Luke 12:1-21
In the meantime, when so many thousands of people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, He began to say to His disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. (v. 1) Luke seems to be writing his gospel in chronological fashion. The NASB has “Under these circumstances…” The immediate precedent at the end of chapter 11 has Jesus pronouncing woes upon the Pharisees – this activity seems to have gathered a crowd! I wonder… Could it be that the crowd (…thousands of people…) sensed the Pharisees’ hypocrisy all along and were fully attracted to Jesus’ attacks on them? At the end of the previous chapter we saw the Pharisees looking for a way to trap Jesus in whatever He said. Maybe this surge in crowd support for Jesus could be part of the Pharisees’ hatred of Him! As we’ve said so often, their hatred blinded them to His teaching. So sad…!
At St. Andrew’s we recently finished a Lenten series on the “Three Streams” (Sacrament, Scripture, Spirit). Brian and I shared at that closing session, bringing all three streams together. In my comments I mentioned how much I had learned of the Holy Spirit’s activity when I did a Creative Arts Camp on Jesus’ references to the Holy Spirit in John’s gospel, chapters 14-16. My comments on today’s reading two years ago highlighted those Holy Spirit activities. I encourage you to look at them in that first link below and to imagine how much the Holy Spirit is active in your lives.
See also: July 11 / Luke 12:1-12; July 12 / Luke 12:13-21
You noted the first part of Luke 12:1 about the people gathering to listen, right after Jesus chastised the religious leaders for hypocrisy. The action of the verse is in the second part. Jesus spoke first to his disciples. It is a strong warning to his followers: you (we) need to watch out for our own hypocrisy too. What we say in secret will be made known. Total transparency! Thinking our religious actions or words will hide or make up for what we do or say behind closed doors. Hard hearts, greed, pride, sexual transgressions, they will come out.
Luke 12:10, Jesus is so humble, speaking against Him the Son of Man, will be forgiven, but sin against the Holy Spirit will not. That sin is a deliberate ongoing rejection of the Holy Spirit’s work. Someone who has shut himself off completely from God so thoroughly that he is unaware of any sin, from my study notes.
The unforgivable sin – a scary thought. It reminds me, though, that our God is gracious and merciful because He chooses to be gracious and merciful; not because we deserve it, or because there is some law of the universe requiring it. It is simply a gift.
This passage reminds me to be thankful, and to not take any of God’s gifts for granted.
Good point, Lou. My Bible study notes said that anyone who questions whether they have done the” unforgivable” sin against the Holy Spirit has no need to worry on that because they obviously are still seeking. So yes, praise God that He is gracious and merciful, alleluia!