Let’s Give Him a Hand

Read Luke 11:1-54

43. “What sorrow awaits you Pharisees! For you love to sit in the seats of honor in the synagogues and receive respectful greetings as you walk in the marketplaces.
44. Yes, what sorrow awaits you! For you are like hidden graves in a field. People walk over them without knowing the corruption they are stepping on.”
45. “Teacher,” said an expert in religious law, “you have insulted us, too, in what you just said.”
46. “Yes,” said Jesus, “what sorrow also awaits you experts in religious law! For you crush people with unbearable religious demands, and you never lift a finger to ease the burden.
47. What sorrow awaits you! For you build monuments for the prophets your own ancestors killed long ago. . . .
48. They killed the prophets, and you join in their crime by building the monuments!” Luke 11:43-48

But what would people think? For many of us, this question springs to our mind and even our lips more than we would like to admit. Even as we think about making a moral choice, we ponder how popular or unpopular it would be.

Those who are concerned more with the popularity than the morality of their decisions need to think twice. This reading is full of warnings that Jesus aimed primarily at Pharisees and other “experts in religious law.” But they could easily apply to any person today who, like these people, is more concerned with appearances than with justice and righteousness. As you read, consider how important being popular is to you.

Jesus’ lessons are to the point in other areas as well, including prayer and unbelief.

Jesus criticized some of the Pharisees and experts in the Law harshly because they loved praise and attention (Luke 11:43). They went wrong by protecting their outward appearances while ignoring their attitudes and God’s revealed desires.

Public recognition of our “religiosity” does not make us devout. We must guard against taking public admiration or honor from religious folks as proof of our own religious piety. God seeks sincere and unselfish devotion to him; this requires humility. Striving to be in the spotlight works against that. Seek God’s praise and attention, not that of people.