Luke 11 Study Notes

11:29-32 There are two possible meanings of the sign of Jonah. (1) Since Jonah’s preaching prompted repentance by the people of Nineveh (Jnh 3), such preaching was the only sign Israel would receive from Jesus, or (2) Jonah’s three days and nights in the large fish (Jnh 1:17) was a foreshadowing of Jesus’s death and resurrection, which was the sign that would be given to that evil generation. The queen of Sheba (queen of the south) responded to the wisdom of Solomon, which was not equal to the wisdom and salvation offered by Jesus, the Son of Man. If Nineveh repented at Jonah’s preaching, how much more should the crowds repent at Jesus’s preaching.

11:33-36 Jesus held forth the light of the gospel for all to see. Those who rejected him and his message had bad spiritual eyes, which turned the light of Christ into darkness. But those who received Christ by faith were filled with light.

11:37-38 The ritual washing that took place before a meal was an ancient Jewish tradition, but it was not commanded in the Mosaic law (Mk 7:3).

11:39-41 Jesus declared that the problem of uncleanness on our inside is not taken care of by cleansing our outside (hands, feet, etc.). The way to make sure everything is clean in God’s eyes is to give freely from a heart devoted to God.

11:42-44 The first woe pronounced by Jesus on the Pharisees was not because they tithed everything but because they did not practice justice and love. The second woe was because they loved the spotlight, not the Lord. Regarding the third woe, if Jews walked over unmarked graves, they became defiled. Ironically, Jesus said that following the teachings of the Pharisees was like walking over an unmarked grave; you would become defiled without even knowing it. The teachings of the Pharisees seemed genuine and true, but in reality they were corrupted and misleading.

11:45-46 The scribe (expert in the law) standing by realized that the three woes Jesus had just pronounced against the Pharisees also reflected negatively on the scribes. So Jesus leveled an additional woe on the scribes. They burdened the average Jew with a load that they themselves did not carry. This could mean that the scribes were hypocritical in their keeping of the law or that they had no compassion for the people who tried to live by their burdensome regulations.

11:47-48 Jesus’s point in these verses is that the scribes and Pharisees were pleased to honor the prophets with tombs, now that the prophets were dead and silenced. The scribes and Pharisees were like their fathers, who killed God’s prophets.

11:49-51 The Lord was not surprised when some of his prophets and apostles were persecuted or killed. Because of the presence of Jesus—who was far greater than prophets or apostles—that generation of Israel was held responsible (see the similar statement about Babylon the Great in Rv 18:20). The judgment for that responsibility was apparently the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Abel was the victim of the first murder in Scripture (Gn 4:8), while Zechariah’s murder is recorded in 2Ch 24:20-25. Since 2 Chronicles was the last book in the Hebrew Bible, that would make it the last murder in the Bible of Jesus’s day.

11:52 In Mt 23:13, Jesus accused the scribes (experts in the law) of locking up “the kingdom of heaven.” Here in Luke, the key to knowledge is the Scriptures, which the scribes and Pharisees mishandled. Thus the people were locked out from understanding the things of God.

11:53-54 The Pharisees and scribes reacted with accusations and hostile questions. Their intent was to trap Jesus by some statement for which he could be arrested.