NOTES for Luk 11:37-54

The words of rebuke that the Lord addresses to the scribes, Pharisees and experts in the Law apply to a great extent to the religious psychology of fallen humanity in general. They are by no means relevant only to Palestine at the beginning of the first century. In the few words of today’s Gospel passage, the Lord points to the central things that each of us knows, to one degree or another, from personal experience. There is the desire for honour and approval from those around us, which is a distortion of the desire to be righteous before God. There is the desire to regulate the whole of life, a distortion of obedience to the Creator’s will that arises when you do not hear His voice. There is resentment at rebuke, which arises when you place the entire value of your existence in your ascetic achievements rather than in Christ’s love.

Ultimately, all these rather unpleasant things arise because it is frightening to rely on God’s judgement and love, with which Christ begins His rebuke. Apparently, the human heart was created with a need for support, and our personhood falls apart when it cannot find it. But you can seek this support in God’s judgement and love, or in any other things accessible to your sensory experience. Yet the most important thing in Christ’s words is something else: what matters most is that He is not indifferent to the fate of the people He rebukes, and deep sorrow can be heard in His words. For us, whom He rebukes, this means that we can hope for His help in being healed, in coming to stand before Him in truth.