Daily Dose of Hope
August 26, 2025
Scripture – Luke 11:14-54
Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, I come before you today with humility. You are holy, you are perfect, and I am painfully flawed. Forgive me, Lord, for the way I fall short over and over again. Forgive me for not being loving, patient, and kind. Jesus, I want to follow your example. I want to have a clean and pure heart. How I need you. Create in me a pure heart, Lord, and renew a right spirit within me. I love you. Amen.
Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional that complements the New Hope Church Bible reading plan. We are currently doing a deep dive into the Gospels and Acts. Today, we finish up Luke 11.
Today's reading starts with Jesus healing a man possessed by a demon who makes him mute. The healing leads the Pharisees to make some pretty serious misjudgments. They were talking amongst themselves but Jesus knows their thoughts. The Pharisees say that Jesus is healing through the power of Beelzebub, the Prince of Demons. Jesus tells them that Satan won't drive himself out. A divided Kingdom will not stand.
Why their resistance to belief? Why are they so fiercely against Jesus? Most likely because Jesus doesn't look, talk, or behave as they think a Messiah should. He challenges their fundamental beliefs. If we are honest, Jesus challenges some of our fundamental beliefs too. The question is always: Will we choose to believe or will we reject like the Pharisees? Jesus says that whoever is not with him is against him. There is no half-way with Jesus.
One other interesting tidbit about this part of the passage is at the end, when a woman from the crowd calls out, "Blessed is the mother who gave birth to you and nursed you." As a mom, I think this is kind of sweet, but Jesus clearly redirects her. Blessedness doesn't come from biological connectedness. Blessedness, according to Jesus, comes from obedience. Mary was blessed but it was because she was obedient to God, not because her womb was somehow holy.
The people, including the religious leaders, continue to want signs and miracles. Jesus calls them a wicked generation. He knows that more miracles will not make them believe. Afterall, he has already done incredibly ministry with all kinds of miracles of healing and abundance. Jesus has already performed the miracles that the Old Testament spoke about – the blind see, the deaf hear, the oppressed are set free. What kind of sign would it take for them to really believe?
He tells them that the only sign they would get would be the sign of Jonah. Remember that Jonah avoided Ninevah by jumping on a ship and trying to hide from God. He ended up being swallowed by a large fish and he stayed in the belly of that fish for three days before God allowed him to be spit up and see the light of day. Thus, the sign of Jonah, for an unbelieving people, is a reference to Jesus' impending death, followed three days later by resurrection. Will that make them believe?
Next, Jesus talks about the eyes being a lamp which lights the entire body. The eyes are like the doorway to our souls. When Jesus referred to "good" eyes, he meant eyes that not only see well but also perceive well. It is not only what we see, but how we perceive what we see that makes the difference between godliness and ungodliness, between light and darkness. Bad eyes lead to bad perception, but if our eyes are good, our whole person will be illuminated. If we are in a lighted room, we see things clearly. We can move around obstacles and locate whatever we're looking for. But walking in darkness results in stumbling and falling.
Our reading today closes with the woes to the Pharisees. The Pharisees notice that Jesus doesn't do the ceremonial handwashing before the meal and they are surprised. Jesus responds with some pretty harsh words. Basically, who cares if the outside of your cup is clean if the inside is filled with filth? The Pharisees and teachers of the law looked so good on the outside, doing all the right things, but their hearts were filled with greed, arrogance, and evil. Then, Jesus begins a series of woes:
Verse 42 - Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. They loved their religion more than they loved God and neighbor. The Pharisees had a lot of religious busyness, a lot of stuff they did for God. They were so careful to tithe 10% of their herb garden but they treated people poorly, they neglected the poor, they didn't care for their neighbor. They didn't really love God. They loved the idea of God.
Verse 43 - Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces. The most respected teachers and elders sat at the front of the synagogue facing the congregation. In fact, if you visit some old churches, they may have chairs on the platform for the elders, pastor, and other leaders of the church to sit. But is sitting up front wrong? No, it's sitting up front to be seen by others. The issue is their pride. The Pharisees loved receiving special honorary greetings in the marketplace too.
You see, if we are doing what we are doing for the wrong reason, if you are serving where you are serving for the wrong reason, then we are totally missing the point and woe to us.
Verse 44 - "Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which people walk over without knowing it." In Israel tombs were white-washed (they still are) and this wasn't just so they looked pretty. Not at all. This actually was done to prevent people from accidentally stepping on them and contracting ritual uncleanliness. Numbers 19 says if you touch a bone or grave, then you would be unclean for a week until you underwent a cleansing process. Jesus turns this upside down. He says, you guys are totally missing it. In fact, you are missing it so much that when people come in contact with the you, Pharisees, they get infected and unclean. That's how dirty your hearts are. Ouch!
Verse 45 - One of the experts in the law answered him, "Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also." I picture Jesus kind of looking at him and thinking, duh? But this is what he says, "And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them. These experts in the law would study the Old Testament Scriptures and develop guidelines for the people to follow. Many of the rules that these experts would impose on the people were really burdensome. The average poor Jew, someone who maybe worked in the fields, could not possibly carry out the Jewish law the way the experts in the law would say they should.
But the woes keep coming. Verses 47-48, "Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your ancestors who killed them. 48 So you testify that you approve of what your ancestors did; they killed the prophets, and you build their tombs. Jesus is saying to the teachers of the law, "Your ancestors killed the prophets. And you think that if you had been there, you wouldn't have done that. So you build these tombs to the prophets to make up for that. And yet, the prophet of all prophets is right here before you and you have rejected him." And of course, he is referring to himself. This is where we have to be so careful about judgement. We have this tendency to think "Well, if I had been there, I wouldn't have done that. I wouldn't have killed that prophet. I wouldn't have persecuted that person." Friends, be careful. That's kind of like saying, "We would never have called out Crucify Him." But we are weak people. Recognizing the weakness and frailties of our heart is the first step. We have to recognize that we are vulnerable and we are sinful. We need the power and strength of Jesus in us to even have a chance to get our hearts right.
Let's finish the Scripture with verses 52-54, "Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering." When Jesus went outside, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely and to besiege him with questions, 54 waiting to catch him in something he might say.
Jesus tells them, "You aren't helping people understand God's Word. You are making it harder, more convoluted." I think this is a really fair warning to all of us who are teachers and preachers and leaders in the church – are we making the Bible easier to understand or harder? This isn't just in what we say but also in what we do.
One thing I think God has taught me through this passage is that I need to humble myself and make sure my whole heart is right with God. Think about it. The Pharisees thought they were doing it all right. They thought that what they were doing was what made them acceptable to God. They thought they were being righteous gatekeepers. And Jesus said, YOU ARE TOTALLY MISSING THE POINT! Jesus saved his harshest words for the religious people and last time I checked, that's us. Y'all, it is so very easy to be religious, it is a lot harder to be loving. It is so very easy to "do the stuff that appears to make us look like good Christians." It's a lot harder to do the stuff that actually makes us good Christians, to really, really love God and to really, really love others and to acknowledge that those two things can't be separated.
Jesus could care less about the outside. He doesn't care about steeples. He doesn't care about stain-glass windows. He doesn't care about the façade we present to the world. He doesn't care if I wear a nice dress and heels. None of that matters to him. He cares about our hearts. He can see our hearts. He knows us through and through. He knows what we value. He knows what we think about others. He knows. He doesn't just see the outside of us. He sees us. The Pharisees believed the lie that God sees as man sees. They were wrong. God sees with ex-ray vision the true nature of our soul.
And that sends me to the foot of the cross. More tomorrow.
Blessings,
Pastor Vicki
