Jesus and rotten eggs (Luke 11:37-54)

The Pharisees invite Jesus for a meal and we get a golden chance to see the heart of the King. Jesus is deeply grieved at the actions and attitudes of the religious leaders of the day. They are lost. Worse; they're leading all those under their leadership away from God and His Word.

37 As he was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him. So he went in and reclined at the table. 38 When the Pharisee saw this, he was amazed that he did not first perform the ritual washing before dinner. 39 But the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and evil. 40 Fools! Didn’t he who made the outside make the inside too? 41 But give from what is within to the poor, and then everything is clean for you.

42 “But woe to you Pharisees! You give a tenth of mint, rue, and every kind of herb, and you bypass justice and love for God. These things you should have done without neglecting the others.

43 “Woe to you Pharisees! You love the front seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.

44 “Woe to you! You are like unmarked graves; the people who walk over them don’t know it.”

45 One of the experts in the law answered him, “Teacher, when you say these things you insult us too.”

46 Then he said: “Woe also to you experts in the law! You load people with burdens that are hard to carry, and yet you yourselves don’t touch these burdens with one of your fingers.

47 “Woe to you! You build tombs for the prophets, and your fathers killed them. 48 Therefore, you are witnesses that you approve the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their monuments. 49 Because of this, the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute,’ 50 so that this generation may be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation 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 generation will be held responsible.

52 “Woe to you experts in the law! You have taken away the key to knowledge. You didn’t go in yourselves, and you hindered those who were trying to go in.”

53 When he left there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to oppose him fiercely and to cross-examine him about many things; 54 they were lying in wait for him to trap him in something he said.