Luke 20:45-47

6. Jesus’ condemnation of the scribes 20:45-47 (cf. Matthew 23:1-39; Mark 12:38-40)

Luke and Mark both recorded only a synopsis of Jesus’ warning to the multitudes and His disciples that Matthew narrated in detail. Perhaps Luke did so because he had already included Jesus’ lengthy criticisms of the scribes in Luke 11:37-54. Whereas the preceding verses criticized the teachers’ doctrine (Luke 20:41-44), these condemned their practice. Immorality often accompanies heterodoxy. Jesus attacked their attitudes particularly. These words constituted Jesus’ final break with Israel’s religious leaders.

Jesus warned His disciples and secondarily the crowds (Gr. laos) listening in, contrasted with the religious leaders, to avoid three characteristics of the lawyers: their pride, greed, and hypocrisy. Four of their common actions indicated their pride (Luke 20:46). They desired personal admiration, respect, prominence, and honor. The learned teachers wore long robes (Gr. stole) in Israel. [Note: Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, s.v. "stole," by U. Wilckens, 7:690-91.] They greedily took money from widows who needed it more than they did, apparently violating the trust of these dependent women. [Note: See J. D. M. Derrett, "’Eating up the Houses of Widows’: Jesus’s Comment on Lawyers?" Novum Testamentum 14 (1972):1-9.] This may have included abusing the hospitality of widows who had little money. [Note: Jeremias, Jerusalem in . . ., p. 114. Cf. Morris, p. 294.] Their long prayers presented the appearance of great piety, but they were offering them only to give people that impression.

The condemnation that they would receive at the great white throne judgment would be greater than what other unbelievers would receive who had not been guilty of those sins. Greater privilege means greater responsibility (cf. James 3:1).

This day of teaching in the temple had begun with the religious leaders questioning Jesus’ authority (Luke 20:1-2). Jesus now concluded His public teaching in the temple courtyard with an authoritative evaluation of those who sought to evaluate Him. He was their judge, not the other way around.