The Insult          Luke 11:45-54

This post covers the insult felt by one of the Pharisaical lawyers.

‘The Insult’ describes what Jesus said about religious lawyers.

Jesus had just finished  pronouncing three woes on the Pharisees as a whole. Now, a lawyer for Moses’ Law spoke, Luke 11:45. “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.”

So, Jesus responded, Luke 11:46. “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.”  Jesus reminds them that they hypocritically teach others a burdensome way of life which they do not practice.

Next, Jesus provided a general woe, Luke 11:47-48  “Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs.” Jesus refers to the practice of building tombs for the slain prophets. But then they failed to reprimand current Pharisees doing the same deeds.

So, Jesus drew a conclusion, Luke 11:49-50. “Therefore… ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary…”

Thus, Jesus prophesied that God’s wrath would fall on the Jews for murdering the prophets.

This meant that God would require justice for all the blood shed by the Jews and their ancestors from the beginning until Jesus. The destruction of Jerusalem fulfilled this prophecy.

Then, Jesus utters a summary woe, Luke 11:52. “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.”  They abandoned exact obedience to God’s word and substituted the Tradition of the Elders. By their lives and teachings, they hindered those who desired to obey exactly.

So, what did we learn?

1.The lawyers were hypocrites in their lives and teachings.

2.The lawyers hindered those who tried to follow God’s law exactly.

3.God would punish the Jews for murdering the prophets.

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