Lessons to Lawyers and Pharisees

He taught them lessons:

Concerning Jesus and Jerusalem

Lk 13:31 The Pharisees said to Jesus, “Get thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill thee”.  This was an idle threat because Herod wan’t going to kill Jesus, and when he had the opportunity he didn’t.  Herod wanted to see him, not kill him, Lk 9:9; 23:8.  They just wanted him out of there.  Perhaps they thought Jesus would believe them because Herod had killed John.  He did that because of pressure from the oath to Herodias’s daughter.

Lk 13:32 Jesus replied, “Go ye, and tell that fox…”.  Foxes are clever, sly, and shrewd.  Kings are often compared to beasts, like a lion, bear, or leopard.  You study the beast and you understand the king.

Jesus said, “I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected”.  What he was doing infuriated the Pharisees.  He was perfected through his suffering, Heb 2:10; 5:8-9.  On the third day after his death, by crucifixion, Jesus rose from the dead.  In other words, death wouldn’t get Jesus off their hands.  He is alive and well today.

Lk 13:33 Jesus continued with, “Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem”.  Jesus was on his way there, Lk 13:22.  The place of his death, like other prophets, is in Jerusalem, Matt 23:34-39.

Lk 13:34 Speaking to Jerusalem, Jesus said, “how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not”!  This verse clearly shows you that “men” choose do God’s will or to not do his will.  Calvinism is wrong.  They willfully rejected to be gathered together when God would often have gathered them.  Jesus gave himself a ransom for all, 1 Tim 2:6.  Whosever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, Rom 10:13.

Lk 13:35 Jesus said, “your house is left unto you desolate”.  Titus destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD.  And Jerusalem will be desolate again in Zech 14.  Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem was a foreshadowing of his return when he will sit on the throne of David and rule, Ps 118:26, Lk 19:38.  The context of this prophecy is his death, v.33.  They refused him the first time.  Next time they will receive him.  Matt 5:35, Jerusalem is the city of the great King.

Concerning healing on the Sabbath

Lk 14:1-6 Dropsy is edema, an abnormal infiltration and excess accumulation of serous fluid in connective tissue or a serous cavity. The typical response of the lawyers and Pharisees, when they didn’t want to commit, was to hold their peace.  Yet, after Jesus performed the miracle and stated that they pull an ass or ox out of a pit on the sabbath, they couldn’t answer him, v.6. They were hypocrites in their application of law.

Concerning choosing chief rooms

Lk 14:7-11 The principle of the parable is verse 11.  “Whosever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted”.  The parable is a hypothetical situation.  This is found in Prov 25:6-7.  Matt 23:6 choosing uppermost rooms and chief seats is typical of the Pharisees.

Matt 23:11-12, the lesson to his disciples is that they are to be servants.  1 Pet 5:6 shows that the humble are to be exalted in due time.  Jesus took “the lower seat”, as an example to his disciples, and now he has the name above all names, Matt 20:26-28, Phil 2:9-11.  The disciples took “the lower seats” to serve and Jesus promised that they would sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel, Matt 19:27-28.

We must humble ourselves and serve.  Minister, serve, and stay down.  The time to be exalted has not yet come.  This is a valuable lesson to lawyers and Pharisees.

Concerning hosting a feast

Lk 14:12-14 Don’t invite friends, brethren, kinsmen, and rich neighbors to your dinner or supper.  Invite the ones who can’t recompense you.  Invite the poor, maimed, lame, and blind.  You’ll be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.  Like Prov 19:17.

Conclusion: From these lessons to lawyers and Pharisees, we learn that Jesus will ride into Jerusalem at his second coming and they will say, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord”.  This prophecy will be fulfilled as sure as the sun shall rise.

Jesus made the sabbath; he can do whatever he pleases on that day.  Remain humble and serve until Jesus comes or we go to him.  And don’t look to be recompensed by those you serve now.  Wait for God to recompense you when Jesus judges you.  You’ll get to keep that reward for eternity.

To study the previous lesson, click on Mustard Seed, Leaven, and the Strait Gate. To study the next lesson, click on A Great Supper.