The key phrase underlying the conversation between Christ and the Pharisees that we read today is 'and that is all.' This is what makes legalism so attractive: its limited scope. Legalism teaches that one must fulfill in every detail the set of commandments known since the time of Moses—and that is all, nothing more is required; all that remains is...
The key phrase underlying the conversation between Christ and the Pharisees that we read today is 'and that is all.' This is what makes legalism so attractive: its limited scope. Legalism teaches that one must fulfill in every detail the set of commandments known since the time of Moses—and that is all, nothing more is required; all that remains is to sign for receipt of the blessings of paradise. God's participation in all this is neither needed nor envisaged: He is obliged to 'pay out' the salvation owed to those who meet certain conditions whose origin we ourselves have attributed to God. And because of its remarkable convenience, legalism is by no means confined to Judaism: it is a spiritual disease of all humanity. It is not for nothing that the Lord Jesus Christ calls His disciples to beware of this leaven.
When people treat their employer in this way, we call it 'working to rule'; and we all know that when you work to rule, following instructions strictly, without departing from them by a single step or doing anything outside their limits, the work of any institution comes to a complete standstill. Even ordinary working life is incomparably richer than any set of rules. Moreover, experience shows that working to rule places a solid, impassable wall between you and your employer. In essence, legalism is working to rule against God.
By contrast, the key word for the path to which Christ calls us is 'together.' Together with God in the whirl of life, where something new and unforeseen arises at every step. Together with God, when the only firm 'instruction' is always to be with Him. It is no accident that in today's passage the Lord Jesus recalls the prophets whom legalism destroyed: their entire preaching is a call to be with God every minute. The whole essence of the prophetic proclamation is that the only goal of our life is God. We are destined to receive no other reward—but could there be any greater reward than this?
And the prophets, anticipating the Lord Jesus, say that very little is needed to be with God: to share in His love, with which He loves our neighbors. In most cases this goes largely unnoticed by others and therefore brings no honor, no 'chief seats in the synagogues,' as Christ puts it. Nor does God give us His praise, but Himself. Thus the choice between Christ's path and legalism turns out to be a choice between the Incomprehensible One Himself and what we can obtain from Him.
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11:29 It seeketh - The original word implies seeking more, or over and above what one has already.
11:32 They repented at the preaching of Jonah - But it was only for a season. Afterward they relapsed into wickedness, till (after about forty years) they were destroyed. It is remarkable, that in this also the comparison held. God reprieved the Jews for about forty years; but they still advanced in wickedness, till having filled up their measure, they were destroyed with an utter destruction.
11:33 The meaning is, God gives you this Gospel light, that you may repent. Let your eye be singly fixed on him, aim only at pleasing God; and while you do this, your whole soul will be full of wisdom, holiness, and happiness. Mat 5:15; Mar 4:21; Luk 8:16.
11:34 But when thine eye is evil - When thou aimest at any thing else, thou wilt be full of folly, sin, and misery. On the contrary, Mat 6:22.
11:36 If thy whole body be full of light - If thou art filled with holy wisdom, having no part dark, giving way to no sin or folly, then that heavenly principle will, like the clear flame of a lamp in a room that was dark before, shed its light into all thy powers and faculties.
11:39 Now ye Pharisees - Probably many of them were present at the Pharisee's house. Mat 23:25.
11:41 Give what is in them - The vessels which ye clean, in alms, and all things are clean to you. As if he had said, By acts directly contrary to rapine and wickedness, show that your hearts are cleansed, and these outward washings are needless.
11:42 Wo to you - That is, miserable are you. In the same manner is the phrase to be understood throughout the chapter.
11:44 For ye are as graves which appear not - Probably in speaking this our Lord fixed his eyes on the scribes. As graves which appear not, being overgrown with grass, so that men are not aware, till they stumble upon them, and either hurt themselves, or at least are defiled by touching them. On another occasion Christ compared them to whited sepulchres, fair without, but foul within; Mat 23:27.
11:45 One of the lawyers - That is scribes; expounders of the law.
11:48 Whom they killed, ye build their sepulchres - Just like them pretending great reverence for the ancient prophets, while ye destroy those whom God sends to yourselves. Ye therefore bear witness by this deep hypocrisy that ye are of the very same spirit with them.
11:49 The wisdom of God, agreeably to this, hath said - In many places of Scripture, though not in these very words, I will send them prophets - Chiefly under the Old Testament: and apostles - Under the New. Mat 23:34.
11:50 The blood of all shall be required of this generation - That is, shall be visibly and terribly punished upon it.
11:51 And so it was within forty years, in a most astonishing manner, by the dreadful destruction of the temple, the city, and the whole nation. Between the temple and the altar - In the court of the temple.
11:52 Ye have taken away the key of knowledge - Ye have obscured and destroyed the knowledge of the Messiah, which is the key of both the present and the future kingdom of heaven; the kingdom of grace and glory. Ye have not entered in - Into the present kingdom of heaven.