Luke 11:33-54

11:33-36 | While moderns think of light penetrating the eye, the ancients though of the eye as creating light. If the eye turned bad, it ceased to create light and the result would be complete darkness (Matt. 6:22-23).

11:37-41 | The Pharisees worked hard to create the impression that they served God faultlessly, but they had little love for Him (Matt. 15:2; 23:25; Mark 7:2-3). God desires justice and mercy, not outward shows of piety. True faith manifests itself in mercy toward those in need (Dan. 4:27; Micah 6:7-8).

11:42 | The Pharisees completely overlooked the far more significant matters of the law. Jesus warned them this would lead to certain judgment.

11:44 | Jesus’ rebuke here is especially ironic. The scribes and Pharisees loathed the idea of becoming ritually unclean, and they took special care around dead bodies – not only to avoid touching them but even trying to keep their shadow from touching a corpse or tomb. Jeus compared these men to tombs or graves hidden right under the people’s feet, continually making them “unclean” through tainted doctrine and practice.

11:45-48 | The lawyers made the people’s lives far more difficult. In doing so, they took a divine gift meant to point people to God and used it instead to trample their spirits (Matt. 23:4).

11:49-51 | Abel was the first murder victim in history (Gen. 4:8), while Zechariah was the last prophet murdered (2 Chron. 24:20-21). The same evil attitudes and spirit that led to the murders of God’s messengers in the past culminated in the hearts of those who now plotted Jesus’ own death. It is not unusual for someone to believe they are morally above the actions of the scribes and Pharisees, when in reality they possess the same hard heart (Matt. 23:34).

11:52 | With full access to God’s Word, the teachers of the law (lawyers or scribes) should have been well-equipped to lead the people into a dynamic relationship with God. Instead, they took this “key to life” and used it to lock tight the grace of God. By focusing on rules and rituals, they obscured the central purpose of the law and turned people into bookkeeping hypocrites like themselves.