Luke 11:37-12:3 Unmasking Hypocrisy: Part 1 – The Pharisees Intro: We’re all like Jesus in one sense In many sense Jesus is unlike all of us. He is perfect, sinless, full of love, possessing of every virtue and gift, really the penultimate human being who is the standard for all other beings. In some senses we are like him, however. We Christians strive to be like him and he has enabled us to do that by the power of His Spirit who live sin us. But there is at least one sense in which probably every person on the planet is like Jesus Christ. All of us, believers and unbelievers alike, are like Jesus in that we all detest hypocrisy! In fact, in our passage today we will see one Jesus’ strongest condemnation discourses in all of the Bible. Hypocrisy Defined The dictionary define hypocrisy as a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess This person, or at least the hypocrisy in them, is odious to us. In our passage today, Jesus is invited to a banquet at which he rebukes his hosts for their hypocritical lives as religious leaders. In doing so, Jesus unmasks hypocrisy for us. In the NT = Actor Throughout the NT the greek words hypókrisis and hypokrités̄ are used. These words reflect the classical and Hellenistic use of the words to refer to “acting” and “actor.” In Greek literature the hypokrités̄ was a person who played a part on the stage. He usually wore a mask, and in speech and action imitated the character whom he represented in the stage production. In the NT the terms are invariably negative in that they persistently refer to a person who is pretending to be what they are is not - especially in the areas of religion and morality. Let’s read the text and then walk through it verse by verse as Jesus unmasks hypocrisy Read 11:37-44 I. The Invitation (37) Lk 11:37- While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table. A formal invitation to lecture It is bet for us to understand the historical and cultural setting of this invitation. This is not an informal meal, this is a formal invitation. This invitation comes as a part of the normal movement and workings of the religious society at the time. The Pharisees would have meals and invite prominent teachers of the day to come and lecture there. They would do this so that a teacher could speak and then they could discourse together on the topic. We can think of this somewhat like a Kiwanis prayer breakfast of something like that where people from the community gather to socialize, but there is also a more formal speech given as a part of the banquet. The Pharisees Another historical comment on this verse is related to the Pharisees. Who were they? Originally they were laymen who decided to do their best to take the Law seriously. They were not upper-class, like the Sadducees, but came from the common people, as did Jesus. They were committed to holy living. The very name Pharisee means “the separate ones.” They were thought to be holy men, the true community of Israel. When a man became a Pharisee, he first endured a probationary period up to a year in length, during which time he had to prove his ability to keep the rituals of the Law – especially the laws of purity and tithes (which we will soon see were a major part of Jesus’ rebuke) Many of the Pharisees were scribes, experts in the Law who so revered it that they hedged it in with extra protective laws. As the Mishnah says, “Tradition is a fence around the Law” (Aboth 3.14). The Pharisees drew a hard line between themselves and the masses, who did not keep the Law as meticulously. Jesus sits down Jesus accepts their invitation, goes into the home where the banquet was held, and sat down at the table. Perfectly fine right? No! At least not in the eyes of the Pharisees. This brings us to the offense. II. The Offense (38) Lk 11:38- The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. Ann offense of religious purity When Jesus sat down to eat without washing his hands, the Pharisee was astonished and offended! This was not simply a cleanliness issue, but as I said a moment ago, it was an issue of purity – more accurately, religious purity. This was ceremonial cleansing not commanded by the Old Testament, but added by Pharisaic tradition. The Mishnah, that code of traditions that the Scribes developed to help them keep the law, talked about ritual purity in this way related to washing hands. More specifically the Yadaim was one section of the Mishnah that dealt with the washing of the hands for ritual purity and it is 4 chapters long with 22 paragraphs! The hands are susceptible to uncleanness, and they are rendered clean [by the pouring over them of water] up to the wrist. Thus if a man had poured the first water up to the wrist and the second water beyond the wrist, and the water flowed back to the hand, the hand becomes clean; but if he poured both the first water and the second beyond the wrist, and the water flowed back to the hand, the hand remains unclean. If he poured the first water over the one hand alone and then bethought himself and poured the second water over the one hand, his one hand [alone] is clean. If he had poured the water over the one hand and rubbed it on the other, it becomes unclean; but if he rubbed it on his head or on the wall [to dry it] it remains clean. (Yadaim 2.3) Jesus purposely neglected it altogether. Well Jesus just bypassed all of that, purposely in my opinion so as to instigate the ensuing conversation, and did not wash his hands at all. It is not like he tried and failed, no He purposely neglected the tradition altogether! And the Pharisees were scandalized. III. The Response: Unmasking Hypocrisy Jesus, either seeing some outward evidenced of their offended scruples, or by reading their hearts, responds with a straightforward, in-your-face serious of verbal blows intended to break the mask of their hypocrisy. 4 rebukes that identify/expose their hypocrisy He addresses their hypocrisy in four rebukes. But what he is doing is showing the Pharisees by way of their own actions that they are hypocrites. He is identifying what hypocrisy looks like by way of these four rebukes. A. Identified You might be a hypocrite if… So for our purposes of edification and application, what we are going to do right now is wee what sort of behaviors identify a hypocrite. You have probably heard Jeff Foxworthy help people identify themselves as a redneck, right? Let me share a couple of my favorites: • You might be a redneck if you think you have a set of matching luggage because you have two shopping bags from the same store • You think Taco Bell is a Mexican phone company • You were stopped by a state trooper and he asked you if you had and I.D. and you said “’bout what” • You mowed the lawn and found a car Well we can really think about this section of Scripture as “You might be a hypocrite if…”. Jesus is identifying for these Pharisees what hypocrisy is. Let’s hear what He has to say. 1. It is externally clean, but internally neglected (39) Lk 11:39- And the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. Jesus’ meaning here is clearly understood. He gives a sort of umbrella identifying mark of hypocrisy. It is like washing the outside of your coffee mug, but leaving the inside unclean. In that case it would look good to other people as you drank your coffee, but the reality is that you are drinking a sick and foul cup of coffee with who know what kind of defilement. The essence of hypocrisy is that a person gives all their attention to appearing one way, but inwardly they are not that way. They are wearing a mask to cover up their true selves. They are acting – they are a hypocrite. Jesus says, yes you have 22 paragraphs about how to wash your hands to be clean, but on the inside you have totally ignored and neglected the greater problem – you are a bad person, you are full of greed and wickedness. YMBAH You might be a hypocrite if all your efforts on external appearances and little to none of your attention is spent on the state of your heart and character and true spirituality – if you are externally clean, but internally neglected. 2. It majors on the minors of religious tradition and neglects the major necessities of true religion (42) Lk 11:42- “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. Woe Just a brief comment here on the word “woe”. I talked about this once before, but it is important to be clear on what “woe” means. Many think of it as a condemning word or a damning kind of word, but the word is actually an interjection.