Faithless Piety

Then after these things, Luk 11:37 …a certain Pharisee asked Him to dine with him. So, He went in and sat down to eat. So, the scene changes and I assume that one of the Pharisees who had been listening to Jesus invited Him to come and dine with him. Now, it wasn’t uncommon that a Pharisee would invite a well-known itinerant teacher to share a meal, and this isn’t the first time that Jesus had entered a Pharisees house for that purpose, but what is interesting is that this invitation came after His rebuke of the Pharisees for accusing Him of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub.

Now, it could be that this particular Pharisee wasn’t part of that group, so he might not have felt the sting of the Lord’s rebuke. After all, eating a meal was a sign of friendship and fellowship, so it’s doubtful that he considered himself an enemy of Jesus, at least, not yet. So, when Jesus entered his home and sat down to eat, this Pharisee Luk 11:38 …marveled (or was surprised) that He had not first washed before dinner.

In our society, we try to wash our hands with soap and water and maybe use some disinfectant to clean our hands before we eat so we won’t get sick or spread germs that might be on our hands. But the Pharisees would only do a ceremonial washing with water as a ritual to remove defilement from being in contact with the world. They would dip, or literally baptize their hands in a bowl of water and then dry them. Now, Jesus wasn’t against washing, but He was against empty rituals that gave a person a false sense of righteousness. So, His failure to follow this tradition may well have been intentional, knowing that it would be confrontational.

Now, it doesn’t say anywhere that the Pharisee said anything, but Jesus knew what he was thinking, and it gave Him the opportunity to preach another sermon to highlight the exaggerated importance they gave to minor issues. I’ve called this sermon “Faithless Piety” because in it, the Lord shows the Pharisees for what they truly are. They are hypocrites who nullify the law of God with their traditions. The righteousness they think they have is an illusion, and their pious behavior is empty and void of faith.

Luk 11:39-41 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. (40) Foolish ones! Did not He who made the outside make the inside also? (41) But rather give alms of such things as you have; then indeed all things are clean to you.

Jesus didn’t ceremonially wash His hands according to their customs, but the issue wasn’t His cleanliness, the issue was the Pharisees traditions. You see, ceremonial washing before meals isn’t a requirement in the OT, but it is emphasized in the extrabiblical Traditions of the Elders. Now, later on, sometime in the 3rd century, these traditions would be compiled together into what is known today as the Mishna.

This analogy of the cup and platter exposed the reality of the true condition of the Pharisees. A cup, or a serving dish that is washed on the outside can look nice and clean, but it’s the inside that counts. I mean, regardless of how clean the outside is, who wants to drink anything from a cup, or eat anything off a platter that was dirty on the inside? We want the whole thing to be clean, don’t we? And of the two sides, it’s the inside that is most important, not the outside.