The Question: What Does Jesus Mean for Cultural Religion? (Luke 11:37-54)

"Christ Among the Pharisees" by Jacob Jordaens

There is a lot of discussion of religion in our culture these days. There seems to be a real resurgence of interest, particularly among young people. This is both exciting, and alerting. We do want people in our culture to return to God. However, we might not want an increase in just any form of “Cultural Christianity.” Jesus had a lot to say against the religious leaders, the culturally religious, and the “national Christians” of His day. Of course, there were no Christian Nationals back then. However, the religious leaders of Judaism were decidedly nationalistic, and reflected a lot of the attitudes we see in nationalistic religions today. So, what does Jesus mean for the religious power seekers of our day?

Luke records one of Jesus’s most powerful condemnations of religious leaders here in this dinner setting. Jesus failed to ritualistically (i.e. religiously and symbolically) clean Himself before eating. The Pharisee host was shocked. Jesus responded by proclaiming 8 judgements, including 6 woes. If Jesus was not a liar, nor a lunatic, but Lord, we need to heed these warnings!

1. Jesus condemns the Pharisees’ hypocrisy. They focused on ritual and appearance, while engaging in corruption and evil behavior. Better to do good and let appearance take care of itself.

2. Woe to those who do the little things and ignore the heart of the law! Concentrate on the big moral demands, while doing the little things too.

3. Woe to those who want to have privilege, position, and power! Religious life is not about those things!

4. Woe to those who, through their religious systems set up to benefit themselves, lead people to death like a hidden trap!

A scribe pipes up at this point. He is not a Pharisee, but he feels the sting of these rebukes. Is Jesus attacking the Pharisee movement, or all religious leaders of the day? Jesus adds the scribes and legal scholars, the religious theological experts into the mix:

5. Woe to those who create extra demands and hoops for people to jump through, but don’t follow those rules themselves!

6. Woe to those who use the great voices of the past religious leaders for their own purposes!

7. Jesus declares that the judgment for all the religious persecution of the prophets and apostles will be exacted on these religious leaders. Reject God’s revelation, and you will be held to account!

8. Woe to those who hide God’s true message in their own religious systems!

After this diatribe, the began to try to trap Jesus, because He is a threat to all cultural religious systems.