the will of Him that sent Him, as in His late answer to the woman who envied her that bare Him,' would raise the minds of His hearers above earthly relationships. Mother and brethren according to the flesh, in the matter of His mission, He can know no longer. It is like His child-question in the Temple court, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" Like His question at His first miracle in Cana of Galilee," What have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come." So He would raise their thought to a spiritual society, higher than any human ties. And with a gesture, the record of which marks the eyewitness, He points to some who had been already admitted into it; points to those who had forsaken all 2 to follow Him. And, to encourage others to follow their example, He declares that whosoever in the future should in like manner do the will of that Father in Heaven whose Son He claimed to be, should be regarded by Him as of closest kinship. These alone indeed can He regard as kindred who "hear the word of God and do it."3 These, as He had come from saying,3 are the truly blessed. That word too they were even then hearing. For He was "the Word," and "the Word was God." Thus to those who knew Him merely as the Son of Mary, He asserts His claim to be the Son of God." CXCI. PHARISEES REPROVED. St. Luke xi. 37-41. And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him and he went in, and sat down to meat. And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed before dinner. And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your 1 St. Luke xi. 28. 2 St. Matt. iv. 18-22; xix. 27-29. 3 St. Luke viii. 21; St. Matt. vii. 24. 4 St. John i. 1. 5 2 Cor. v. 16. inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also? But rather give alms of such things as ye have; and, behold, all things are clean unto you. This Pharisee's motive, there is reason to think, was not good. The inward intention was not in keeping with the apparent, outward civility. Soon he shows what manner of spirit he is of. The Jews were in the habit of having two principal meals in the day. The one here referred to was the former. Our Lord did not court such invitations, neither did He decline them. The Jews were in the habit of ceremonially washing before meals. There was no harm in the habit, but with them it degenerated into superstition, and was made a religious ceremony which might not be omitted.3 The Pharisee, with a strange lack of courtesy, seems to have shown his surprise that our Lord had not observed this ceremony. He seems to have omitted it of set purpose, in order to read his entertainer, and the class represented by him, a wholesome lesson. He had gone in straight, and taken His place at the table, dispensing with the services of the servants who stood ready to pour water upon the hands of the guests. Our Lord, coming in the character of "a Teacher come from God" as the Pharisees had acknowledged, would make them know themselves. He shows that their present conduct is a proof of the proverb that convicts them. They are like men who spend their strength on cleaning the outside of the vessel which yet remains full of 1 Alford observes that the intentions of the Pharisees towards our Lord were not "so friendly as these invitations seem to imply. They were given... sometimes even with a directly hostile object: see vv. 53, 54, and comparo also ch. vii. 44-46." He observes also "that our Lord spoke on various occasions, and with various incidental references, the component parts of that great antiPharisaic discourse contained in Matt. xxiii. That was spoken in the Temple. . . Our Lord spoke at this meal I parts of that discourse, with which He afterwards solemnly closed His public ministry. . . . The severest parts of the discourse in Matthew were not uttered on this occasion." 2 In v. 38 the word is baptized; one of the instances which show that Baptism does not necessarily imply immersion. The Eastern mode of washing hands is for a servant to pour water over them; pouring from a vessel held in one hand, and receiving the water in another vessel held in the other. 3 St. Mark vii. 1-9. foulness within. The Pharisees, whatever fair appearance they made outwardly, were notorious for extortion and excess. These foolish, short-sighted persons seemed to overlook the fact that God had made soul as well as body, that He desires "truth in the inward parts," that our prayer should be, "Create in me a clean heart, O God." Give, He says in effect to these covetous ones, Give that which is within for alms. Let your acts proceed from a right motive. Alms He specifies, as being that wherein, except for purposes of ostentation,' the Pharisees were chiefly deficient. Then, He says, you will have a soul above such superstitions. Then none of these things which now you dread shall be capable of defiling you.2 CXCII. PHARISEES AND SCRIBES REBUKED. St. Luke xi. 42-44. But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them. Our Lord takes the opportunity which had been offered Him of showing the Pharisees themselves. This mirror He holds up to them. Theirs were essentially little and narrow minds. They fastened on the less, and overlooked the greater. They magnified a trifle till it occupied the whole range of vision, to the exclusion of what was really important. They were absurdly scrupulous about some things, and strangely negligent of others. Thus they were careful to tithe even the common herbs of their garden, a matter so trifling that the Law with all its minuteness did not descend to these; while they passed by, as a matter of no importance, justice between man and man and love to God. Had they really set themselves to discover and discharge their duty towards God and towards their neighbour, there would have been no fear of their omitting anything really required. The Lord points out another grave fault in these who were so ready to find faults in others, their pride. This was shown both in the synagogue and in the market, in the Church and in the world, in the House of God no less than in the haunts of men. They chose out the chief places in the former, and in the latter they expected all to make way for them. It is not friendly greetings He here condemns, but the exacting of honour to which they had no claim. And, coupling now with them the Scribes, men who wrote out copies of that Law which they habitually disobeyed, He likens them to the graves which may be seen in those parts of Palestine covered with a luxuriant growth of herbage, which appear to be anything but what they are. So these were utter hypocrites. They were not what they would appear. They made themselves out to be other than they were. Professing to be scrupulously clean, they conveyed pollution. They made it a sin to sit down with unwashen hands, and yet indulged in inward impurity. Under any circumstances they must at least go through the form of washing, while they were utterly regardless of that which it was supposed to signify. 1 St. Luke xiv. 7. 2 The Commentators notice (another evidence that the two were distinct discourses) that the point of comparison here is different to that in St. Matt. xxiii. 27. See Alford ad loc. CXCIII. DOCTORS OF THE LAW REBUKED. St. Luke xi. 45-51. Then answered one of the lawyers, and said unto him, Master, thus saying thou reproachest us also. And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres. Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute: that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation. He The Lawyers among the Jews were not what we understand by that word. They were expounders of the Law of Moses. One of these, conceiving himself included in the censure which the Lord had come from passing upon the Scribes, takes upon him to remonstrate. Having thus interrupted our Lord, he invites His answer. So far he had rightly judged. His class was included in that of the Scribes. And our Lord proceeds to justify the charge. points out first what was a cruel characteristic of this class of men. In addition to the burthens of the Law itself, which yet would have been lighter had it been rightly interpreted, they added burthens of their own devising. They imposed unnecessary burthens upon those whom it was. their business to help and not to harass, like a still heavier load upon the already overladen beast, and contributed nothing to their comfort. They exacted of others what they did not practise themselves. How different to the conduct |