- Gospels and Acts(NT) Luke 11:29~54
PRACTICE JUSTICE AND THE LOVE OF GOD
Question
PRACTICE JUSTICE AND THE LOVE OF GOD
Luke 11:29-54
Luke 11:42
"Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your
mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you
neglect justice and the love of God. You should have
practiced the latter without leaving the former undone."
Study Questions
1. For what did Jesus rebuke the "wicked generation"? Who was Jonah
and why did Jesus say that he could give them no sign except the
sign of Jonah? How was Jonah a sign to the people of Nineveh? How
was Jesus, the Son of Man, a sign to his times?
2. Read verses 31-32. Who was the Queen of the South? Why was she
much better than the religious leaders of Jesus' day? Why did Jesus
tell them this story? Why were the people of Nineveh saved? How
does a sign-seeking mentality keep people from God? (1Co 1:22) How
is it like a slave mentality?
3. Read verses 33-36. What is the purpose of a lamp? Why were the
religious leaders in spiritual darkness? How could they have
spiritual insight? How can we?
4. Read verses 37-38. How did Jesus shock the Pharisee who invited
him to dinner? Read verses 39-41. What is really dirty and what is
the way of cleansing? Read verse 42. What is more important than
religious ritual?
5. Read verses 43-54. How did Jesus' humility contrast with the
attitude and goals of the Pharisees? (43-45) Why are religious
leaders responsible for the godlessness, injustice, and corruption
of society? (46-54)
Manuscript
Message
PRACTICE JUSTICE AND THE LOVE OF GOD
Luke 11:29-54
Luke 11:42
"Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your
mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you
neglect justice and the love of God. You should have
practiced the latter without leaving the former undone."
In the last passage, we studied that Jesus healed a mute and
deaf man with the finger of God. Moreover, Jesus did his best to win
the crooked religious leaders' hearts over to God. Jesus said, "If
you believe that I drove out demons by the finger of God, then the
kingdom of God has come to you" (11:20). It meant that if you believe
in God you will be the members of God's kingdom. In today's passage,
Luke records Jesus' deep sorrow toward corrupt religious leaders.
First, Jesus rebukes miracle-seeking people (29-32).
We must remember Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem to become a
ransom sacrifice for the sin of the world. But the crowd of people
did not leave him alone. Look at verse 29. "As the crowds increased,
Jesus said, 'This is a wicked generation. It asks for a miraculous
sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.'"
Throughout the Bible history, God had given so many miraculous signs
to his people so that they might understand the heavenly things or
the spiritual things. But people had no idea about the spiritual
world. For example, just a few minutes before, Jesus healed a mute
man and enabled him to speak. But they completely ignored such a
miraculous sign through which one precious human being was able to
be normal and could have a promising future. They did not appreciate
God's deep compassion for one individual person who was once a mute
man. They had no compassion on the man who had been healed. They had
no thankful mind toward God who had cared for a mute man. Jesus also
cared for them and taught them the way to come to the kingdom of God.
But they didn't care about Jesus' healing and preaching. They were
only interested in miraculous signs. Jesus lamented over the
religious leaders' sign-seeking mentality and rebuked them in verse
29b. It says, "This is a wicked generation. It asks for a miraculous
sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah."
Why did Jesus say that he can give them only the sign of Jonah?
It is because Jonah was a nationalistic prophet when he had to be a
universal prophet. As a result, he disobeyed God's word. God wanted
to send him to Nineveh, a Gentile nation, to proclaim the kingdom of
God so that they might repent their sins and come to God. When God
wanted to send him to Nineveh, the largest city of the time, Jonah
attempted to escape to Tarshish by boat. On the way to Tarshish, the
sea became turbulent and the sailors cast lots to find who was the
cause of the turbulence. The lot fell on Jonah. So no sooner had the
sailors thrown Jonah into the sea than a big whale swallowed him up
before he landed in the water.
Jonah was in the stomach of the whale for three days. He prayed
to God earnestly for his rescue. Then God let the whale vomit Jonah
on the seashore of Nineveh. He really didn't want to come to proclaim
the message of the kingdom of God to the people of Nineveh because
he was afraid that the people of Nineveh might repent and not perish.
But when Jonah unintentionally proclaimed the message of the kingdom
of God, a most unlikely people received the message of the kingdom
of God and all came and repented in sackcloth. They received the
message of the kingdom of God.
Jesus told them Jonah's story in the hope that the religious
leaders of the time might also repent and proclaim the message of the
kingdom of God to people. Jesus also said to them that he would speak
only the story of Jonah to the religious leaders of the time, for the
religious leaders of the time were so wicked. They saw so many
miraculous signs but they did not believe. Instead they demanded
another miraculous sign again and again. In short, they did not
repent. They only wanted to realize their fabulous idealism through
Jesus' miracles. For example, once Jesus saw 5,000 hungry people and
fed them with five loaves and two fish to their fill. The next day,
they came to Jesus again. This time Jesus wanted to tell them about
the spiritual bread, not the physical bread. But they didn't want to
hear about the spiritual bread. When Jesus claimed that he was the
bread of life, some argued that Jesus must be a cannibal (Jn
6:52,53), and all left one by one and two by two until no one was
left except the twelve disciples.
In his deep grief for the religious leaders, Jesus told them a
story in the hope of drawing them to the word of God and proclaiming
the message of the kingdom of God. At the time of King Solomon, the
Queen of the South heard the wisdom of Solomon. She visited King
Solomon with a large amount of gifts and asked Solomon all the
questions she had in her mind. Solomon answered her questions
perfectly. Solomon, in his wisdom, expounded all the terrestrial
secrets. He also explained the first cause, harmony, and the
mysteries of nature. He also knew innumerable names of fish in the
sea. After listening to Solomon, the Queen of the South repented and
accepted a universal truth that God made the heavens and the earth
and everything in it. Jesus urged them to listen to the message of
the kingdom of God as had Jonah. Jesus urged them that they might
escape the judgment of God. We thank God that Jesus is so kind and
humble and lowly that he could rebuke the religious leaders to
repent.
Second, miraculous sign-seeking mentality.
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:22, "Jews demand miraculous signs
and Greeks look for wisdom...." These two trends of the world brought
forth Hebraism and Hellenism. These two trends of world philosophy
had been flowing in world history. Both trends brought forth many
human ideas. These human ideas became the instruments of wicked men
for doing evil. It is because these trends helped people not to obey
the absolutes of God. Especially, sign-seeking people's mentality is
very wicked. For example, before going into the promised land, God
trained the people of Israel in the wilderness with daily bread
training. This training was designed to discipline them to eat three
meals a day regularly and depend on God only for their future
security. The training could have finished in 15 minutes if they
overcame their sinful nature and listened to the word of God. But
they really liked daily bread from heaven free of charge. They didn't
have to work. They had no future security problem. They didn't have
to send out many resumes to look for jobs. This daily bread training
was very necessary for their spiritual enlightenment and their
spiritual leadership for the people living in the promised land. But
this bread of heaven made them grow in slave mentality instead of
opening their spiritual eyes.
When we look at President Lyndon Johnson, he was desperate for
his re-election. So he passed around 200 kinds of welfare programs
in the hope of procuring poor people's votes. As a result, welfare
spending rose 25 times from $10.6 billion to $259 billion. Because
of the welfare system, the definition of poverty changed in this
country.
Nikita Khrushchev, Secretary General of the Soviet Union, really
wanted to improve his nation's political climate. Before he rose to
power, mass murder and hard labor and oppression had been too severe.
When Khrushchev thought about the political climate of the Soviet
Union, it was not Marxism, but it was Leninism. He really wanted to
practice Marxism so that people might live in peace as well as in a
socialist republic. But when he once had a weekend vacation to the
Crimea in October 1964, the Presidium voted him out of office and
their decision was confirmed by the Central Committee the next day.
Nikita Khrushchev's idea to fulfill Marxism in the Soviet Union was
good. But it was nothing but a sign-seeking mentality in the climate
of the absolute totalitarian Leninist country. People with a sign-
seeking mentality do not care about the law of God, they only care
about how people see them. As a result, they abandon the law of God.
They become lawless people. They are lawless because they do not keep
the law of God. As we have experienced, lawlessness is the most
fearsome thing to human beings in the world.
Third, Jesus encourages people to have spiritual insight (33-36).
Look at verse 33. "No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place
where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead he puts it on its
stand, so that those who come in may see the light." This verse tells
us that we must use the light properly and live in the light, not in
the darkness. Look at verse 34. "Your eye is the lamp of your body.
When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But
when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness." In this
verse, the light is compared to the light of men. If one cannot see
with his eyes, he is full of darkness and he cannot see anything. So
Jesus warned in verse 35. It says, "See to it, then, that the light
within you is not darkness." This allegorical verse is very simple.
If we have no spiritual insight to see man and the world, we are in
the darkness. On the other hand, if we study the Bible and receive
spiritual insight to see man and the world, we are full of light
(36). And we can see what's going on in the world with our spiritual
insight. We can see how we should help the flock of God in our
generation.
Fourth, Jesus rebukes corrupt religious leaders (37-54).
The religious leaders of the time were of two kinds. The first
was the Pharisees. The second was the Sadducees. The Pharisees were
ritualistic in worshiping God, and political in helping people. The
Sadducees did not care for people. They wanted money and fame and the
position of the high priestly office down through the generations.
In view of Bible history, they were chosen people. But in the time
of Jesus they were so corrupt that they did not deserve Jesus'
rebuking. If Jesus abandoned them like garbage, it would be very
proper treatment for them. But Jesus cried sorrowfully and urged them
to repent their sins and come back to God so as to take care of God's
flock of sheep.
Jesus rebukes them to practice justice and the love of God. They
were experts of ritualism in worshiping God. But they ignored the
holiness of God, that is, the justice of God. They also ignored the
love of God. So Jesus rebukes them not to neglect justice and the
love of God (42).
The servant of God must be humble and lowly like Jesus. The
servant of God must be a wonderful friend like Jesus. But the
Pharisees only wanted important seats in the synagogue and people's
admiration in the marketplace. So Jesus rebukes them, "Be humble and
lowly" (43). Jesus rebukes them because they are whitewashed tombs
(Mt 23:27b). Outside was beautiful. But inside was full of dead men's
bones and everything unclean. Jesus rebukes them so that they would
repent of their corruption due to greediness (44). In addition, they
were as proud as they could be.
Jesus also rebukes the experts in the law. While Jesus was
rebuking the Pharisees, they felt that Jesus was insulting them, too.
Then Jesus began to rebuke them, saying that they spoke well and
interpreted the law of God very well. But they abused their authority
and loaded people down with burdens. And they did not lift one finger
to help them (45-46).
Jesus rebukes the religious leaders that they had killed so many
prophets. Historically, the wicked religious leaders killed the
prophets. After killing them, they had beautiful funeral services and
made for them very beautiful tombs. Jesus rebukes them that they are
responsible for the blood of all prophets from Abel to Zechariah.
Good prophets taught the law of God and rebuked the leaders of
nations and they especially rebuked the religious leaders of God's
chosen people. It is surprising that Jesus did not rebuke politicians
of the times, but the religious leaders. Jesus thinks that the
corruption of the religious leaders is the cause of miseries of his
people.
Jesus rebukes experts in the law because they interpret the law
of God pragmatically. They took away the righteousness of God and the
love of God and the sacrificial lives of God's people. In this way,
they led people not to keep the law of God. They did not have hope
in the kingdom of God. They wanted to live in this world permanently.
When they did not keep the law of God, they could not enter the
kingdom of God. More, they took away the key of the kingdom of God
from people. They were like Christian dispensationalists of these
days.
We must live by the law of God. May God help us to do so.