands scripture became a
book of riddles. In their mistaken ingenuity they refused to see its
plain meaning themselves, and they would not let anyone else see it
either. The scriptures had become the perquisite of the expert and a
dark mystery to the common man.
None of this is so very out of date. There are still those who
demand from others standards which they themselves refuse to satisfy.
There are still those whose religion is nothing other than legalism.
There are still those who make the word of God so difficult that the
seeking mind of the common man is bewildered and does not know what to
believe or to whom to listen.
-Barclay's Daily Study Bible (NT)