The gospels for these daily Mass readings have been taken from Luke 11:37-54. The context is found in the opening verse:

37After he had spoken, a Pharisee invited him to dine at his home. He entered and reclined at table to eat. 38 The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not observe the prescribed washing before the meal.

Awkward!

Growing up we were taught that “polite conversation” at the dinner table did not include sex, politics or religion. Clearly, the Pharisee – even as host – did not feel the same restrictions applied to him. I don’t recall any specific life lessons about what to do, when as a guest, the host transgresses against the rules of “polite conversation.” What did Jesus do?

I guess the “gloves were off?” What is surprising about this encounter is the harshness of Jesus’ critique.  As part of Monday’s reading, Jesus accuses the Pharisees of emphasizing externals in religion while overlooking in their own conduct the breach of essentials. He mentions the absurdity of religiously cleaning the outside of a cup while one’s own inside is full of evil. The two vices Jesus names are greed and wickedness. Both are broad terms for immorality of various types, usually attitudes that lead us to treat people and possessions as objects to be used and manipulated. The antidote to greed, Jesus says, is to give away one’s money in alms. As he completes the general rebuke about cleanliness and purity, Jesus connects it all to God’s role as Creator, the One who made both the outside things and the inside.

And Jesus is just starting…

In yesterday’s gospel, Jesus declares “Woe to you…” about the Pharisee and three elements of the religious life they have gone astray: tithing, pride, and witness. (Note: as I have written elsewhere, “woe” can be an accusation but also can be a lament.)

Tithing was meant to be a joyful offering of love, and so the tithes that the Pharisees were paying were meant to instill a true piety that recognizes God as Creator and lead people to be attentive to the issues of the heart. Tithing should have led in this direction, but instead had become a decoy covering the neglect of justice and charity.

The second woe addresses pride. A further result of Pharisaic preoccupation with the outward was the love these men showed for being in the public eye. They liked to get “the seat of honor in the synagogues.” All of this was geared towards attention, not to God, but to their own status. Jesus offers no correction here, only the rebuke.

The third woe is the most direct. The Pharisees are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without knowing it, the height of ritual impurity. Jesus suggests not only death but also uncleanliness. Jesus’ view of the Pharisees is exactly opposite of their own self-image. Jesus says the Pharisees, far from being paragons of purity, are bearers of burial, death and uncleanliness. Unfortunately, few knew just how deadly they were. Their blindness had made them a danger to those they were supposed to lead.

I think one of the other rules for awkward moments at dinner parties is not to get in the middle of contentious conversations that are already in violation of the rules of “polite conversation.” A scholar of the law clearly did not know about this common sense rule. He comes to the aid of the Pharisees. And then Jesus turns his sights on the scholar: “Woe also to you scholars of the law! You impose on people burdens hard to carry, but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them.”

In today’s gospel, Jesus accuses them of using the law as a rod to punish the people instead of interpreting it for them as a gift from God. “Woe to you, scholars of the law! You have taken away the key of knowledge.” They have taken away the “key of knowledge,” the means for true understanding of God and salvation, and by misusing the law have been themselves misled.

Failure of Mercy and Witness. The first woe for the scholars is because “You impose on people burdens hard to carry, but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them.” This woe can also be read in one of two ways: either (1) they are hypocrites, asking others to do what they do not ask of themselves, or (2) they are heartless, asking others to labor hard at spirituality while doing nothing to help those people accomplish the task. The term for burdens in the verse (phortion) is normally used to describe a ship’s cargo; in other words, Jesus is describing the extent to which ritual laws have weighed down the people of God.

Hardened Hearts.  Next is a condemnation of the practices of their ancestors, an especially stinging rebuke filled with irony. They built these tombs to show how they honored the prophets. But Jesus argues that in fact it shows their support for killing these divine agents! By building the tombs, he says, you testify that you approve of what your forefathers did. Here is one of Jesus’ fundamental critiques of the leadership: they have been as hard of heart and disobedient as their ancestors were. This evaluation also has Old Testament roots. Throughout the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles the nation is condemned for consistent unfaithfulness before God in light of standards God proclaimed for the nation in Deuteronomy.

Sheep without a Shepherd. The very role of the scholars/scribes was to help unlock the meaning of Scripture and bring people to the knowledge of God. Instead of opening up the treasures of knowledge, the scholars closed them fast. They turned the Bible into a book of obscurities, a bundle of riddles which only the experts could understand – when they themselves missed the very thing that God wanted. They neither entered themselves nor allowed others to enter.

I am sure the dinner party awkwardly fizzled out at this point. If we were present I am sure we’d be thinking, “glad it’s not me Jesus is talking to!” But hopefully we listened and took to heart the pitfalls we all face: self-importance over humility, self-assurance about what we know over openness to the revelation of God, and failure to learn a key lesson: sometimes the obsessive pursuit of what is right results in some very serious wrong.