“Woe to you experts in the law”

Read Luke 11:45-54

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The experts in the law (scribes) were professional teachers of the Old Testament scriptures. Many of them were also leading Pharisees, insisting that all their rules be strictly followed. So both groups were opposed to Jesus’s teaching (45) and share in the woes which Jesus pronounces (11:42-44,46-47,52).

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The trouble with ‘religion by rules’ is that it produces either pride or guilt (Lk.18:9-14). To those who are “poor in spirit” Jesus brought a far greater righteousness than that of the Pharisees (5:3,20) – an inner righteousness of the heart, not of outward appearance (Mk.7:20; Mt.23:26). Unlike those who burdened people with their rules he is the burden-bearer who says “Come to me and rest” from religious striving (46; Mt.11:28-30).

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Jesus is far greater than the prophets of old but they rejected him just as at the time their predecessors had rejected the prophets (47-51). He is God’s final and complete revelation (Heb.1:1-3), the fulfilment of the Old Testament (Mt.5:17) and the key to it all (Rev.3:7). Yet instead of letting him unlock the scriptures that they taught, they slammed the door shut for themselves and thus for their listeners too (52).