Early Sunday, Early Fall

DAILY DEVOTIONAL FROM RICHARD KEW  Luke 11:37-54 

37 While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table. 38 The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. 39 And the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. 40 You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? 41 But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you. 42 “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. 43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. 44 Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.” 45 One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.” 46 And he said, “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. 47 Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. 48 So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. 49 Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ 50 so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. 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.” 53 As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things, 54 lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say. 

Thought for the Day

What was in the Pharisee’s mind when he invited Jesus to dinner? Did he expect some reflected glory from this amazing local preacher and healer, or maybe he wanted to show off his home, or perhaps he wanted to get one up on the others he invited? Perhaps he expected Jesus would be a well-manner guest and turn a blind eye to anything that riled him. If that was his expectation he had read Jesus wrongly. The Pharisees and their fellow travelers had finickity rules and regulations when it came to religious cleanliness – especially at mealtimes. He watched all these cleansing rituals going on around him, perhaps getting cold looks because his involvement was merely cursory, then he launched out with a series of woes to the Pharisees and the scribes gathered there. Matthew records that he said to folks like these You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! (Matt. 23:24), and what he saw happening at that dinner table was precisely this – at the very least, majoring on the minors, but a lot of it that had degenerated into a religious and spiritual kind of one upmanship. Put simply, they were hypocrites – a word which is Greek can be directly translated as play acting. They used rituals and seemingly spiritual actions to gloss over what was really beneath the surface of their lives. It was a ‘look at me, can’t you see that I am more spiritual than you?’ What Jesus said to the Pharisees he says also to us today – which is one of the reasons this incident is recorded in Scripture! 

Thanksgiving and Intercession for the Day 

We praise God for spiritual disciplines, and pray for grace to use them appropriately. 

Collect for the Day 

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Collect for Fridays found in Morning Prayer in the Book of Common Prayer 1979)