Luke 11
CHAPTER 11
Teaching about prayer
And it came to pass, as he was praying in a certain place, that when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him: Lord, teach us to pray, even as John also taught his disciples. 2 And he said to them: When you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. 3 Give us day by day our daily bread. 4 And forgive us our sins. For we ourselves also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. And bring us not into temptation.
5 And he said to them: Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight and say to him: Friend, lend me three loaves, 6 for a friend of mine has arrived from a journey and I have nothing to set before him. 7 And he from within shall answer and say: Do not trouble me! The door is now shut and my children are with me in bed, I cannot rise and give anything to you? 8 I say to you, though he will not want to rise and give anything to him, yet because he is his friend, and because of the man's persistence, he will get up and give him as much as he needs. 9 And I say to you: Ask and it shall be given you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you. 10 For everyone that asks receives, and he that seeks finds, and to him that knocks it shall be opened.
11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a snake? 12 Or if he shall ask for an egg, will he give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?
The controversy about Beelzebub
14 And he was casting out a demon that was dumb. And it came to pass, when the demon had gone out, the dumb man spoke and the crowds marvelled. 15 But some of them said: By Beelzebub the prince of the demons he casts out demons. 16 And others, testing him, sought from him a sign from heaven. 17 But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them: Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a family divided against a family falls apart. 18 And if Satan also is divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? Because you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebub. 19 And even if I by Beelzebub cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore shall they be your judges. 20 But if I by the finger of God cast out demons, then is the kingdom of God come upon you.
21 When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe. 22 But when one stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him his whole armour in which he had trusted, and divides his spoils.
23 He that is not with me is against me, and he that does not gather with me scatters.
24 When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says: I will return to my house from which I came. 25 And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. 26 Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.
27 And it came to pass, as he said these things, that a certain woman out of the crowd lifted up her voice and said to him: Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts which you did suck. 28 But he said: Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it.
Jesus criticizes the Jews
29 And when the crowds were gathering together to him, he began to say: This generation is an evil generation. It seeks after a sign, but there shall no sign be given to it, except the sign of Jonah. 30 For even as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of Man be to this generation. 31 The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and shall condemn them. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, a greater than Solomon is here. 32 The men of Nineveh shall stand up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, a greater than Jonah is here.
33 No one when he has lit a lamp puts it in a cellar, neither under a bucket, but on the lightstand, so that they who enter in may see the light. 34 The lamp of your body is your eye. When your eye is single, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is evil, your body also is full of darkness. 35 Look therefore whether the light that is in you is not darkness. 36 If therefore your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it shall be wholly full of light, as when the lamp with its bright shining gives you light.
37 Now as he spoke, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, and he went in and sat down to eat. 38 And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed before dinner. 39 And the Lord said to him: Now you the Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and plate, but your inward part is full of extortion and wickedness. 40 You foolish ones, did not He that made the outside make the inside also? 41 But give for alms those things which are within, and behold, all things are clean to you.
42 But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint, rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God; but these you should have done and not to leave the other undone.
43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the chief seats in the synagogues and the greetings in the marketplaces.
44 Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.
45 And one of the lawyers answering said to him: Teacher, in saying this you reproach us also. 46 And he said: Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.
47 Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. 48 So you are witnesses and consent to the works of your fathers; for they killed them and you build their tombs.
49 Therefore also the Wisdom of God said: I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute, 50 so that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation: 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation.
52 Woe to you lawyers! For you took away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those that were entering in, you hindered.
53 And when he got out from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press upon him vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many things, 54 lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say.
Commentary
11:2 When God declared His Name to Moses in Ex. 34:4-8, He gave Moses a list of His characteristics- grace, justice, judgment, mercy, forgiveness etc. Our first request of God should be that those characteristics- His Name, what He stands for- be revealed and glorified in our lives by whatever situations we are in, and our reactions to them. If this is our first desire, then all else will fall into place ultimately. The next request is for God’s Kingdom to come- for Jesus to return to earth and establish God’s Kingdom here. We tend to make prayer a list of specific requests, but Jesus teaches us to be less specific initially, and focus always upon those essential principles and have them as our greatest desires.
11:4 It is good for us to tell God in prayer that we forgive our enemies. But this makes this simple prayer hard to pray truthfully. For we must forgive others if we hope for forgiveness ourselves.
11:9 The ‘asking’ is for the reasons given in the parable- the man asks for things in order to give them to someone else in need (v. 6). If we ask for things in order to assist others, then God’s promise will hold true. But it’s not a promise that whatever we ask for ourselves will be given to us.
11:10 We knock on God’s door, but He through Jesus knocks on our door (Rev. 3:20). There is a mutuality between God and us. We knock on His door, He knocks on ours.
11:13 Give the Holy Spirit- The parallel Mt. 7:11 says that God will give “good things” to those who ask Him. Being given the special power of God (“Holy Spirit”) doesn’t mean that we will be able to speak in tongues / languages, do miracles etc.- those gifts have been withdrawn (1 Cor. 13:8-10). But this doesn’t mean that He doesn’t amazingly answer prayer, and those answers are in a way a gift of Holy Spirit.
11:23 Scatters- Sins of omission are understood by Jesus as active opposition to Him. How we live life is crucially important; our inaction is seen as actively working against the Lord’s work.
11:28 Mary, mother of Jesus, did hear God’s word and kept it in her heart (Lk. 2:19). This was the side of Mary that Jesus wanted people to honour, rather than her physically having been His mother.
11:32 At the day of judgment, we will be judged in full view of others. The Ninevites will watch the judgment process of the first century Jews. We therefore shouldn’t be hypocritical in front of others now, because in the end they will see us revealed at judgment day for who we really are.
11:34 Our perceptions, our filtering process which we apply to life, are so important.
11:52 We can hinder or stumble people from entering the Kingdom. This is perhaps the greatest sin. We therefore need to be so careful how we treat people, so that we do nothing which may lead them to turn away from the hope of the Kingdom because of our actions, exclusion of them or hypocrisy.
