Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered

 And as He spoke, a certain Pharisee asked Him to dine with him.  So He went in and sat down to eat.  When the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that He had not first washed before dinner.  Then the Lord said to him, "Now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness.  Foolish ones!  Did not He who made the outside make the inside also?  But rather give alms of such things as you have; then indeed all things are clean to you.  But woe to you Pharisees!  For you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass by justice and the love of God.  These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.  Woe to you Pharisees!  For you love the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you are like graves which are not seen, and the men who walk over them are not aware of them."  Then one of the lawyers answered and said to Him, "Teacher, by saying these things You reproach us also."  And He said, "Woe to you also, lawyers!  For you load men with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.  Woe to you!  For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.  In fact, you bear witness that you approve the deeds of your fathers; for they indeed killed them, and you build their tombs.  Therefore the wisdom of God also said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute,' that the blood of the all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the temple.  Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation.  Woe to you lawyers!  For you have taken away the key of knowledge.  You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered."

- Luke 11:37-52

Yesterday, we read that as Jesus was speaking, a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, "Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!"  But He said, "More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"  And while the crowds were thickly gathered together, He began to say, "This is an evil generation.  It seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet.  For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation.  The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.  The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.  No one, when he has lit a lamp, puts it in a secret place or under a basket, but on a lampstand, that those who come in may see the light.  The lamp of the body is the eye.  Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light.  But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness.  Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness.  If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, the whole body will be full of light, as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light."

And as He spoke, a certain Pharisee asked Him to dine with him.  So He went in and sat down to eat.  When the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that He had not first washed before dinner.  Then the Lord said to him, "Now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness.  Foolish ones!  Did not He who made the outside make the inside also?"  The Pharisee is thinking about ceremonial washing, an observation of oral tradition (not violation of the law of Moses).  But Jesus speaks to the hypocrisy of strict observance of these built up customs as if they were in fact the fulfillment of the Law in and of themselves - and as if they were the only necessary focus.  To be holy in God's sight one must not neglect the "inside" also created by God.

"But rather give alms of such things as you have; then indeed all things are clean to you."  How does one build up the inside?  Giving alms, the practice of charity, is one way of building up an internal cleanliness, so that then everything is clean.   We can see this in the practice of Christ's mercy, when He touches a leper to heal.  (See Titus 1:15.) 

"But woe to you Pharisees!  For you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass by justice and the love of God.  These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.  Woe to you Pharisees!  For you love the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you are like graves which are not seen, and the men who walk over them are not aware of them."   All of these things are an indication of emphasis on the external, on only things done to be seen.  To tithe herbs but to bypass the justice and love of God is to do what is tiny and to bypass what is of the essence and truly great.  To love the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces is to crave the admiration of others as one's focus.  But they neglect the love of God which defines and centers everything else.  In this way they are like unseen graves; their inner death and emptiness is unseen and unknown, the worth of the soul forgotten.  Jesus does not condemn religious practice designed to shore up faith and center us on the love of God and neighbor.  What He condemns is the use of built-up traditions in such a way that obscures the focus on the heart and the love of God and allows for its neglect.  Woe is a term that indicates complete and devastating destruction, says my study bible (6:24-26; see Isaiah 5:18-24; Amos 5:18-19; Revelation 12:12).

Then one of the lawyers answered and said to Him, "Teacher, by saying these things You reproach us also."  And He said, "Woe to you also, lawyers!  For you load men with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.  Woe to you!  For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.  In fact, you bear witness that you approve the deeds of your fathers; for they indeed killed them, and you build their tombs.  Therefore the wisdom of God also said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute,' that the blood of the all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the temple.  Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation.  Woe to you lawyers!  For you have taken away the key of knowledge.  You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered."   It is possible to be zealous for the law and to neglect the weightier matters of love of God and true justice.  My study bible says that because the example of a leader can be so influential, leaders who do not love God can hinder others from finding Him as well.  Thus leaders are held to a higher standard (James 3:1). 

 Christ calls hypocrites those whose emphasis is so fully on the outside that they neglect the "inside" -- the inner part of a person.  This inner part is also understood as the heart of a person.  That is, that which unites all that we are:  mind and spirit and soul.  Jesus says that to clean this inside renders all clean; the body is not left out of this understanding.  Jesus addressed this in yesterday's reading, when He said, "The lamp of the body is the eye.  Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light."  This lamp of the body is the spiritual eye; that is, the mind, that with which we perceive and view life.  In effect, He's telling these men that they don't allow the light to come into that eye and to make all things clean.  True purity or cleanliness of the heart leads to an understanding of what is truly clean or pure.  A wholly external emphasis on rules compiled via oral tradition renders these men hypocrites.  They neglect the weightier matters of justice and mercy in favor of how they are reflected back to themselves in the eyes of others, their peers and contemporaries.  This is what Jesus means when He tells them that they "love the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces."   What is really important here is not a separation between external and internal.  In fact, this is what Jesus is condemning as hypocritical.  (The word hypocrite in the Greek originally means "actor."  In the ancient plays such as those contemporary with Jesus' time, actors wore masks to denote their characters.  Hypocrite literally means "under the mask.")   What Jesus is offering is the authenticity of a heart devoted to loving God and neighbor, and in the fullness of life this means that externally acts are also clean.  This is a true salvation of all of life, not a separation of interior and exterior.  Hence, St. Paul writes in a letter to Titus:  "All things are clean to the clean" (Titus 1:15).  My study bible emphasizes the danger to Christians as well in that when we have beautiful ritual and practices, all those traditions designed to shore up the love of God and neighbor, we also run the risk of putting all the emphasis on the external and neglecting the very thing the practices are meant to help.  Prayer must be the place we go to find God and the love of God in our hearts, which leads us to true purity and righteousness.  That is, to right-relatedness to the world and all beings and things in it.  It is not about being seen by others.  Alms-giving, charity, the practice of mercy becomes treasure in heaven when it comes from a pure heart.  Hence, Jesus will teach that we go into our inner chamber -- alone with God our Father "who is in the secret place" and "who sees in secret," and He will reward openly.  That word for inner chamber indicates an inner room in a house for the storage of valuables, and it truly works through all meanings implied, including to teach us that we need to pray undisturbed whatever else we do -- and emphasizes Jesus' teachings about the treasures of the heart as well (see Matthew 6:6, 21).   All emphasis here goes back to the love of God, the true love of God in the heart that enlightens everything else.  What He implies in today's reading is that these men are like those who killed the prophets sent by God (their "fathers").  That is, the prophets were sent to remind the people of the love and this commitment to God they lack -- and were killed for doing so.  It starts with the heart, and none of us are immune from the temptation to external emphasis, to hypocrisy.  Those in leadership, especially, deprive others when they fail to be true to this kind of purity and integrity.  Let us remember God's love.