Jesus pronounces one final woe upon the Pharisees, who barrage him with questions to trap and discredit him (5:21, 5:30, 6:2, 11, 19:47-48, 20:19-20, 22:2). Jesus claims that they have taken away the key to knowledge and hindered those who are entering (52).
In 7:30, Luke comments, “The Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves because they had not been baptized by John.” God’s purpose for them was to lead people to the Messiah. Now the Messiah arrived and they did all they could to lock people out.
The very persons who should have opened the people’s minds and hearts concerning the law obscured their understanding by faulty interpretation and an erroneous system of theology. They kept themselves and the people in ignorance of the way of salvation, or, as Matthew puts it, they “shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces.” (Matthew23:13)
Do I share the good news? Or am I like the Pharisees and shut the door on others?
