Setting The Right Priorities
- Deacon Dan DeLuca
- Oct 12, 2022
- 5 min read
Setting the right priorities is essential in life. The activities and endeavors that we invest our time in will have a huge impact upon the type of person we are and ultimately upon the state of our heart and soul. If we spend our time in pursuit of the wrong things, our heart will become dirty and ugly. Select the right things and they can serve to keep our heart clean and allow us to grow closer to the Lord. In this Gospel passage we see Jesus denounce the religious leaders of his time for having the wrong priorities. As we read this passage, let us invite the Lord to illuminate what we prioritize in our lives.
Jesus Denounces Pharisees and Lawyers (continued)
“But woe to you Pharisees! for you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God; these you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees! for you love the best seat in the synagogues and salutations in the market places. Woe to you! for you are like graves which are not seen, and men walk over them without knowing it.” One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying this you reproach us also.” And he said, “Woe to you lawyers also! for you load men with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Luke 11 : 42-46
Scriptural Analysis
Jesus just finished calling the Pharisees and Lawyers fools and told them that they need to give alms in order to help cleanse their heart. He then embraces the model of an old time Prophet and pronounces a series of woes (ouai in Greek): three directed specifically at the Pharisees and three directed specifically and the Lawyers or scholars of the law. This is the third time we have heard Jesus pronounce woes in Luke’s Gospel (6:24-26, 10:13) These particular woes are in contrast to those who hear the word and keep it. (Luke 11:28)
The first woe denounces the Pharisee’s focus on ensuring that the tithe is paid on each herb while neglecting weighty matters like judgement or justice and the love of God. Note the plants mentioned by Luke. These are herbs not staples like gain which is uses to symbolize just how trivial the focus of Pharisees was. Isaiah warned against such behavior, “Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.” (10:1-2)
The Prophet Micah warned the people, “to walk humbly with your God.” (6:8) In the second woe we hear Jesus warn the Pharisees against taking pride in status, in seeking seats of honor in the synagogue or taking delight when greeted in public. They were in direct violation of this previous warning from the Prophet.
The third woe is the woe of irony. The Pharisees are extremely concerned with maintaining ritual purity. However, Jesus tells them that they are actually the ones who contaminate others and not the other way around. He compares them to graves that make those who touch them unclean, a reference to the book of Numbers, “anyone who touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.” (19:16) In some translations the Greek word adēlos is translated as secret or secret graves to show that there was an intentional effort by he Pharisees to conceal the ugliness in their heart.
One of the lawyers takes issue with the woes that Jesus pronounces upon the Pharisees. Jesus’s response is to pronounce the first woe against the lawyers. The Greek word translated here as reproach, hybrizō, is strong indicating maltreatment and damage. The lawyers was making a libel charge against Jesus. Jesus chastises the lawyers for the heavey burdens they place upon the people. They have an extremely detailed interpretation of the requirements of Torah and the lawyers make that more difficult. Yet, they do not even lift one finger to assist their neighbor in fulfilling the law.
Daily Application
Jesus continues to go after the religious leader of his time for having the wrong priorities. They are so concerned about keeping up appearances, adhering to every minute details of the law (both the Mosaic law and the oral tradition that developed around it) and ensuring that everyone else follows every detail of the law as well, and basking in the honor and privilege that their position garnishes, that they fail to focus on the things that truly matter. The have failed to love God and love neighbor. This has left them with unclean hearts and in fact, they are more defiled than any of those they pass judgement upon.
Are we much different? Are our priorities always correct? We think they are, just as the Pharisees and Lawyers did but are they? Do we focus so much on the things of this world that we neglect what truly matters, the things of God? If we are honest with ourselves I believe we would have to say that we aren’t much different. We get so caught up in the things of this world, things created and prioritized by man, that pretty soon we being to forget about God and forget about one another.
As we ponder the words of the Gospel we just read, take a moment to invite the Lord into that pondering. Ask him to show you the things you have prioritized in your life. More importantly, ask him to show you if those things are drawing you closer to him or drawing you away from him. Those things that are drawing you away you need to look it. Are these things drawing you away because of the way you approach them, because of your failure to invite God into those things with you, or are these things just inherently incompatible with the life of a disciple of Christ? Those things that are incompatible with the life of a disciple you need to get out of your life immediately. Those things that perhaps could draw you closer to God with the right approach, commit to making the needed change, to inviting the Lord into those activities and endeavors with you. When you do that, you will be amazed at how present God is in all you do.
Set the right priorities in your life: priorities that draw you closer to God. Continually review those things that are occupying your time and attention and assessing their impact upon your relationship with God. Cling to those that draw you closer and eliminate that ones that draw you apart. Lest one day you hear the Lord say, “woe to you!”
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