Luke Reading (#32)

Take a few minutes to catch up and pray that God would bless you through the reading of His word.

Read Luke 11:33-54

[11:33] “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. [34] Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. [35] Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. [36] If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.”
[37] While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table. [38] The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. [39] And the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. [40] You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? [41] But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you.
[42] “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. [43] Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. [44] Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.”
[45] One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.” [46] And he said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people 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 whom your fathers killed. [48] So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. [49] Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ [50] so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, [51] from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. [52] Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.”
[53] As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things, [54] lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say.

Observation

• What warning does Jesus give in v. 35?
• Why was the Pharisee shocked by Jesus (v. 38)?
  • What two kinds of cleanness and uncleanness did Jesus compare (v. 39-40)?
  • What were the Pharisees like on the outside (v. 39, 42-43)?
  • What were they like on the inside (v. 42-44)?
• How did one of the lawyers (scribe/teacher of God’s law) respond (v. 45)?
  • What things does Jesus accuse them of in v. 45-52?
  • In what way are they guilty of their ancestors’ crimes (v. 48-51)?
  • Did the scribes and Pharisees repent in light of Jesus’ critique (v. 53-54)?

Interpretation

• What is the lamp in v. 33 a picture of? What kind of sight and light is being described in v. 34 and v. 36? What does Jesus’ statement in v. 35 mean?
• What does it mean to “give as alms those things that are within” (v. 41)? How is that the opposite of what the Pharisees normally did?
• What are the burdens that the lawyers put on people (v. 46)?
• Why does Jesus blame the religious leaders for the death of the OT prophets?
• What is the “key of knowledge” (v. 52)?

Application

• Why is it so easy for people in leadership to tell others to do what they are not willing to do themselves (v. 46)? Where might that be a temptation for you?
• Why is the human heart so prone to value external cleanness over internal cleanness? Which is easier? Which is more often rewarded by others? Where might you be tempted to make the same mistake? How can you guard against that temptation?

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