Big Idea: Those who should be leaders of the people of God have lost their way spiritually, and judgment is inevitable and imminent.

Understanding the Text

In 5:17–6:11 Luke recorded a series of events that reveal how Pharisees and scribes disagreed with Jesus over matters of legal interpretation and religious practice (see also 7:30, 36–50). Now Jesus takes the initiative in criticizing these two groups. The resultant standoff, with Jesus denouncing the leaders as ripe for judgment and the leaders determined to destroy Jesus (11:53–54), sets the scene for the coming confrontation in Jerusalem, where (as has already been predicted in 9:22) scribes will play a significant role in the events leading to Jesus’s death.

A fuller version of this critique appears in Matthew 23. That is set in …