Religion & the Gospel – Luke 11:37-54

Religion & the Gospel

The Gospel of Luke

Vol. 5 (Luke 10-12)

Luke 11:37-54

The Text

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. 

Intro

What’s the worst dinner party you’ve ever attended? Years ago, we invited folks over for BBQ. I had just begun smoking meat and had not yet learned that sometimes, larger pieces of meat will stall in the smoker and take longer to come up to temp. And that’s exactly what happened. 

About halfway through the cook, the BBQ stalled out, our guests arrived, and waited about an hour and a half to start the meal. And, of course you’re apologetic, and the guests were gracious, and we learned to account for that in the future. In the end, it was a minor inconvenience and I suffered a little embarrassment.

But here, in Luke 11, is one of the worst parties ever recorded. A Pharisee invites Jesus into his home for a meal, the conversation goes down-hill quick, and the evening ends with the host planning an ambush on the guest.

Now, it’s well known that the religious leaders did not like Jesus. They’re constantly getting into spats and fights, and in the end, it’s the religious leaders who plan and perpetrate the plot that leads Jesus to his crucifixion.

What was it that led to such hatred and animosity? At this dinner party, Jesus says that (1) man-made religion falls short, he tells us (2) how religion falls short, and the passage leaves us asking the question: if the Pharisees and the scribes fell short, (3) who then can go the distance?

1. Religion Falls Short

Jesus had been teaching the crowds, and a Pharisee invites him over for a meal. Verse 38 says:

³⁸ The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner.

Now, this is not a statement on Jesus’ lack of hygiene. In the Law of Moses, the Jews had to observe ceremonial washings of various kinds. The washings taught God’s people that unclean things cannot come into his presence for worship. So, if you touched a dead body, or came into contact with disease, or some other unclean object, you had to wash.

But here’s the deal: the Law of Moses nowhere required a ceremonial washing before every meal. This was a man-made rule added later by the religious leaders, and for that reason, Jesus skips it.

The Pharisee is astonished, or shocked, because Jesus is supposed to be a holy man; he’s a teacher, a rabbi. If Jesus loves God so much, why wouldn’t he go the extra mile and wash up?

Then, later in the meal, a lawyer interrupts Jesus. You have to remember that the lawyer here is a religious scholar. This is a religious expert in the Law and the tradition built around it. And he’s insulted by Jesus.

And, by the end of the dinner party, these two, the Pharisee and the lawyer are plotting Jesus’ downfall.

They want his influence damaged; they want to ambush him and catch him in his words so they can destroy his authority.

What did Jesus do that elicited this level of animosity and vitriol? They aren’t just frustrated, they despise Jesus. And the answer may surprise you.  

The normal criticism of religious people is that they’re excessive; they go too far. They’re “holier than thou.” They’re “Bible Thumpers.” They need to get a life. God takes up too much of the week. They’re too focused on purity and good works. They’re extra, they’re obsessive, they’re uptight.

But that wouldn’t have bothered them. Those criticisms rarely bother religious people. You know why? Because that’s exactly what they’re trying to be. Religious people never get upset when you tell them they’re too fanatical.

And these two men in the story are not upset because Jesus says they go too far. They’re insulted and incensed because Jesus because Jesus says, “You don’t go far enough.”

Jesus does not tell these men to lighten up. He says in spite of all their moral effort, they’ve neglected the justice God demands. Though they’ve spent years learning, they’re still fools. The problem isn’t that their religion goes to far. It falls short!

This is what actually offends the religious crowd—not “you’re too good.” But “You’re not good enough.”

These men held the basic religious view that I have to work for God’s approval. It’s up to me. I have to obey the laws and keep the rules, then God will accept me.

This makes salvation depend upon your effort. And anytime salvation depends on you, even for 1% of the work, the entire thing is doomed to fail. 

This is the reason these men despise Jesus—because he dares to say, “You can’t do enough to please God,” and it obliterates the very source of their confidence and security.

But how? How does religion fall short? Let’s go deeper into the dinner conversation.

2. How It Falls Short

In verse 39, Jesus begins explaining why religion falls short. The passage is full of criticisms and woes. 

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.

The first way religion falls short is that…

A. Religion Only Cleans the Outside.

From the outside, they were sparklin

g. Their visible life was decked with good deeds. But on the inside, they were full of evil: greed and wickedness.

Imagine a rose bush in your lawn that shriveled up. All the leaves fell off of it. It’s toast. And imagine cutting the buds off a healthy bush and stapling them to the shriveled one. That’s religion. It only focuses on the externals. It only concerns itself with what is visible. It never goes deeper than the good works themselves.

Now listen: you do outward works of generosity from a heart that is self-absorbed. You can lift your hands in singing while harboring bitterness at your spouse. You can host people in your home just to see home many compliments you can get. 

Just having the right actions on the outside is no guarantee that your heart has been cleansed. 

This is why good works coming from an unclean heart cannot please God. This is why, even though Israel kept many of the laws of God, God could say in the prophet Amos: “I hate your offerings.” (Amos 5:21-22)

Religion only cleans the outside—but Jesus says mere outward good works falls short of what God wants. He demands that you not only do the right things, but that you do them for the right reasons—because you love him and others.

The God who made the outside made the inside as well, and he demands both.

The second way religion falls short:

B. Religion Measures Obedience

In verse 42, Jesus says:

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.

Here’s the Pharisee, he’s in the garden, counting stalks of herbs so he can give a tithe. Religious people love keeping score. They count church attendance, their tithes, the track all the online theological controversies, the pick the right school, the right candidate, and then they add all that up and put it to their credit before God.

Don’t misunderstand. Jesus never once tells the Pharisee to stop attending church or giving his tithe. He says “Keep giving those, and don’t forget the weightier matters: love of God and justice toward your neighbor.”

In other words, God doesn’t put a quota on obedience that once you hit it, you get to relax.

When Jesus tells this man that true obedience means loving God and doing justice he’s saying, “True obedience has no limits.”

You may say, “But love is a feeling. You can’t require love.” But Scripture does. We’re commanded to love God. The greatest commandment is to love God with your heart, soul, mind, and strength. We’re to love our neighbor as ourselves. 

You say, “But unlimited obedience… that will crush people. No one can do that.” You’re absolutely right.

⁴⁶ And he said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear

The Pharisees were not guilty of keeping God’s law. They were guilty of creating a softened man-made law that they could measure and accomplish. They could keep their own man-made rules and then pat themselves on the back.

Listen—because we are fallen sinners—the law of God crushes us. None of us can keep the law of God in its entirety. If we think we can only earn God’s approval through keeping the law there’s only two options:

Option 1: We actually try to keep God’s law and it crushes us.

Option 2: We invent a version of the law that we can measure and we fool ourselves.

Side Note: this is why the answer to legalism isn’t “less law.” 

The third way religion falls short…

D. Religion Mistakes Knowing for Being In

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.”

The lawyers and scribes were proud of their knowledge. They knew the Law of Moses inside and out. They knew the words of all the prophets God had sent. In other words, they held the key to salvation in their hand, but they ever used it… why?

Because the central message of the Law and the Prophets is not “obey and you will be accepted.” The central message of the Law and the Prophets is: “God will send a redeemer, believe in Him.”

Knowledge is great, but just having knowledge of the Bible, or even knowledge of who the Redeemer is does not enter save anyone.

Jesus essentially says, “You can read all the dead theologians, honor all the dead reformers… you can quote John Calvin, Charles Spurgeon, & Thomas Watson all you want… you can read the church Fathers and have mountains of doctrinal knowledge—and still not be saved.”

Have you really come in to trust and rest in Jesus Christ, or have you just been doing the reading? 

You know one of my favorite and least favorite places in the world are seminary campuses. On the one hand, I love going onto seminary campuses because everyone there wants to talk about theology—and I love theology. 

But I also hate it because so often, the theology talk becomes competitive. Seminarians care so much about being precise that they turn healthy doctrinal discussion into a contest.

It’s so easy to take pride in knowing the truth, and forget that what matters most is knowing Jesus.

Listen, you need to know true things about Jesus—but you aren’t saved by the knowing. Your knowledge isn’t a good work that approves you before God.

Religions says, “I know—therefore I am in.” Jesus says, “Knowledge is a key, but only faith in him uses the key to enter into the house.” 

Jesus says these lawyers had the key of knowledge, and not only did they not enter in, they used their superior knowledge to keep others from going in as well. They became a wall, keeping out anyone who knew less than them. 

This is a danger in a church like ours. We love good doctrine. We read a lot of dead theologians. And the danger is that our Christianity becomes a religion of the head alone. It becomes a religion for intelligent adults alone.

Friend—the gospel message, that we are sinners and the God is a gracious Father who sent his Son to be a Savior by dying on the cross for our sins… that simple message can be believed by the youngest child.

You don’t enter by mastering deep theology—you enter by coming to Jesus. You aren’t kept by growing deeper in knowledge. You are kept because you’re held by a gracious and powerful Savior.

So, religion falls short. It washes the outside but leaves the inside dirty. It measures obedience and calls it love. It holds the key but never goes in.

3. Who Can Go the Distance?

I imagine that the Pharisee and the lawyer heard everything Jesus had to say and their wheels began spinning. “How can we improve our religion? What more can we do? Let’s make up some more rules. Let’s try to do better.”

But the question is not, “How can we make a better religion”. The question is, “If this is what God requires… then who can go the distance?”

Who is it that doesn’t just clean the outside of the cup, but is clean both inside and out? Who loved God without limits? Who gave the full measure of obedience to God? Who is it that doesn’t just hold the key of knowledge but is himself the door through which we enter into the salvation of God?

In Matthew 5, Jesus says, “Unless your righteousness exceeds the scribes and the Pharisees, you never enter the kingdom of heaven.” 

That’s not an exaggeration. He really means it—and he’s the only one who can do it.

Who can go the distance? Not you. Not them. Not 99% effort with Jesus covering the final 1%. Not Jesus doing 99% and you covering the final 1%.  That’s still religion. 

Which means only Jesus has gone the distance—clean inside, love without measure, the door himself.

The way home to God is not a longer list. It’s trust in the one God has sent.

What did they do with the only man who could go the distance? They didn’t trust him. After the dinner was over, they made plans to destroy him. They laid in wait. They begin making plans to finish Jesus off.

As we’ve been saying, Jesus is on the road to Jerusalem, and that road runs to the cross—and the cross is exactly how Jesus finishes the distance they would not travel.

Some of you have been stapling roses to a dead shrub for years. You have a perfect count of your obedience, but an exhausted soul. Some of you know more than you have ever trusted.

The Lord who would not wash at that table is not asking you to become a better Pharisee. He is offering you his cleanness, his obedience, his open door. You cannot go the distance. He has. So, come in.