Christian Art | Jesus Reproaches The Scribes And The Pharisees
Luke 11: 37-41 – Week 28 Ordinary Time, Tuesday (King James Audio Bible KJV, Spoken Word)
37 ¶ And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him: and he went in, and sat down to meat.
38 And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed before dinner.
39 And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness.
40 Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also?
41 But rather give alms of such things as ye have; and, behold, all things are clean unto you.
The letter kills, the spirit gives life. So writes Paul in his Second Letter To The Corinthians. Much of the opposition to Jesus, as depicted in the Gospels, is from a legalistic standpoint, in which the scribes and Pharisees challenge Jesus concerning the ways in with he and his disciples do not seem to adhere to the letter of the Old Law.
By the time of the composition of the Gospel of Luke – the date is uncertain but potentially the 80s – Jerusalem has fallen to Rome and the Sadducees are no more. It is therefore the Pharisees who are depicted as bearing the brunt of Jesus’ criticisms, especially as, following the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, the widespread flourishing of Christian communities, living largely in Hellenic contexts, became defined oppositionally to the Jewish culture which emerged to reinvent itself, now in the absence of Temple worship.
The Pharisees observe the Law strictly, and dedicate much time each day to the study of the Law. Here we discover the roots of Jewish Orthodoxy. Jesus, however, has come to fulfil and to complete the Law.
In these Gospel verses, the particular issue is concerning ritual cleansing. There were many prescriptions for the cleansing of the person and of pots and vessels, which must be scrupulously observed, according to the Pharisees. Jesus’ host marvels, therefore, when Jesus does not follow the prescriptions of the Law. In a remarkable reversal of thought and purpose, away from the conversation or dialogue of hospitality, Jesus is stinging in his rebuke to his host, accusing him of hypocrisy.
This is a very heightened manner of storytelling, focussing our attention on Jesus’ message. We are taught in these verses to ensure that our soul is clean, that our thoughts are clean, that our heart is clean, rather than to lavish excess attention on our external appearance, while inside we are fallen in sin. Jesus comes to cleanse us through and through.
Concluding Prayer | Love Revealed By Jesus Christ
Increase in us, Lord, your gift of faith,
so that the praise we offer you
may ever yield its fruit from heaven.
We make our prayer through our Lord.
King James Audio Bible | Endnotes
How Shall I Be Clean?
In Luke 11:37-41, we find a conversation between Jesus and a Pharisee who invited him to dine with him. As they sat down to eat, the Pharisee was surprised that Jesus did not wash before the meal, as was the custom of the Jews. In response, Jesus rebuked him, saying that the Pharisees were so concerned with outward cleanliness but neglected inner purity.
This passage raises an important question: How shall we be clean? Is it merely a matter of following external rituals and traditions, or is there something more profound at work? To explore this question, we can turn to the teachings of the Bible and the wisdom of religious authorities throughout history.
Firstly, it is important to note that the Bible frequently speaks of cleanliness and purity in a spiritual sense. For example, in Psalm 51:10, a penitential psalm, King David prayed: ‘Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.’ Here, David recognizes that true purity comes from within, from a heart that is right with God.
Similarly, in Isaiah 1:16-17, God says: ‘Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.’ Here, God calls his people to repent of their sins and turn towards righteousness.
Furthermore, the New Testament repeatedly emphasizes the importance of inner purity. In Matthew 5:8, Jesus says: ‘Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.’ In 1 Peter 1:22, the apostle writes: ‘Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.’
So, we see that according to the Bible, true cleanliness and purity are matters of the heart and soul, not merely external actions. However, this does not mean that external actions are unimportant. On the contrary, as Jesus says in Matthew 23:26: ‘Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.’ In other words, external cleanliness is a reflection of internal purity.
Religious authorities throughout history have recognized the importance of both internal and external cleanliness. For example, in the Catholic Church, the sacrament of confession is a powerful tool for purifying the soul. As the Catechism Of The Catholic Church states: ‘By the grace of the Holy Spirit, we receive forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God and the Church.’ (CCC 1489) Through the confession of sins and the receiving of absolution, Christians are able to restore their internal purity and move towards external cleanliness as well.
Similarly, in Protestant Christianity, baptism is seen as a symbol of both internal and external cleansing. As the apostle Paul writes in Romans 6:3-4: ‘Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.’ Through baptism, Christians are symbolically washed clean of their sins and enter into new life in Christ.
Christian Art | Boy At Prayer With Jesus Office Of Readings | Eastertide Week 3, Friday | A Reading From The Sermons Of Saint Ephraem | Jesus Christ’s Cross | Salvation Of The Human Race ‘Christ’s cross, the salvation of the human race.’ Death Swallowed By Life | Triumph Through Paradox Saint Ephraem’s homily on the Cross is shaped by the paradox at the heart of the Paschal mystery: that death is undone by death. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, takes on flesh so that he might enter into death, not as a victim, but as a conqueror. Ephraem does not reason this out philosophically, nor does he dwell on emotional pathos. Instead, he draws out the inner structure of salvation as something enacted by God in the flesh, and received by us in faith. Christ’s Body As The Instrument Of Victory Ephraem insists that death could only be defeated from within. Jesus Christ assumes a mortal body so that he may be subject to death. This is not a concession but a strategy. The Incarnation is already an act of warfare—a descent, a confrontation. Death can only touch the human. So the divine Word becomes human in order that death might take him. But in taking him, death overreaches. It consumes the flesh but encounters the divine life within it. The imagery is rich, but the argument is precise: the very body that death uses to kill Christ becomes the weapon Christ uses to destroy death. ‘Death slew him by means of the body which he had assumed,’ Ephraem says, ‘but that same body proved to be the weapon with which he conquered death.’ This is Chalcedonian Christology preached with Paschal faith. It holds together the full humanity and full divinity of Christ in the single action of salvation. The Descent And The Harrowing Of Hell Ephraem’s reflection is also an early and vivid witness to the doctrine of the Harrowing of Hell. Jesus Christ enters death not to remain there, but to liberate those held within it. He breaks into the ‘fortress’ of death and ‘scatters its treasure’. He descends to summon the dead. This is not mere metaphor: for Ephraem, Christ’s real descent to the dead is a necessary part of our redemption. The Resurrection begins not simply with Christ leaving the tomb, but with his descent into the place of death to lead others out with him. Eve And Mary | The Reversal Of History A patristic hallmark appears here as well: the Eve–Mary typology. Eve, the ‘mother of the living’, becomes through her disobedience the cause of death; Mary, in whose womb Christ takes flesh, becomes the bearer of Life itself. This is not a peripheral contrast. It is essential to Ephraem’s sense of how God saves: not by abandoning history, but by entering it and reversing its wounds. The damage is undone from within. The vine is replanted. The same human race that fell is the one restored. The Cross As The Tree Of Life Ephraem develops the image of the Cross as the Tree of Life. Just as the Fall came through a tree, so does redemption. But unlike the tree in Eden, which brought death when touched unlawfully, the Cross is the tree that brings life when embraced in faith. Here we are reminded that for Ephraem and the Fathers, salvation is not a new system imposed from without. It is the healing of creation from within its own history, its own wounds. God does not cast away what is broken; he enters it, redeems it, and makes it the means of grace. Resurrection And Eucharistic Seed Toward the end of the homily, Ephraem turns to the image of sowing: Christ’s body, buried in the earth, rises as the first fruits of a new humanity. He compares the dead body of Christ to a grain sown in the ground, echoing John 12:24. What is buried in apparent defeat becomes the beginning of a harvest. The Resurrection is not simply Christ’s triumph; it is the beginning of the general resurrection, and of the Church itself. What is sown in weakness is raised in power. The Church is the field in which this seed now grows. Response And Imitation The homily ends not with an argument, but with a summons. If Christ has offered his cross for the enrichment of all, then the proper response is to offer ourselves—’the great and all-embracing sacrifice of our love’. Doctrine leads to worship. Soteriology leads to doxology. In the liturgical life of the Church, we do not merely remember these mysteries; we enter them. We stand beneath the Cross and follow the One who walked into death to bring us out. A Reading From The Sermons Of Saint Ephraem | Jesus Christ’s Cross | Salvation Of The Human Race Death trampled our Lord underfoot, but he in his turn treated death as a highroad for his own feet. He submitted to it, enduring it willingly, because by this means he would be able to destroy death in spite of itself. Death had its own way when our Lord went out from Jerusalem carrying his cross; but when by a loud cry from that cross he summoned the dead from the underworld, death was powerless to prevent it. Death slew him by means of the body which he had assumed, but that same body proved to be the weapon with which he conquered death. Concealed beneath the cloak of his manhood, his godhead engaged death in combat; but in slaying our Lord, death itself was slain. It was able to kill natural human life, but was itself killed by the life that is above the nature of man. Death could not devour our Lord unless he possessed a body, neither could hell swallow him up unless he bore our flesh; and so he came in search of a chariot in which to ride to the underworld. This chariot was the body which he received from the […]
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