Post by M.R. Hagerty on Feb 12, 2024 14:00:48 GMT -7
Luke 12:1-8
1 Under these circumstances, after so many thousands of people had gathered together that they were stepping on one another, He began saying to His disciples first of all, " Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 2 "But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. 3 "Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed upon the housetops. 4 "I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do. 5 "But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!
6 "Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. 7 "Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows. (Luke 12:1-8)
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Commentary
Luke 12:1
1 Under these circumstances, after so many thousands of people had gathered . . . He began saying . . . " Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
The dinner had turned into something the host and his fellow Pharisees reacted to with spite. They had extended a friendly gesture and Jesus had returned the favor with criticism and derogation. But there is a pervasive quality to truth – it must be told. But it was not received as such. That is the delusion of self-deception – it works out how we are not in the wrong even though we are wrong.
This begins Jesus time of disfavor with the authorities. They had not been warm to Him prior to this and had even tried to trick Him on occasion. But here He has actually spoken out publicly and in a derogatory tone.
We see Jesus now beginning to warn His followers about the Pharisees, which will be seen as divisive, but necessary.
The scene here changes away from the house of the Pharisee to the general condition surrounding Jesus thereafter. The crowds are measured now in hundreds and with such a clamoring to see and hear Him that people were being injured.
There is no indication that anyone was killed or gravely injured, which may help explain why we have no mention that Jesus took note of this but rather begins teaching despite the circumstances. It is also possible that certain of His followers took some measure of control to forestall serious injuries.
The leaven of the Pharisees is an idiomatic phrase that plays on the nature of yeast to spread throughout an entire lump of dough. Two features are visible: the pervasive nature of yeast and that it takes time to be fully effected (the reason the Israelites were instructed to not wait for the normal rising of bread but to eat it unleavened.)
The leaven of the Pharisees was their deception about true righteousness and the imposition of human traditions in place of it; yet all very logically and rationally worked out. They preached the right message but added extra burdens not called for by God (the washing of hands before a meal); and they themselves had worked out ways to avoid certain of those burdens personally (or did only as much as was necessary for show) - “listen to what they teach you, but do not follow their example.”
The analogy of time in leaven is that they had become what they were over a long time, which wooed the unsuspecting inch by inch into acceptance and even justification. They were the religious leaders of the nation and their long-standing reputations seemed impenetrable monoliths of authority.
In the Frank Capra film, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Columbia Pictures, 1939), Smith comes against the corruption with the simplicity of the “founding” principles and moral precepts. And he faces down very well-known faces in Congress, people who were giants.
The Pharisees now being addressed were of such notoriety. Many were staring directly at Jesus as He spoke. You can imagine doing this today in the U.S. Senate, putting forth moral indictments with men like the notable senators and congressmen of today staring back at you but a few feet away. It is a commitment to truth despite the consequences, something we ordinary folks think twice about.
. . hypocrisy
‘hypocrite’ comes from the Greek word for play acting or pretending. There is a capacity in all of us to go through the motions of a rightly-indicated behavior, though our heart is not sincere in it. To some it seems strange that a person desiring to do good, especially Christian good, would rationalize this kind of thing within themselves, but the cases involved almost always have to do with very strong, emotional dysfunctions that are hard to control and often battle against doing what one knows is right. Paul describes this in Romans chapter 7 as the warring between flesh and spirit. There it is in relation to righteousness and sin, and here it is very much the same but differently oriented. Here we actually come to do the right thing for fear of the stigma or embarrassment in neglecting it. So we act out the right behavior to avoid the judgment of others. That is hypocrisy.
It is what the world is eager to point to - the man who claims to be in Christ but slips up and betrays that he is less changed by Christ than expected. That is the foible of hypocrisy – we slip up and fail somewhere along the line in keeping up appearances and the false façade. Then others see the real us, and our witness for Christ is thereby damaged.
In the case of the Pharisees, it was all about show and their public persona, but behind closed doors they were as wicked and deceitful as the unreligious man.