And as He spoke, a certain Pharisee asked Him to dine with him. So He went in and sat down to eat. When the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that He had not first washed before dinner. Then the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness. Foolish ones! Did not He who made the outside make the inside also? But rather give alms of such things as you have; then indeed all things are clean to you. “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass by justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like graves which are not seen, and the men who walk over them are not aware of them.” Then one of the lawyers answered and said to Him, “Teacher, by saying these things You reproach us also.” And He said, “Woe to you also, lawyers! For you load men with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. In fact, you bear witness that you approve the deeds of your fathers; for they indeed killed them, and you build their tombs. Therefore the wisdom of God also said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute,’ that the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the temple. Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation. “Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered.” And as He said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to assail Him vehemently, and to cross-examine Him about many things, lying in wait for Him, and seeking to catch Him in something He might say, that they might accuse Him (Luke 11:37-54).
Jesus and His disciples go to dinner with unwashed hands. The Pharisees marveled, but not because they were disgusted at Jesus’ dirty fingernails; they marveled because Jesus and His disciples did not observe the Traditions of the Elders. The washing in question was a ceremonial one. It wasn’t meant to scrub the grime from their hands; it was meant to cleanse the gentile filth with which they may have been contaminated. These traditions, it was taught, were commands given by God, through Moses, to the Elders on Mt. Sinai, orally. They were not written down by Moses. The scribes, Pharisees, and teachers of the law taught that these traditions were God’s word, just like the written Scriptures (Torah[1]). By disregarding these traditions, Jesus shows His disciples, and us, that they are not.
Jesus calls the Pharisees hypocrites. They take great care to observe the Traditions of the Elders, but ignore God’s actual Law. Jesus says that they honor God with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him.[2] They were teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. They didn’t believe they were sinful. They were keeping all the rules. They did not repent. They did not believe the Gospel. They did not have faith in God; they had faith in their own good works. Jesus calls them unmarked graves and whitewashed tombs because of this. An unmarked grave looks like normal, healthy ground, vibrant with life in the form of thick, green grass. Beneath the surface, however, lies a rotting corpse. The painted tomb looks pretty and neat but inside there are dead men’s bones. According to the Law, to touch a dead body would make a man ceremonially unclean. He would have to be excluded for a time from the community, and the temple, where forgiveness of sins was to be found.[3] Jesus is telling the Pharisees that, because of their rejection of God’s commands in favor of man-made laws they thought they could keep, they are unclean. They are cut off from God, like the ceremonially unclean person who cannot offer his sacrifice for sin in the temple. Though they may look holy by their outward acts of piety, they are actually dead inside.
The temple and the sacrifices prescribed by God to be offered there were type and shadow of what was to come: Jesus. The temple was where God dwelt with His people Israel. Jesus, true God and true man, is Immanuel - God, with us. In the person of Jesus of Nazareth, God came into the world, though the world did not know Him, and His people did not receive Him.[4] Even now He is with us, according to both His divine and human natures, through Word and Sacrament, and the working of the Spirit, even until the end of the age.[5] The sacrifices showed the true cost of sin; only the shedding of blood could atone for it.[6] Animal sacrifice was insufficient. They had to be performed over and over again. Jesus is the one perfect sacrifice for sin.[7] He became sin for us so that the guilt of our sin would no longer be counted against us.[8] Jesus is our salvation. He is the one greater than the temple.[9] He is the payment for our sin - all of our sin - and the sin of the whole world.[10]
Since the temple was a shadow of the reality that was fulfilled in Christ, we need to participate in the real thing. The washing that counts is not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom God poured out abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.[11] This is baptism, which saves us.[12] It is how we take part in Christ’s death and resurrection.[13] It is not a work done by men as a mere ceremony; it is a means by which God delivers to us His Word and promise, the forgiveness of sins won by Christ on the cross, and works repentance and faith in our hearts by His Holy Spirit.
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[1] The Torah is the law of God as revealed to Moses and recorded in the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures.
[2] Matthew 15:7-9
[3] Number 19:11-13
[4] John 1:1-13
[5] Matthew 28:19-20; FC SD VIII 78.
[6] Hebrews 9:22
[7] Hebrews 9:22-28
[8] 2 Corinthians 5:21
[9] Matthew 12:6
[10] 1 John 2:2
[11] Titus 3:5-7
[12] 1 Peter 2:18-22
[13] Romans 6:4-5; Galatians 2:20
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