Bible Commentaries
Luke 11

Verses 1-13

Luk 11:1-13

Commentary On Luke 11:1-13

Galen Doughty

Luke 11:1 - Jesus is praying in a certain place. The disciples are watching and observing him. When he finished one of the disciples asks him to teach them to pray like John taught his disciples. The disciples must have perceived that Jesus had a powerful and unique prayer life. My guess is they sensed the extraordinary intimacy with the Father that Jesus had and also his prayers were different than the normal Jewish prayers that they had all been taught as boys growing up. Many of the prayers they knew were wrote prayers like the collects for the day in modern liturgical churches. Some rabbi had composed them and the disciples as boys had been taught them in the synagogue school and memorized them to be used at the appropriate time and day. Jesus’ prayers were different. Plus John the Baptist had taught his disciples to pray in a different way too. Andrew and at least one other of Jesus’ disciples had been with John for a while. They wanted this new more intimate, personal style of prayer. Remember at this point in Jewish history the Jews saw God as almost wholly transcendent. He was sovereign and in charge but was not as personally present with them as had been the case in the past like in the Old Testament. You can see signs of this idea growing in the later Old Testament books such as Ezra, Nehemiah and Chronicles. Jesus’ way of praying must have intrigued and attracted the disciples.

Luke 11:2-4 - In response to the disciples’ request Jesus teaches them the Lord’s Prayer a second time. It is probable that Matthew’s version in the Sermon on the Mount was earliest and this version comes later. Some of the material in the Travel Narrative is not chronological and was inserted by Luke for content reasons. I think that is the case here. Luke 11 seems to be prayer material that Luke gathered and put together, although it might have also been in a source that he used like the Travel Narrative and he simply used what he had.

The versions of Matthew and Luke are slightly different. Later Greek manuscripts have tried to reconcile both versions so they say exactly the same thing. The fact that Jesus gives the prayer in slightly different versions speaks to the issue of how he intended the disciples to use his model prayer. It was not, like the rabbinical prayers they knew, a prayer to be memorized and repeated every day. It was designed as an outline to their prayers. The Lord’s Prayer speaks to our priorities in prayer and the subjects of our prayers. In that sense it is a template and guide to prayer. That makes much more sense rather than seeing it as something we should repeat all the time. This version is more simple and concise than Matthew’s.

Jesus begins with God the Father. We address the Father in prayer.

The first priority of prayer is praise and the holiness of God’s name. He is holy but he is also Father. He is our Heavenly Father. In other places Jesus uses the intimate word Abba for Father. Here he uses Pater, the formal term. Amazingly the verbs that request something of God are all in the aorist imperative, the mood of command, except for lead us not into temptation which is aorist subjunctive, the mood of contingency. My guess is the Greek verbs are expressing what in Hebrew would be a jussive, the mood of request from the king. Prayer does not order God to do anything; we request of him. Yet the imperatives here in the Lord’s Prayer help us understand that we can ask boldly of our Heavenly Father to fulfill his will in our lives and in his world.

The second priority is God’s Kingdom. We ask God to bring his Kingdom to its completion. This is consistent with Jesus’ proclamation and his mission. The first installment of God’s Kingdom is the forgiveness Jesus brings and the Holy Spirit he will give to those who believe in him. The second installment will be the final consummation of all things and the ultimate defeat of Satan and evil. We need to ask God to do these things in individual situations and in the largest sense of the term. We ask God to fulfill his Kingdom purposes for his world!

The third priority is our daily needs. Jesus uses the phrase daily bread to refer back to God giving Israel the manna each day in the wilderness as he cared for Israel. God cares for us and knows our daily needs for food etc. Jesus tells us that is an appropriate subject for prayer. It is not the first priority but it is a priority.

The fourth priority is our relationships and forgiveness. Jesus teaches us to pray for God’s forgiveness of our sins, just as we forgive those who are indebted to us. Literally the words read forgive us our sins for we also forgive those who are indebted to us. Jesus teaches us to ask God for forgiveness but then reminds us in the way he asks that we need to be people of forgiveness ourselves.

The fifth and final priority in the Lord’s Prayer is the aorist subjunctive; lead us not into temptation or trials, Greek peirasmon. Literally the words mean and do not lead us or bring us into temptation. Do we actually need to ask God not to lead us into temptation? Does God purposefully lead us to be tempted? James says he tempts no one. Yet the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. What is Jesus trying to teach us here? The fact is he does not say protect us in the midst of temptation but don’t lead us into it. The phrase is actually difficult. I think it is saying we trust God to lead us always. We trust him not to lead us to a temptation that traps us and causes us to stumble. But again why would Jesus teach his disciples to pray that? Isn’t that self -evident that God would not do that? The subjunctive mood, the mood of contingency, may have something to say here. This is more the idea of a request of God and not an imperative like the other verbs of the Prayer. It is possible that because of that the essence of the phrase is more a begging of God not to allow temptation to overwhelm us or for God not to abandon us in the midst of temptation. But that is not what the words literally say. It is what we want them to say. I must admit I am not sure what Jesus is trying to say here. Taken all together in context with the other requests of the Lord’s Prayer about God’s name and his Kingdom and trusting God to provide our needs and forgive us this request is probably about not abandoning us in temptation; leading us into it purposefully and then leaving us to our own devices. It helps us understand that sin and temptation are very real trials that are always lurking and that without God’s help we cannot resist them or come out the other side of them whole and victorious. Father, don’t lead us into a trial and leave us there. Stay with us! Help us! I think that is what Jesus is getting at.

Luke 11:5-7 - Jesus follows his teaching on the Lord’s Prayer with the parable of the friend at midnight which speaks of the honor and integrity of God the Father who answers our prayers. I haven’t thought of the context of the parable with the Lord’s Prayer before. The idea of the integrity of God who honors his promises fits with the imperatives in the Prayer. Taken together the two teachings show that Jesus is instilling confidence in God to answer our prayers and to keep praying. He’s encouraging them in prayer to have the kind of confidence that he has in the Father.

The parable paints a situation in village life. The man has a guest who has come late in the night, a traveler and friend. The man has nothing to set before him and show hospitality to his friend. He has a duty to his friend and to the whole village to show hospitality because in that culture you are not just the guest of the man but of the whole village. The village honor is at stake. Since he has nothing to share with his guest he has every right to go next door to his neighbor and ask for what he needs. Notice he doesn’t knock on the door. He calls out to him. Friends call out, strangers or soldiers or someone sinister knocks. Jesus phrases the first part of this parable as a rhetorical question. Literally the words read, which one of you will have, meaning can you imagine. Can you imagine going to your friend late at night in need, explaining the problem and he answers go away, the door is shut, my family’s in bed and I can’t get up and give you anything? This would simply never happen! Village honor is at stake and the hospitality of the village. The friend inside would never do such a thing. Jesus’ rhetorical question demands a resounding "No!" answer.

Luke 11:8 - This is the verse where most translations and most commentators get into trouble. They make it about the wrong thing. I owe this insight to Dr. Ken Bailey and his Parables class at Fuller Theological Seminary.

The subject of the parable is the friend inside and not the man outside. That is the first thing that needs to be noted. Second, though he won’t get up and give him anything because he is his friend, is about the man inside not the man outside. The NIV reads: yet because of the man’s boldness or persistence, making it about the man outside. But the sentence is about the man inside. The word translated boldness or persistence literally means shamelessness and in the culture and the context means avoidance of shame. Yet to avoid shame he will get up and give him whatever he asks. That is a negative way to express the positive concept of honor. This verse is about the man inside and not the man outside the house. Jesus is teaching his disciples that God honors his promises and his name. This is not about persistence in prayer. Ask, seek, knock is about persistence in prayer as is the parable of the widow and the unjust judge but not this parable about the friend at midnight.

The friend inside will in fact get up and give the man whatever he needs. Culturally the idea of lending him three loaves of bread is just the door opener. When the neighbor actually is invited into his friend’s home he will begin to ask for more so that he and his village can impress the man’s guest with their hospitality. The neighbor will walk home with far more than three loaves of bread. He’ll have the fine lace tablecloth and the fresh olive oil and the neighbor’s best dishes and so on. In other words the friend inside will give his neighbor more than he asks for! Jesus is teaching us, that’s God! Our Heavenly Father is a generous God who zealously guards his name and his honor. He moves to act for his Kingdom and we can trust him to keep his promises and act on our behalf and his Kingdom’s behalf because he loves us! If the disciples were a little shocked by the imperatives in the Lord’s Prayer Jesus demonstrates with the parable of the friend at midnight that we can count on God’s honor to answer our prayers. He wants to build his Kingdom. He wants to provide for our needs. He wants to forgive us our sins! He wants us to conquer sin and temptation! Ask him and he’ll answer. In fact he’ll give us more than we asked for! We can boldly go to God at any time and ask!

Luke 11:9-10 - The verbs here are all present indicatives, meaning keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking. This saying is about persistence in prayer and the faith and confidence to know that God will answer. Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened. Jesus says everyone who does this will find an answer. God is a God who can be trusted in prayer.

The context here is important. Jesus has given the disciples the model prayer, the Lord’s Prayer full of requests framed in the imperative mood, the mood of command. He has told them of God’s honor and zealousness to protect and honor his name in the parable of the friend at midnight. They are encouraged to ask God because he will give them more than they need. Now in this saying Jesus says keep on asking, seeking and knocking because you will get an answer. I think the underlying idea here is that prayer is not pestering God. We don’t have to worry about God wanting us to go away. He hears and answers us. We can have confidence that he wants to hear from us and he delights in meeting our needs and granting our requests. He wants us to ask him to build his Kingdom! Taken together there is a remarkable attitude and confidence in Jesus’ teaching on prayer here built around his relationship with his Father. He invites us to have that same kind of confidence because we are his disciples and we come in Jesus’ name to our Heavenly Father who knows our needs and wants to meet them.

Luke 11:11-13 - Jesus now repeats a teaching he gave in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7. Here he leaves out the bread and stone analogy and gives two analogies rather than three.

This saying is about a father’s desire to give good gifts to his children and comparing us as earthly fathers to our Heavenly Father.

If your son asks for a fish will we give him a snake instead? There are eel -like fishes in the waters around Israel and some have said that is the comparison. If he asks for an egg will you give him a scorpion? When the white scorpions curl up under rocks they look a little like an egg. The point is we would never try and fool or switch something evil or hurtful for the legitimate thing our children ask of us. Jesus is telling us God is not a trickster he can be trusted. The pagan gods were not this way. You never knew what they would do! You couldn’t trust their character. You can trust God’s character and integrity! If we know how to give good gifts to our children, we who are sinful, how much more our Heavenly Father will give us his Holy Spirit to those who ask him! Jesus intensifies the good gifts God will give us by saying he will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. The Spirit is the greatest gift of all and was a sign of the Kingdom’s presence and life. People might ask God for the Spirit but he was not ready to give him because the Spirit is given to all only when the Messiah comes and God’s Kingdom is present in the world. Jesus is saying the time has come. Ask for his Holy Spirit and God will give him because I am here and I am the Messiah. The Kingdom of God has come! It is interesting that Jesus begins his teaching on prayer with the Lord’s Prayer and his imperative request of God to bring his Kingdom. At the end of his teaching he tells the disciples that the Kingdom is here because they can ask the Father and he will give the Holy Spirit, the very sign of the Kingdom to all those who ask him!

Luke may have pulled this material from several sources and put it together in a masterful way, but the inner unity of the teaching on prayer suggests to me that this is precisely how Jesus taught it and Luke simply puts it in the context of his Travel Narrative.

Verses 14-36

Luk 11:14-36

Commentary On Luke 11:14-36

Galen Doughty

Luke 11:14-16 - Jesus casts a demon out of a man that had caused him to be mute. This is one of those times when a demon causes some physical malady, here the inability to speak. The demon leaves and people are amazed. Some among them, in Mark and Matthew it is the Pharisees, claim he is casting out demons by Beelzebub or Baalzebub, the prince of demons. Beelzebub literally means lord of the flies and was one of the highest demons under Satan or another name for Satan in Jewish tradition. One wonders whether the Jews who criticized him had tried to cast out demons before and had failed miserably and now that Jesus did it with such ease they could not bring themselves to say that he did it by the power of God because they had tried that and failed. The only alternative for them was to claim that he did it by Satan’s power. They were so wrapped up in their own religious position that they called the work of God the work of the devil.

Luke adds that others wanted to test him asking for a sign. People wanted Jesus to do some miraculous thing so that he could prove to their satisfaction that he was Messiah or a prophet. Luke shows us three types of people in the crowd. The open, who are amazed at what he does; the hostile who think he uses Satan and the skeptics who demand proof on their own terms before they will believe. In the next few paragraphs Jesus will answer the hostile and the skeptics.

Luke 11:17-20 - Jesus knows the hostile peoples’ thoughts and answers them, showing their logic to be faulty. A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. It will be ruined. Jesus shows them he is not casting out demons by Satan because his kingdom would not stand; it would be divided against itself. Their arguments are ludicrous and baseless.

However, he then asks if it is not Satan then by what power do I cast out demons? If it is by the finger of God, meaning the power of God, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you. The finger of God is an expression the court magicians used with Pharaoh to describe the plague of gnats in Egypt in Exodus 8 . They could not duplicate it and so realized a power greater than their own magic was at work. The interesting thing is Pharaoh would not listen and hardened his heart even further against the Israelites. Jesus casts out demons with the power of God, the same power used in the plagues against Egypt and like Pharaoh, the hostile in the crowd, especially the Pharisees, are in danger of hardening their hearts against God’s Messiah and against God. They continue to see God’s work as the devil’s work!

Jesus indicts the Pharisees’ exorcists. If he casts out demons by the devil then with what power do the Pharisees cast them out? If it is by the power of God then the Kingdom of God has come upon you. If the Kingdom is here then Jesus is the agent of that Kingdom. He is the Messiah!

Luke 11:21-22 - Jesus then tells the parable of the strongman to push the hostile and the Pharisees to recognize what is really happening and to shake them out of their ridiculous position. Someone stronger than a strongman who is guarding his house has come. His protection is taken and his house is plundered. Jesus is stronger than Satan because the demons cannot do anything to stop him from casting them out. His authority and power are greater! Jesus presses them to believe the evidence of their own eyes and abandon the ridiculous notion that he is working for the enemy!

Luke 11:23 - The one who is not with me, is against me and the one who does not gather with me scatters. Jesus indicts the hostile in the crowd, most probably the Pharisees, and tells them they have a choice. He is the Messiah and they are on the wrong side! They will find themselves standing against God’s Messiah, standing against God himself, if they do not repent and give up their hostility towards Jesus. A handful did, but the gospels show the majority of the Pharisees increased their hostility to Jesus and succeeded in their plots to kill him. The problem was his death was God’s plan and they did not foresee the resurrection which totally proved Jesus’ point that they were opposing God!

Luke 11:24-26 - This is a difficult parable. In context it is told to the hostile crowd, the Pharisees and religious leaders. There are several possibilities:

First, Jesus is speaking to what happens to a person the Pharisees have healed by casting out a demon. They have replaced the demon in the man with nothing because all they have is the Law which does not change hearts. When the demon tries to come back it brings with it more wicked spirits than itself and the second state of the man is far worse than the first state. This is possible but seems pretty obscure and not a very clear way to make the point. The Pharisees are spiritually barren and have nothing to offer.

Second, Jesus is speaking to the need for following him to someone who has been cured of a demon. If people who are healed do not follow Jesus then they risk a worse condition than before. The problem is the context gives no clues that Jesus is now changing the subject and speaking to someone he healed rather than to the hostile crowd and Pharisees. If this is what the parable is about it would be confusing at best to the Pharisees listening to it and I am not sure the man who was mute would realize Jesus was speaking to him.

Third, Jesus may be referring to all Israel. Jesus’ coming has swept clean the house of Israel but if they refuse to follow him and receive him as Messiah then greater evil will come back in and their last state will be worse than their first state before Jesus came. The parable is corporate in nature and prophetic to Israel. Certainly events played out this way with the Jewish revolt and the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 70 by the Romans. This interpretation makes the most sense of what Jesus is talking about but does it fit the context? Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees and the religious leaders here who accuse him of being in league with Satan. He quotes the finger of God phrase from Exodus 8 which reminds them of God’s deliverance of the people of Israel from slavery. The problem is Jesus uses an individual as an example and not a corporate example in the parable. I tend to lean towards this third interpretation but it has its share of problems. Perhaps Jesus meant to speak to several different groups and individuals at once in the parable which makes it more difficult to interpret. I do not know.

Luke 11:27-28 - As Jesus is saying these things a woman cries out in the crowd a blessing on Jesus’ mother Mary. She is trying to call attention to what a woman could do and seeking to give herself and other women value since in that culture the Pharisees had said a woman should not even be taught the Scriptures. Jesus refuses to accept the blessing on Mary as a way to increase her value. Instead he points to what all people can do, men and women, hear the Word and obey it! In doing so he says that women and men can hear and learn the Word from him and obey it. Women are not relegated to being content with birthing children and nursing them. They can be full disciples of his which is a radical view.

On a side note, Jesus rejects the blessing on Mary the woman wanted to give. He refuses to elevate Mary to any other status but one of his followers. The key to Mary’s character was that she did exactly what Jesus says his disciples should do; hear the Word of God and do it. Mary is blessed because she did that and is an example for all disciples of her obedience, not because she has special blessing by being Jesus’ mother. Here the Catholic Church ignore Jesus’ response to the woman and want to elevate Mary to semi-god status because of her special relationship with Jesus.

Luke 11:29-32 - As Jesus is speaking a larger crowd gathers. Jesus now addresses the skeptics among the crowds; see back to 11:16 and those who wanted a sign from him to prove his Messiahship.

Jesus calls them a wicked generation because they ask Jesus to prove himself to them by doing some miracle. They were sitting in judgment over the Messiah and over God! They were saying Jesus has to measure up to their expectations and fit into what they want as Messiah or they won’t believe in him. The Messiah is not beholden to us we are beholden to him! They did not understand that they were the ones being judged. The sign of Jonah Jesus speaks of is the resurrection. It is the one sign or event that will show whether the people will recognize Jesus as Messiah or not. Notice Jesus does not point to his cross here but his resurrection. As Paul says in Romans 1 it is the resurrection through the power of the Holy Spirit that proves Jesus is the Messiah and the Lord.

Jesus then says one greater than the wise teachers like Solomon is speaking to them. The Queen of Sheba will testify against this generation at the judgment because they did not believe. One greater than the prophet Jonah is speaking to them. The Ninevites will testify at the judgment against them because the city repented at Jonah’s preaching but this people will not. Jesus is claiming to be greater than the wisdom teachers and the prophets. What did the skeptical crowds do with his words? How did they respond?

Luke 11:33-36 - Jesus then repeats the light under the bushel saying only he gives it a different meaning than in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. Here he uses it to speak to what they watch and see. We don’t hide a light but let it shine. Your eyes are the light of your body. When you watch and look at what is good your whole body will be healthy but when you watch and focus on what is evil your body will be dark. Jesus is saying what you see and watch affects your whole being! How true that is especially today! Notice Jesus also says when our eyes are light and our whole body is light then we shine out with the light of God to others!

My question is how does this saying relate in the context in which Luke puts it? Why here? He has been speaking to those who oppose him directly and to those who are skeptical in the crowds. I think he is saying that they are watching and looking for the wrong things. Their self-centered standards as to what the Messiah should be like and how he should fit into their religious program and rules have their eyes focused on darkness and because of that their whole bodies, meaning selves, are dark. They cannot see the light and so be saved. They are living in darkness and need to change their focus off of themselves and onto Jesus and his light. Jesus is using the saying and its metaphor to challenge them and call them to repentance.

Verses 37-54

Luk 11:37-54

Commentary On Luke 11:37-54

Galen Doughty

Luke 11:37-38 - Jesus is invited to a Pharisee’s home for dinner and he accepts the invitation. The Pharisee notices that Jesus does not wash before the meal. Mark comments in Mark 7 that this washing was ceremonial. It was not the same as we would do when we ask our children to wash their hands before dinner, is showing us never wash your hands before meals. He simply did not follow the Pharisee’s ceremonial cleanliness ritual before he ate the meal. This was part of the Pharisees’ tradition and not in the Law of Moses. The Law stipulated ceremonial washings when entering the tabernacle or temple for the priests or after touching a dead body and other holiness issues but in no place does it say to wash the hands before one eats. The Pharisees had added this rule to their traditions. Jesus deliberately violates it and then proceeds to pronounce judgment upon the Pharisee and all his brothers as he is reclining at the table with his host. This was a violation of the rules of hospitality and shamed his host. Culturally Jesus is being rude and shocking! Spiritually he is lovingly confronting the Pharisee to try and shake him out of his rules and legalism in order to save him.

Luke 11:39-41 - Jesus attacks their legalistic religion as futile. They concentrate on the outside of things, their bodies and their dishes and worry about whether things are ritually clean or not yet they neglect what the prophets said and Jesus will say in a few moments, the weightier things of the law like justice and mercy for the poor. The fruit of their lives does not coincide with their religious efforts! The outside is clean but their hearts are hard and proud! They are full of greed and wickedness. Jesus calls them fools for not recognizing it is what is on the inside that counts. All their religious actions are done for the wrong reasons. Plus they don’t work! Their rituals can’t change their hearts. They need something different. They need a relationship with Jesus!

Luke 11:42-44 - Jesus then pronounces three woes or three judgments against the Pharisees. He does this while he is reclining at the table with them!

The first woe concerns their tithing. Jesus says they are so careful to tithe even their garden herbs to God which he says is not wrong. But they ignore justice and loving God when they do it. In other words they tithe for all the wrong reasons thinking it is pleasing God and earning his favor when all along their hearts are hard and proud, they are far from God. This saying is given to the Pharisees and not the disciples thus one cannot use this verse as is often done to justify and affirm tithing as the giving standard for Jesus’ disciples. To do that would be to take this verse totally out of context and to miss the point Jesus is trying to make all together!

The second woe speaks to their pride and lack of humility. They want the seat of honor in the synagogues and to be greeted with respect in the market place. Their actions speak to their pride before people and that speaks to their self-righteousness before God. God is repulsed by it! Jesus is Messiah and God. He is repulsed by their pride and speaks against it but they are so arrogant that they cannot accept his words of correction nor can they recognize their Messiah and Lord before them!

The third woe speaks to their dead hearts. To walk over a grave in their religious system would make one unclean for the rest of the day. Jesus tells them that the people who associate with the Pharisees are made unclean by being around them. They corrupt others with their spiritual rules and self-righteousness. Far from helping people find God they make people unclean before God! Legalism and rules do not honor God and they do not bring us close to God. They do the opposite; they separate us from our Heavenly Father.

This was beyond their comprehension because they believed God was pleased with them because of their ritual purity and scrupulous attention to the tiniest detail of God’s Law. In fact the Pharisees believed that if they all could keep the Law perfectly for one day then God would send the Messiah. God had sent the Messiah and he was eating with them and speaking to them and he was repulsed by them and called them to repent! They couldn’t see it and rejected him!

Luke 11:45 - The comment by the lawyer seems to point to the fact that he thought Jesus was just talking about the lay Pharisees who did not spend full time studying the Law. The lawyer could have been a rabbi or one who taught others. He realizes that Jesus is including them as well in his condemnation of the Pharisees. Jesus now turns to the scholars among the guests around the table and indicts them too.

Luke 11:46 - Jesus condemns the scholars because they add more and more regulations to their legal requirements but don’t help people try and keep them or counsel them how to balance them out in their lives. They are legalists and are obsessed with their rules. They are like bureaucrats who only know how to write more regulations and don’t seem to understand how contradictory or confusing they can become. Underneath it all Jesus is telling them their legalism is no way to salvation. All the Law can do is add more and more burden. It cannot rightly relate us to God nor change our character and change our hearts. The Law is a dead end and Jesus is trying to show them they are at risk for their salvation; the very ones who think they are pleasing God by their strict rules.

Luke 11:47-51 - Jesus then indicts the scholars and lawyers among the Pharisees for being hypocrites when it comes to God’s prophets. They build tombs to the prophets but end up thereby approving their murders and persecution. God had foreseen it and told you this would happen. This generation will be held responsible for the blood of the martyred prophets because they all pointed to Jesus and they would reject him. Jesus links the scholars to the people in Israel who silenced and killed God’s prophets in the days of the kings. They were the ones who listened to the false prophets God condemned and said he never sent and never spoke through them.

Jesus says they will be guilty of all the prophets from the blood of Abel to Zechariah who was killed in the temple courts between the altar and the sanctuary. The Scriptures do not tell us about this incident. However the prophet Zechariah is the son of Berechiah which Jesus mentions in Matthew in the seven woes against the Pharisees in the temple during Holy Week. It is most likely that Jesus is speaking of the prophet Zechariah here. If that is the case then the reference is probably like saying from Genesis to Revelation, from the beginning to the ending of the Scriptures you have always killed the prophets God sent and opposed God’s plan and will. Abel was killed by his wicked brother Cain and Jesus is equating this generation of scholars with Cain!

Luke 11:52-53 - Jesus’ sixth woe indicts the Pharisees and their scholars concerning their teaching of salvation. They have taken away the key to God’s knowledge, a relationship with God through Jesus. They resist and oppose him and hinder those who want to follow Jesus. The scholars and rabbis among the Pharisees have taught the rest of the Pharisees and the people a legal way of salvation that is a dead end and cannot result in salvation for anyone. They then have hindered Jesus in his preaching of the Kingdom and a relationship with him as Lord and Messiah, the only true way to know God and enter God’s Kingdom! Jesus is telling them they know the truth but reject it, hinder it and teach people a different way that doesn’t work and denies the truth! God will judge them for it.

When Jesus left the dinner party the Pharisees and scholars increased their opposition and attacks upon Jesus. They tried all the harder to trap him into saying something wrong like the media with a candidate they oppose or like sharks with blood in the water, hoping he would say something they could use against him. They want to be rid of him because he indicted them before God and he is God and their Messiah! Their prideful hearts could not accept Jesus’ rebuke and the truth about the religious system they had developed. Preserving it and preserving their power and prestige with the people was more important than a real relationship with God through Jesus as Messiah. Thus God would ultimately judge them on the cross, paying for their sins, and in 70 for rejecting the only way to God. He would take their country and their temple from them and send many of them into slavery and exile for rejecting his Son!

Questions by E.M. Zerr For Luke Chapter Eleven

1. State the request the disciples made.

2. What had they heard that prompted this?

3. State the prominent idea in the prayer.

4. Why pray for the kingdom to come?

5. On what condition were sins forgiven?

6. Why did the friend come at midnight?

7. What brought the desired favor?

8. Tell the exhortation Jesus then gave.

9. And what assurance did he give them?

10. Who else is referred to for example ?

11. With what are the fish and egg associated?

12. What did they admit themselves to be?

13. Who is contrasted with them?

14. State the conclusion drawn from this contrast.

15. What miracle was he performing?

16. How had the man been affected?

17. What caused the people to wonder?

18. Tell what some said.

19. Why might this seem possible?

20. What did others seek ?

21. State their purpose.

22. What will happen to a divided kingdom ?

23. And to a divided house ?

24. Who is represented by these illustrations ?

25. What claim of theirs did he ask about?

26. Who were to judge these people ?

27. What would prove the fact of the kingdom ?

28. To what man is Satan again likened ?

29. Who is the “stronger” man?

30. Can one be “neither for nor against”?

31. Why does the unclean spirit return to the man?

32. Compare the first and last state.

33. Who pronounced a blessing on Christ’s mother?

34. What blessing did he prefer?

35. When the crowd gathered what did he call them

36. State the only sign to be given them.

37. To whom was he a sign?

38. What did he do to them ?

39. What miracle made that possible?

40. State a like miracle necessary for Christ.

41. What queen’s example will shame this people?

42. Tell what she had done.

43. What showed the faith of the Ninevites?

44. How should a candle be placed?

45. What light is here illustrated?

46. How should the eye be?

47. If otherwise state the result.

48. Repeat the warning.

49. How much of our body should be lighted?

50. Who invited Jesus to dine with him?

51. What neglect did this man observe?

52. On what tradition was this based?

53. Of what inconsistency did Jesus accuse them?

54. What should they rather do?

55. What small matters were they attentive to do ?

56. But passed over what?

57. Which should they have passed over?

58. Of what pride did he accuse them?

59. How were graves used as illustration?

60. Who protested against his teaching?

61. Did Jesus apologize?

62. How did the lawyers oppress the people ?

63. What prophecy does Jesus quote?

65. This will bring what upon that generation?

66. Why begin with Abel?

67. What key had these lawyers stolen?

68. How had they acted?

69. What urging did the scribes and Pharisees do?

70. State their purpose

Luke Chapter Eleven

By Ralph L. Starling

Jesus was praying in a certain place

His disciples asked Him to teach them to pray.

He began with, “Our Father who is in heaven,

Lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil.”

He gave them a lesson about friendship.

A friend went to another friend for some help.

It was midnight but he asked for some bread.

His friend would not even get out of bed.

Even though a friend, this was an opportunity.

Friendship doesn’t count with importunity.

It should be, “ask and it shall be given.”

This is how the Heavenly Father is willing.

Some said Jesus was using the power of the Devil,

Others, tempting, asked for a sign from heaven.

Jesus said, “A Kingdom divided cannot stand.”

No doubt, God’s Kingdom is now in command.

He continued with a lengthy discussion.

A Pharisee invites Him to eat supper with Him.

As they sit down, Jesus with unwashed hands

His host marvels that He ignored the Law’s command.

Jesus listed the Pharisees’ inconsistencies,

Describing them as being true hypocrits.

One Lawyer protested, “You include us too?”

Jesus answered, “The evidence will show it too!”