Luke 11:37-54 - Pharisees And Legal Experts Denounced
37 When he said this, a Pharisee asked him to lunch with him, and he went to his house and took his place at table. 38 The Pharisee noticed that he did not wash before the meal, and he was surprised. 39 But the Master said to him, "You Pharisees clean the outside of cups and dishes, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. 40 You fools! Did not the Creator of the outside make the inside too? 41 But give your inmost life as charity, and you will immediately find everything clean.
42 But alas for you Pharisees! For you pay tithes on mint, rue, and every tiny herb, and disregard justice and the love of God. But you should have observed these, without neglecting the others.
43 Alas for you Pharisees! For you love to have the front seat in the synagogues and to be saluted with respect in public places.
44 Alas for you! For you are like unmarked graves which men tread upon without knowing it."
45 At this, one of the experts in the Law said to him, "Master, when you say that, you affront us too."
46 But he said, "Yes, alas for you experts in the Law too! For you load men with burdens they can hardly carry, and you will not touch them yourselves with a single finger.
47 Alas for you! For you build monuments for the prophets, whom your forefathers killed. 48 So you testify to what your fathers did and approve it, for they killed them and you build their monuments. 49 This is why the Wisdom of God said, 'I will send prophets and apostles to them, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute'??50 so that this age may be charged with the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the creation of the world, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you! This age will be charged with it all!
52 Alas for you experts in the Law! For you have taken the key to the door of knowledge, but you have not entered it yourselves, and you have kept out those who tried to enter."
53 After he left the house, the scribes and the Pharisees began to watch him closely and to try to draw him out on many subjects, 54 plotting to entrap him in something he might say.