Building Graves

In Luke 11:37-52, we find Jesus having been invited to dine with Pharisees and lawyers. Sort of a business luncheon. In the end, they were scheming to trap Jesus in his words, but I get the sense that in the beginning, the meal was no more than a polite courtesy. This kind of thing: 'Hey Jesus, you seem well received by the people; come and rub elbows with the big boys.'

Now, we are well accustomed to the bad blood between Jesus and the church authorities, but on this particular occasion, Jesus really laid into them. It was not just Jesus and the Pharisee who invited him, nor do I get the sense of a simple meal at home. There was more than one Pharisee and there was more than one lawyer in attendance. All the authority figures were there. It was practically a convention.

We may view the incident as a contest of wills – God's way versus man's way. And Jesus told them all they were doing in opposition to the will of God. In a sense, we are as guilty as the men Jesus spoke to. We embrace the customs of men, viewing them as common and ordinary. That's just how we do things; that's how we roll.

For anyone who claims a real connection with their God, not doing things the way their God wants them done is a no-no. “And many such things ye do,” said Jesus in Mark 7:13. Thus we nullify the word of God by our traditions. If we want to be right with God, we do not want to be those people. We may avoid sharing the guilt of those people by getting on the same page with God, by thinking and acting just the opposite of those Pharisees and lawyers who placed their authority above the authority of God.

What did they do that was against God? Mom always taught me to wash my hands before I eat. At work, as a cook, I am expected to have clean hands and wear sterile gloves when handling food. Makes perfect sense as bacteria are passed from dirty hands. But, I don't see those Pharisees as walking around touching things that were dirty. The Jewish rule was two-fold, don't touch things that are unclean, for one and for two, wash your hands anyway.

For the Pharisees, hand washing was a ritual matter. It was a practice meant to associate them with their God. Even today, we have a popular saying that goes, 'cleanliness is next to Godliness'. Jesus told them that the way of God was completely the reverse. First, make yourself clean in your heart and mind, then every other cleanliness will follow. The “inward part” of a human being, verse 39, can harbor a lot of awful uncleanness.

Synonyms for the word awful include disgusting, horrible, terrible, dreadful, ghastly, nasty, vile, foul, revolting, repulsive, repugnant, odious, sickening, nauseating and too much more. In fact, Jesus described them as unmarked graves that men walk across unawares. If men knew the dead were beneath their feet, they wouldn't stand on them and be made foul. Normal people, even without religious restrictions, simply don't like to touch what they consider nasty. It's like the Jew or Muslim that discovers someone secretly slipped pork into their mutton. There is a certain retroactive gag reflex.

Jesus laid it all out for them – every advantage they reserved for themselves was at the expense of someone else – whether cajoled or robbed or bullied into compliance. Every good thing withheld belied a willfully mean and stingy spirit. Every item given was a cheap and showy veneer meant to hide a multitude of weightier omissions.

Now, 'whoa!', said the lawyers, 'we all know that the Pharisees are a bunch of misfits, but you're slamming us as well.' Jesus told the lawyers (who were like teachers or philosophers of religion) that they were just as guilty – and Jesus had enough 'woes' to go around. Lawyers were the go-to people for facts and figures regarding how the law of God should be defined. They were like exalted scribes who got to pal around with the big boys.

Someone who gets to say what's what is always at high risk when in close proximity to power. Basically, this type is found among many races and tiers of society – both religious and non-religious. They try to limit those around them, impeding spiritual progress. Those things which lawyers push off on the common man are burdensome and grievous, yet lawyers are as guilty as the Pharisees for reserving a place of advantage for themselves at the expense of those they place beneath them.

Many people of our own day and age have the same spirit as a Pharisee or a lawyer. They share the same guilt for displacing God and doing their own thing, bringing those around them into subservience to a will that is theirs and theirs alone. In verse 47, Jesus accused the lawyers of building the graves of their prophets, as if a chess move destined for a heavy-handed checkmate. The prophets were their claim to fame, but it was their own fathers, as the lawyers of a former age, who killed them. Their words and actions, in effect, were self-damning.

Fast forward to our day and age where Catholics claim this saint or that – but who was it that killed Peter or Paul but the same central authority mindset seeking self-promotion and absolute advantage? Personally, I am put off by anyone who makes such a lofty claim. The saint of one man or the prophet of another matters not in the long run. The things that damn us are our own words and deeds. This is true because our own words and deeds are set against the will of God.

The Jew, the Christian, the Muslim and atheist are all the same. We have a penchant to war against and subjugate anyone unfortunate enough to stumble across our shiny new super highway. To anyone with the strength of heart to open his eyes, the picture ceases to be the super highway and proves itself to be just another variation of the small dirt path.

There is no standard among us; we know only our own willful sense of self. It's 'me, me, me, and damn the contrary opinion'. One and only one standard may be found in the will of God. This is not open to the viewpoint of any one religion, and it is certainly not meant to be interpreted as the will of God apart from man. It is the will of such a spirit that would take on our very face to explain those things we need to know. It is the will of such a God who would send mankind a savior – not a savior who derides or destroys, but one who at great personal risk demonstrates the greater power of love and redemption.