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Luke 11:45–54
“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” (v. 46).
Attempting to keep the law of God in even its minutest details is a good thing. Deuteronomy 5:32 says that we are not to turn aside to the right or the left—we are to follow exactly the path that the law sets and not veer off it. Moreover, Jesus declares in Matthew 5:18 that not even an iota or dot—the smallest letter and pen stroke—will pass away until “all is accomplished,” indicating that God wants people to keep the law in its details.
Problems arise, however, if we focus on the details in an improper way, if we myopically emphasize certain particulars to the exclusion of other laws. Many first-century Pharisees did this, even adding extra laws not given by God, and Jesus condemned their practice (Luke 11:37–44). Assisting them in interpreting and applying the law was a group of men known as scribes or lawyers. Thus, when Jesus pronounced woes on the Pharisees, the lawyers came under His rebuke as well.
One lawyer recognized this and objected to Jesus’ declarations of woes (Luke 11:45). So Jesus turned His attention directly to the lawyers, condemning them for loading people with heavy burdens and then not helping them carry those burdens (Luke 11:46). Jesus refers to the practice of adding commandments to Scripture, making the law a burden. He likely also refers to the Pharisees’ and lawyers’ failure to show mercy to sinners. Instead of drawing near to people crushed by their sin, calling them to repentance and encouraging their obedience, they distanced themselves from those whom they considered unfit and beyond God’s grace. Jesus did the opposite, dining with notorious sinners who recognized their transgressions and sought forgiveness. Without approving of their sin, He came close to help them find release from sin (Luke 5:27–32).
Perhaps Jesus’ strongest rebuke involved His identifying the Pharisees and lawyers with those who killed the prophets of old (Luke 11:48–52), and we will consider this rebuke in our next study. In the meantime, Jesus’ words “from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah” (Luke 11:51) show us what He considered to be the Old Testament. Abel’s murder is recorded in Genesis and Zechariah’s martyrdom in 2 Chronicles. The canon that Jesus followed, which is the canon in Judaism to this day, features all the books of the Protestant Old Testament canon but in a different order, with Genesis first and 2 Chronicles last. Referring to Abel and Zechariah indicates that He drew the same canonical boundaries as Protestants do.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
As Christians, we must be clear that sin is real and that God seeks our faith in Christ, our repentance, and our endeavoring after new obedience. The law points to what this obedience looks like, although many of the ceremonial and civil laws have been fulfilled or abrogated today. We must be ready to show mercy to those who repent, and we are to come alongside them and help them as they seek to follow Christ.
for further study
- Psalm 55:22
- Matthew 11:25–30
- Matthew 23:1–4
- Galatians 6:1–2
the bible in a year
- Ezra 9–10
- Acts 1