“Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.”
~ Luke 11:39
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you remember what it was that your grandpaa last wrote about? In the last missive that your grandpaa sent to your dad to read to you was about how sin DNA negatively impacts belief paradigms. Your grandpaa used what God – as God the Spirit, breathed on Matthew to write what became the Matthew Book to help his people group guys and gals – who are God’s specially chosen guy and gals – who are known today as Jews, to better sense how they were being badly misled by their religious leaders – guys who were known as Pharisees. Matthew had been a tax collector who had been living and working in the town of Capernaum until Jesus told him that he was to follow Him as one of His twelve disciples. God – as God the Spirit, breathed on Matthew to write several times in what became the Matthew Book about when Jesus – who is God the Son, confronted guys who were known as Pharisees about their insistence that He and his disciples do it their way – which would have had Jesus and His disciples living their lives by their life rules and works regulations that they had decided would lead their followers to . . . because Jesus could read the hearts of the guys who were known as Pharisees, Jesus knew that these guys just wanted their people group guys and gals to ascribe them as their religious leaders so that they could use a perceived influential position as a way of promoting an image of power and prestige. God – as God the Spirit, compelled Matthew to sometime between 56 A.D. and 68 A.D. write what is known today as the Matthew Book. God – as God the Spirit, compelled Luke to sometime between 60 A.D. and 68 A.D. write what is known today as the Luke Book. Luke’s two letters to his good friend Theophilus are a compilation of witness information, personal interactions and having been personally involved in the emerging Christ-follower people group movement of guys, gals and kids. After Luke began Luke 11 with the words of the prayer that God – as God the Son – Jesus, taught His disciples to pray and then after recounting a couple of prayer vignettes on how God will give what is asked for in a prayer, Luke recorded in his book some of the same events or incidents – along with some additional amplifying of these same events and incidents, that Matthew recorded in his book regarding the bitter tension that the guys who were known as Pharisees had with Jesus and the religiosity stress that Jesus had with the guys who were known as Pharisees. Luke recorded in verse 39 the response of Jesus to a guy who was known as a Pharisee who had invited Jesus to eat in his house and who was ‘surprised’ when Jesus did not wash himself before He ate, “Then the Lord said to him, “‘Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.” Jesus went on to tell his host who was known as a Pharisee that he and his pals who were known as Pharisees were foolish rubes – that he and they were pushing God’s hot button when they tithed a tenth of their mint, rue and other kinds of garden herbs but neglected justice and God’s love and because they always wanted to be the ones to sit in the chief synagogue seats and to be seen as the marketplace greeters in the most visible place in the market.
How would you feel if the guest who your dad and ma invited to your house to eat a meal with them suddenly began to rip into your dad for what your dad was doing – which your dad believed was just fine for him to do. Your grandpaa is quite sure that what the guys who were known as Pharisees believed that what they were doing and what they expected their fellow guys and gals who were Jews to do what was just fine to do. When a Mosaic Law expert heard Jesus’ critique of the guys who were ascribed or positioned as Pharisees, the guy told Jesus that he was really insulted by what Jesus had said to the guys who were known as Pharisees. The Mosaic Law expert caught Jesus’ ire. Jesus told the guy that he and his cronies were interpreting the Mosaic Law in ways that it made it impossible for the Jew guys and gals – God’s specially chosen guys and gals, to follow the Mosaic Law. Jesus told this Mosaic Law expert that God – as God the Father, was holding him and his cronies responsible for the death of every guy – from Abel to Zachariah, who He had called to serve Him in a specific way. Jesus then told the Mosaic Law expert that He was the most incensed with him for the way that he and his allies had taken away the key of knowledge from His specially chosen guys and gals by claiming that they were the only expert teachers on what God – as God the Father, had given them to believe versus encouraging the guys and gals who were now known as Jews, to decide through their own studying and interpretation of what was written in the Mosaic Law and to encourage the guys and gals who were Jews to apply to their lives what they learned or understood what the Mosaic Law was saying to them.
How do you feel when you are not only criticized for what you have said but you are condemned for what you really believe is absolutely true. The reactions of the guys who were Pharisees and the law teachers were to fiercely debate Jesus to try to catch or trap Him into saying something that they could hold over His head. What Doctor Luke wrote in his book resonated with Greek guys and gals. Greek guys and gals were Gentile guys and gals to Jew guys and gals. Jew guys and gals thought that they had the inside track to God. Doctor Luke assures his friend Theophilus in his book and to Gentile readers of his book that the only inside track to God is through Jesus – as God the Son. Governmental established laws are good to have as they exert and exercise controls over guys, gals and kids who deliberately defy enacted laws. Pharisaical created laws can only bring controls and false expectations as they do not permit a guy, gal or kid to purposively in a personally way to seek and to accept Jesus as his or her Lord and Savior.
Luke 11 (829)