Contemplative Bible Reading

Luke 11 (New International Version 2011)

42 “Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.

Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees. Those poor guys, they are blinded by a devotion to a cause, and a good cause at that. They are devoted to the practice of their religion as they see it.

The Pharisees, however, neglect justice. Let’s consider that one.  The Jews are a family nation. They all descended from Abraham. True, it was hundreds of years earlier, but they are all cousins. And, this nation of cousins is occupied by a foreign army – the Romans.

This situation cries out for justice. The family  nation should come together and take care of one another. Perhaps one day, perhaps a hundred or a few hundred years in the future, the foreign army will go away and the family nation will be free again. Until that day, however, come together and care for one another.

What, however, was happening? See version 41:

41 But now as for what is inside you—be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.

Jesus scolded them to be generous to the poor – their poor cousins who were being dominated by the occupying army.

Sigh. Blinded by religious practice to the fate of your cousins. I guess the world hasn’t changed much.