Jesus Amps it Up. Jesus has just finished denouncing the Pharisees in strong and unmistakable terms – “Woe to you Pharisees!” In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus intensifies His criticism to focus on the Lawyers. Hear what Jesus has to say to the Lawyers – “This generation may be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world.” Wow! It is hard to imagine a more direct and pointed condemnation.
Speaking Truth to Power
The Pharisees and the Lawyers were the elite of Jewish society in the first century A.D. The Pharisees were the keepers and practitioners of Temple worship, while the Lawyers were the interpreters of the all-important Mosaic law.
In criticizing these educated and powerful men, Jesus demonstrated the absolute primacy of His message of the instantiation of the Father’s Kingdom. Mere human conventions and concerns of power or pride of place have no weight when balanced against the Word of God.
To highlight what we should be considering, Luke places Jesus’ warnings between His teaching the apostles the Lord’s prayer and discoursing on the importance of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Wait, are you talking to me?
Today’s society conditions us to root for the comeuppance of the rich and powerful. It is easy for us to cheer Jesus on as he berates the Pharisees and Lawyers. But we do so at the risk of not recognizing our own pharisaical behavior. Jesus gives us a clue that His warnings are addressed to us all when he rebukes the enthusiastic women who blesses the womb that bore Jesus and the breasts that nursed Him. “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!”
Jesus wants us to recognize the many, many things in our lives we place (even if temporarily) ahead of the Kingdom. The Pharisees reveled in the respect they commanded; the Lawyers gloried in their minute knowledge of the law.
In our own lives what do we place first? Even good things, such as family, can become barriers if given disproportionate importance. Do we pride ourselves on correctness of our worship and pieties? This type of pride can become hypocrisy when given too much rein.
The Gospels often speak to a specific time and place, such as first century Jewish Pharisees and Lawyers. They also always speak to our universal, timeless human condition. We do well when we recognize this message.
