Luke 11:37-44
“Notice what you notice.” …you Pharisees are full of greed and wickedness (v. 39b) and …you neglect justice and the love of God. (v. 42) Sounds like a lot of today’s businesspeople and politicians!
No doubt Jesus was speaking truth, but as a dinner guest He was less than courteous in His speech. More to the point, it was outright condemnation that He spoke. Surely there was love in what He said, but He comes off in the same judgmental tones as an Old Testament prophet. I’m not surprised at the Pharisees getting defensive and quickly turning on Him. I wonder how I would have reacted at Him “painting with a broad brush” toward me and my colleagues. Probably every bit as defensive…
Slava Bohu!
Probably me too. However, this is after a long series of attacks/traps by the Pharisees. So I wonder why the Pharisee invited him to dinner, to trap him with his guests as co-conspirators? I assume that the rest of the guests were also Pharisees because the followers wouldn’t have been invited. I wonder if any secret believers among the Pharisees were there.
Yes, he is talking like a prophet because he is saying what they said in times past, though they didn’t specifically say “Pharisees” because a group wasn’t known by that name before the exile. He just puts a name on them. In tomorrow’s passage (I read ahead by mistake), Jesus goes beyond repeating the prophets, to declare “the wisdom of God” says … Direct from the source.
Good points, Debbie. I had a hard time finding something positive to say about this selection.