The Gospel of Luke
Chapter 11
As Jesus continued to teach, attitudes toward Him continued to harden. Those who were interested in His teachings wanted to hear more; those who were exasperated by Him became more hostile. This chapter starts with a teaching on prayer. Then, a notable miracle brought a harsh reaction from some of the leaders. At the end of the chapter, the attitudes of the leaders were exposed by the Lord, with grief as the natural consequence.
Jesus teaches about prayer—Luke 11:1-13
Luke begins this section with another vague time statement—this happened “one day.” John the Baptist had taught his followers to pray, and Jesus’ disciples wanted to enjoy something like His prayer life. They wanted a close relationship to God like the relationship Jesus showed, so they asked Him for instruction.
He responded with a typical pattern for prayer, and urged them to pray in this manner (He was not commanding these exact words to be recited). The prayer is addressed to the Father, the Holy and Majestic One whose very name signifies His nature. The dominant request is for the coming of the kingdom. While that entrance was “future” when Jesus spoke these words and is “present” in our lifetimes (after the resurrection), there is still a sense in which we can pray for the kingdom to be established in every heart. The pattern for prayer continued with a plea for God to continue to provide our daily needs and to forgive us since we are forgiving people (and let us never be found to be liars about that!). The last petition in the pattern is for God to protect us from temptation. It is not contemplated that God would ever draw us into temptation; this is a request to keep us safe. Those who seriously want to be forgiven also want never to be the kind of people who sin. Consequently, they will plead with God to help them in their weakness.
Jesus continued His teaching about prayer with a story that might be exaggerated, but not impossible. A man has had travelers arrive at his home. Apparently they traveled at night to avoid the sun and when they arrived, the daily food prepared had been consumed. The man quickly went to a friend’s house to ask for a small amount of bread, but the friend refused on the grounds of great inconvenience. The first man continued to implore, though, and Jesus declared that because of the man’s shameless and outrageous persistence, the friend would finally get up and provide the food. He continued by telling them that God, in contrast, wants to do good to His children. So, it only makes sense to be persistent with God, bold and shameless. Our nature is contaminated with evil, yet we have the impulse to do good to our children; God’s nature is purely good, so His impulse toward His children is to do an astonishing level of goodness—even to the point of giving Himself!
Challenges to Jesus and His response—Luke 11:14-36
This section opens with a miracle by Jesus: the casting out of a demon. When the crowd realized what had happened, they were amazed by His power. Some, though, put it all down to demonic power. They seemed to assume that He and the chief demon, Beelzebub, conspired to deceive others into following Him. [The name “Beelzebub” was derived from the Hebrew words for “lord of flies.”] Others challenged Jesus to provide the necessary confirming sign indicating that He was a prophet sent from God. Jesus summarily dealt with both challenges and exposed the foolishness of the critics arrayed against Him here.
It would be ridiculous and suicidal for the prince of demons to give up his conquests in a vague hope of acquiring more. It is obvious that disunity results in destruction. So if Satan fractured his forces, his cause is hopeless. At the same time, Jesus pointed out that the Jewish exorcists also drove out demons, so their authority could only be the same as His. However, if Jesus drove out demons by the power of God, then clearly the kingdom of God has indeed begun to appear among them! It is not words or religious rituals that destroys evil, but the power of the kingdom of God. The Jewish rulers were not conquering evil in their world with all their rituals and declarations—yet Jesus was tearing down the devil’s gains in every direction.
Jesus went on to explain that such power could only be displayed if the “strong man” were overpowered. He definitely meant that He was more powerful than the devil. And this is not a subject on which people can be neutral. Either we must accept Jesus as the Son of God or we set ourselves in opposition to Him. The imagery of “gathering” and “scattering” is not that of a harvest, but the imagery of a flock—either we help, support and encourage His people, or we necessarily attack, harass and disperse them.
Yet it is not enough merely to try to eradicate evil from within us. We must actively replace the evil within us with goodness. Otherwise, the corruption will return in force and the latter condition of the man will be much worse. For one thing, he will know that there was a time when he was pure! We must make an active effort to replace the unholiness within us with the Holy Spirit of God. When Jesus concluded this rebuttal to the challenges that had been leveled at Him, a woman in the crowd called out her approval, using a local expression that indicated He was a good boy! Jesus took up the saying and altered it to improve it, indicating that it was more important to hear the word of God and obey it!
When He turned His attention to the demand for a miraculous sign, He announced that the only miraculous sign would be the sign of Jonah, referring to His resurrection. The wicked Ninevites repented under Jonah’s preaching (even though he did no miracles!); the wicked Israelites rejected Jesus and His words even though He did miracles! The Queen of Sheba went to a great deal of trouble to hear the wisdom of Solomon; these people need no inconvenience to hear greater wisdom than Solomon’s—yet they won’t listen! The discussion about the eye as the lamp of the body centers on the idea of being able to tell good from bad. If a person thinks he’s doing right when he’s actually doing wrong, he’s in a terrible shape. However, if your “good” really is good, then you really are good!
The attitudes of leaders exposed—Luke 11:37-54
The Pharisee invited Jesus to eat lunch at his house, likely to hear more of His teachings. However, he was scandalized when Jesus failed to ritually wash before eating! In response, Jesus noted that it was just too bad for the Pharisees, because they were all interested in outward cleanliness, but not concerned about the corruption within themselves. If they were to get their hearts right, they would be truly clean! Instead, they focused on details and were unclean without realizing it, as if a man walked across an unmarked grave.
The experts in the law understood this as an attack upon them, too—and likely many of these were Pharisees as well. Jesus turned on them and pointed out that they had reduced the Law to impossible rules that doomed the common people while they exploited the loopholes to their own advantage. They were as guilty as their forefathers who murdered the prophets (Abel was in Genesis; Zechariah’s death is recorded in 2 Chronicles 24:21, the last book in the Jewish order of Scriptures). The lawyer’s betrayed their only reason for existence—to teach the truth. And in response, the elites were furious with Jesus and sought to entrap Him. Far from justifying them, this attitude confirms that Jesus was right and true in every way.