The Inside of the Cup and the Key in the Lock Text: Luke 11:37-54
Introduction: Dinner with the Damned
The Lord Jesus was not a milquetoast Messiah. He was not the first-century equivalent of a gentle, soft-spoken guidance counselor. He was the incarnate Word, which is sharper than any two-edged sword, and He wielded that sword with divine precision. We see this nowhere more clearly than in His confrontations with the religious establishment of His day. Our modern evangelical sensibilities are often shocked by these encounters. We want a Jesus who is perpetually nice, but the Jesus of the Gospels was perpetually true, and truth is often profoundly inconvenient to religious hypocrites.
This passage in Luke is a dinner invitation that turns into a divine indictment. Jesus is invited to a Pharisee's house, not for fellowship, but for inspection. And when the host silently judges Jesus for a breach of their man-made traditions, the Lord does not politely change the subject. He detonates a truth bomb right at the dinner table. He unleashes a series of six woes, first upon the Pharisees and then upon their legal advisors, the scholars of the Law. These are not expressions of petty irritation; they are declarations of covenantal judgment. A "woe" is the opposite of a "blessing." It is a pronouncement of impending sorrow and doom upon those who have set themselves against God while pretending to be His most zealous servants.
We must understand that this is not ancient history for us to observe from a safe distance. The spirit of Pharisaism is a perennial temptation for God's people. It is the temptation to substitute external conformity for internal reality, to polish the outside of the cup while the inside is crawling with filth. It is the temptation to be more concerned with what men think of our piety than with what God knows of our hearts. And the spirit of the lawyers is the temptation to turn the glorious liberty of the gospel into a soul-crushing system of rules that we ourselves have no intention of keeping. These woes are therefore a severe mercy to us. They are a divine diagnostic, forcing us to examine ourselves, lest we also be found to be whitewashed tombs, beautiful on the outside, but full of death within.
The Text
Now when He had spoken, a Pharisee asked Him to have a meal with him. And He went in and reclined at the table. But when the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that He had not first ceremonially washed before the meal. But the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness. You foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside also? But give that which is within as charity, and then all things are clean for you. But woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of God, but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you! For you are like concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it.” Now one of the scholars of the Law answered and said to Him, “Teacher, when You say these things, You insult us too.” But He said, “Woe to you scholars of the Law as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, but your fathers killed them. So you are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers; because it was they who killed them, and you build their tombs. For this reason also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute, so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.’ Woe to you, scholars of the Law! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering.” And when He left there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and to question Him closely on many subjects, plotting to catch Him in something He might say.
(Luke 11:37-54 LSB)
The Dirty Hands and the Filthy Heart (vv. 37-41)
The conflict begins with a silent judgment and a stunning rebuke.
"But when the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that He had not first ceremonially washed before the meal. But the Lord said to him, 'Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness.'" (Luke 11:38-39 LSB)
The Pharisee is not concerned about hygiene; he is concerned about ritual purity. The tradition of the elders had elevated this practice to a central place, making it a badge of righteousness. Jesus intentionally violates this man-made rule to expose a deeper spiritual disease. The Pharisee is scandalized by Jesus's unwashed hands, but Jesus is scandalized by the Pharisee's unwashed heart.
The Lord's response is a direct assault on all forms of externalism. Religion, for the Pharisee, is about managing appearances. It is about making sure the cup looks good on the shelf. But God is not interested in clean cups; He is interested in clean hearts. Jesus says their insides are full of "robbery and wickedness." This is not mild language. Robbery here is not just about taking money; it's about rapacious greed, a grasping desire for more. Their piety was a performance, a mask to conceal a heart that was devouring widows' houses while making long prayers.
Jesus calls them "foolish ones." Why? Because they have forgotten the Creator/creature distinction in its most basic application. "Did not He who made the outside make the inside also?" (v. 40). God is the God of the whole man. He is not fooled by a clean exterior. He sees the heart, and if the heart is not right, then the whole man is unclean, no matter how many rituals you perform. This is the fundamental error of all legalism. It assumes that if we can just get the externals right, God will be pleased. But God starts on the inside.
And what is the solution? Not another ritual. "But give that which is within as charity, and then all things are clean for you" (v. 41). The remedy for a heart full of greed is a heart that gives. True righteousness flows from the inside out. A transformed heart, a heart of love and generosity, is what purifies the whole life. This is not justification by alms; it is the evidence of a justified life. When the heart is cleansed by grace, the hands will be open in charity.
The First Three Woes: Tithing, Titles, and Tombs (vv. 42-44)
Jesus now pronounces His woes. The first woe addresses their distorted priorities.
"But woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of God, but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others." (Luke 11:42 LSB)
Notice that Jesus does not condemn their meticulous tithing. He says, "these are the things you should have done." Tithing is right and good. The problem was not their attention to detail, but their grotesque lack of proportion. They would count out the tiny leaves of their garden herbs to give a tenth to God, but they would "disregard justice and the love of God." They majored on the minors and minored on the majors. They strained out a gnat and swallowed a camel. Their religion was a system of careful bookkeeping on the small things to distract from their utter bankruptcy on the weighty matters. True religion is not a checklist of duties; it is a heart that loves God and therefore seeks justice for the oppressed.
The second woe targets their love of public acclaim.
"Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the marketplaces." (Luke 11:43 LSB)
Their piety was for public consumption. They loved the honor that came from men. The "best seat" was on the platform, facing the congregation, where everyone could see how holy they were. They wanted to be seen, to be greeted as "Rabbi," to have their spiritual status affirmed by the crowd. But the man who is performing for the crowd has already received his reward in full. The applause of men is a cheap substitute for the "well done" of the Father.
The third woe is the most chilling.
"Woe to you! For you are like concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it." (Luke 11:44 LSB)
Under the Old Covenant, contact with a dead body rendered a person ceremonially unclean. Tombs were often whitewashed so people could see them and avoid them. But Jesus says the Pharisees are unmarked graves. They look like any other patch of ground, but they are full of death. And because they are concealed, they are doubly dangerous. People come to them seeking spiritual life, but because the Pharisees are themselves spiritually dead, they defile everyone who comes into contact with them. They are spiritual Typhoid Marys, spreading corruption and death wherever they go, all under the guise of religious leadership.
The Lawyers' Lament and the Lord's Rebuke (vv. 45-51)
At this point, one of the lawyers, the theological experts, feels the heat and objects.
"Teacher, when You say these things, You insult us too." (Luke 11:45 LSB)
He was right. The truth had found its mark. But notice his response. It is not, "Teacher, are we guilty of this?" It is, "You are insulting us." He is concerned with his reputation, not his soul. And so Jesus turns the full force of His prophetic woe upon him and his colleagues.
"Woe to you scholars of the Law as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers" (v. 46). The sin of the lawyers was to create a religion of oppressive complexity. They took the law of God and festooned it with thousands of their own regulations, creating a system that was impossible to keep. And they did this not to promote holiness, but to consolidate their own power as the indispensable interpreters. They were the gatekeepers. But they themselves had no intention of carrying this weight. They were experts at telling other people what to do.
The next woe reveals a deep and perverse hypocrisy.
"Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, but your fathers killed them. So you are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers..." (Luke 11:47-48 LSB)
This is a masterstroke of psychological and spiritual exposure. Men have a perverse desire to honor dead men whom they would find utterly intolerable if they were alive. The lawyers and Pharisees would piously build monuments to Isaiah and Jeremiah, saying, "If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would never have treated the prophets that way." And in saying this, they were condemning themselves. Why? Because Jesus, the greatest of all prophets, was standing right in front of them, and they were plotting to kill Him. The same spirit of rebellion that killed the prophets of old was alive and well in the hearts of the tomb-builders. Building a tomb for a dead prophet is a cheap way to feel righteous while refusing to heed the message of the living prophet. It is to honor the man's memory while rejecting his message.
And this leads to the terrifying climax of this section. Jesus declares that the cumulative guilt for all the righteous blood shed throughout the Old Covenant era will fall on their generation. "From the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah... it shall be charged against this generation" (vv. 50-51). Abel was the first martyr, and Zechariah, killed between the altar and the temple, was the last martyr in the Hebrew canon of Scripture. This generation, by filling up the measure of their fathers' sins in the crucifixion of the Messiah, would bring the whole bloody history to its climax and pull the judgment of God down upon their own heads. And this is exactly what happened in A.D. 70, when the wrath of God fell upon Jerusalem.
The Stolen Key and the Slammed Door (v. 52-54)
The final woe against the lawyers is devastating.
"Woe to you, scholars of the Law! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering." (Luke 11:52 LSB)
What is this "key of knowledge?" The key of knowledge is the true way to interpret the Scriptures. It is the hermeneutical key that unlocks the meaning of the Old Testament, revealing that the entire story points to Jesus Christ. The lawyers had been entrusted with this key. Their job was to use the Scriptures to show the people the way to the Messiah. But instead, they used their position to hide the key. They buried the plain meaning of the text under a mountain of their traditions. Their theological systems were not a doorway into the kingdom, but a wall. They did not enter into a true knowledge of God through Christ themselves, and worse, they stood at the door and blocked the way for others who were trying to get in. This is the ultimate sin of a corrupt spiritual leadership: to not only be blind yourself, but to be a blind guide to others.
The response of these men to this blistering sermon is not repentance, but rage. "The scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and to question Him closely on many subjects, plotting to catch Him in something He might say" (vv. 53-54). The unregenerate heart, when confronted with the blinding light of God's truth, has only two options: fall on its face in repentance, or lash out in fury. They chose the latter. Their hostility proves that every word Jesus spoke about them was true. They could not refute His arguments, so they sought to trap Him in His words. This is what happens when truth is spoken to men who love their sin more than their souls. They do not give up their sin; they seek to destroy the one who exposed it.
Conclusion: The Only Cleansing
This passage is a bucket of ice water for any of us who are tempted to be comfortable in our religion. It forces us to ask the hard questions. Is my Christianity about polishing the outside of the cup, or is it about the cleansing of the heart? Am I more concerned with the fine points of my theology than I am with justice and the love of God? Do I perform my religious duties for the applause of men? Am I a source of life to those around me, or am I an unmarked grave, spreading spiritual death?
The only hope for Pharisees like them, and for Pharisees like us, is to stop trying to clean the cup and to bring the whole filthy mess to the cross. The only answer to the hypocrisy of building tombs for dead prophets is to fall down and worship the living Prophet, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the key of knowledge they had thrown away. He is the door they had blocked.
The good news is that the blood of this final prophet, Jesus, does not cry out for vengeance like the blood of Abel. It cries out for mercy. His blood is the only thing that can cleanse the inside of the cup. It is the only thing that can take a heart full of robbery and wickedness and make it a heart full of love and charity. It is the only thing that can take a concealed tomb and turn it into a garden where new life grows. Let us therefore abandon all our self-righteous projects and flee to Him. For only in Him, and by His grace alone, can any of us truly be made clean.