WHOA! (PART 4)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

One of the experts in the law answered Him, “Teacher, when You say these things, You insult us also.”

Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.”

Luke 11:45-46

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

The Pharisees and their accomplices, the teachers of the law, lorded over the Jewish people with a suffocating attitude of spiritual superiority.

As we have seen through the words of Jesus Himself, this was evident in the way they situated themselves in the synagogue, seated in a semi circle in front of the pulpit and facing the other believers who were in attendance. It was evident in the way they expected people to publicly acknowledge and greet them in public, particularly in the marketplaces. And as we see in today’s passage, it was evident by the number of burdens they placed on the people they led.

For all these things (and more yet to come as we will see), Jesus promised that woe would come to the Jewish religious authorities. His words were meant to command those leaders to stop what they were doing and change their ways.

Or as we see by the title of this devotion, Jesus was essentially saying, “Whoa!”, to the religious leaders, commanding them to stop what they were doing.

Given all this, let’s look at today’s passage from Luke 11:

One of the experts in the law answered Him, “Teacher, when You say these things, You insult us also.”

Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.”  Luke 11:45-46

Jesus was beginning to hit nerves with His pinpoint strikes at the wicked ways of the Pharisees and as we see, those nerves extended to the experts of the law who were the running mates of the Pharisees. One such expert decided to speak out against Jesus, his feelings obviously hurt from being called out:

“Teacher, when You say these things, You insult us also.”

Maybe the expert of the law was expecting Jesus to apologize for what He said. If he was, then he would be disappointed quickly for Jesus launched into yet another criticism without nary a mention of an apology, His words directed right at the experts of the law.

“And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.”

In sum, Jesus was accusing the experts of the law of setting up and maintaining an oppressive spiritual atmosphere, loading down the people “with burdens they can hardly carry”.

How can we get a feel for what that must have been like, how it was so serious that it warranted Jesus’ rebuke and a call to stop the behavior?

We look at the definition of the word “oppressive”.

1. unjustly inflicting hardship and constraint, especially on a subordinate group.

2. weighing heavily on the mind or spirits; causing depression or discomfort.

If you want to levy control over a group of people, just create an oppressive environment and keep them under your thumb. This is what any tyrannical leader or dictator has done in the past and indeed is still doing to this day. It’s what the Pharisees and experts of the law were doing to the Jewish religious community.

They did this by imposing additional rules and regulations on the people in addition to the laws God set forth within the scriptures. These additional rules and regulations were believed to be an oral law that was passed from God to Moses and then passed on orally from generation to generation. It would eventually be called the Talmud. It was the combination of the scriptures (what we would see as part of the Old Testament today) and the oral laws, and the way they were delivered and enforced that created the repressive atmosphere the Jews were living in, an atmosphere that caused great discomfort and depression for the Jewish people who could not possibly remain perfectly obedient to what was demanded of them. Above this misery was a religious leadership who continued to carry themselves as “holier than thou” as if they were perfectly righteous and superior to the masses. Rather than try and relieve the spiritual hardship of the people, they tightened down the thumb screws of guilt and shame, bludgeoning the Jewish people to a place of rock bottom spiritual self esteem.

Keep the people down and you will always remain higher than they are. It was a principle that seemed to work well for the Pharisees and experts of the law but it was a principle that Jesus was not going to have happen without exposing the injustice of it all. For yes God wanted His people to live in obedience to His word and follow His will, but not in a way that would totally steal away their joy. Rather, God wanted His people to allow Him to lead them to live the way He expected while recognizing how very blessed they were, blessings that came from His hands. The Master was also the blessed Provider of every good and perfect thing the people needed and He still is today.

Unfortunately in the church today we still have our share of Pharisees and experts of the law. Of course, they don’t have those titles anymore. Instead they may be known as pastors or ministers or priests, elders or deacons or bishops, or any number of other church positions like small group teachers where people are elevated to places of leadership over other Christians. These modern day “Pharisees” and “experts of the law” tend to still create toxic, oppressive environments where they can lord over those under their purview, controlling other to their advantage.

Rest assured that Jesus is talking to them as much as He is addressing the New Testament Jewish leaders in this scripture passage, calling them to cease their behaviors and get back to becoming the kind of leaders the Lord wants them to be, leaders who instruct and guide their people with a sense of nurturing and love, a sense of grace and encouragement, a sense of care for spiritual enlightenment and development, placing the goodwill of their subjects ahead of their own agendas and desires.

Leaders today can either course adjust and self correct or they can expect to be corrected. For the Lord is no more going to allow them to get away with wicked behavior in spiritually leading His people as He was in the days of Jesus.

Rest assured of that.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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