“The Key of Knowledge!”

“Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.” As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things, lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say.”  (Luke 11:52-54 ESV)

Have you noticed that the further we read Luke's account of Jesus’ ministry, the more the Jewish leaders become hostile towards Him? The Pharisees, Scribes, and Lawyers are always trying to ask questions of Jesus for the purpose of twisting His words so that they might put Him on trial for speaking against God’s Law. While they wore the right clothes, had the right friends, ate the right food, and went to the right events, they did not know the true intent of God’s heart. They were focused on the outward appearances, on being recognized as “godly people”, so that they could have authority among the faithful Jews.

We see in verse 46 that Jesus condemns them for their misuse of God’s Law, “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.” What Jesus is referring to is the strict application of the traditions concerning the Law of Moses.

You see, there were 613 written Mosaic Laws given to the people at Mount Sinai, not just the 10 that were written in stone. These laws were given by God so that the Jewish people could live and flourish, govern their moral, social, and religious conduct, and reveal the holy character of the eternal God. According to Galatians, “… the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.” Everything in the Law was to point us to Jesus, so that we could have faith in God’s promised Messiah. But the Pharisees, Scribes, and Lawyers added to the written Laws of Moses, including hundreds of additional restrictions that, according to them, a faithful Jew had to follow in order to keep God’s written laws.

But Jesus would have none of it.  Just like today, Jesus will have none of it. The hypocrisy in local churches that many use as an excuse to stay away from church is real. There are Pharisees and Lawyers in today’s churches that are so worried about the outward appearances of people that they have completely forgotten the truth about the Gospel. They have deliberately focused on outward appearances and not on the heart of the individual.  

In this chapter, Jesus says, “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.” Again, Jesus isn’t telling the Jews who are still under the Mosaic Law not to follow the Law, but is trying to tell these teachers of the Law that they have missed the most important point of God’s Law. He tells them that the weightier point of the Law was to give justice to the poor and to show the Love of God.  

While the Jewish leaders strove to keep the Law of Moses regarding outward appearances, they completely missed the whole point of God’s Law that addressed the heart. God has never been impressed by outward appearances, or by doing things that men will notice, but has always focused on the heart. Faith in our Lord doesn’t come from keeping rules; it comes from the individual's heart changing. Faith is given to us by God, so that we will be convinced that God is right and we are wrong. God wants us to change our minds, and once we do, our hearts will follow.

God doesn’t want us to know all about Him without knowing Him. That was the problem with the Jewish leaders; they knew more about God and the Law than anyone else; they had the keys of knowledge. “For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.” But they did not use that knowledge to understand the heart of God, which was for justice and for His people to love Him.

There are too many today who try to use their knowledge of God and Scriptures to secure favor with God. But they traded knowing and loving God for knowing about God. It didn’t work with the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day, and it won’t work today. God cares about our hearts, and that we know Jesus, not just know about Him.

Friend, maybe you’ve been attending church all your life; you grew up in Sunday School; you know about all the major events in the Old Testament; you can name all the miracles of Jesus in the Gospels; you can even name all the apostles. But you are neglecting the true meaning of God’s Word: that each of us would have a personal relationship with our Savior and not just know about Him.

"Living in Grace is not about what I can do, but about what Jesus has already done!"