Luke 11 Study Notes

11:1-4 This model prayer for Jesus’s disciples is similar to the one in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 6:9-13), but much shorter. Apparently, the disciples were motivated to learn to pray by both Jesus’s example and that of John the Baptist and his disciples. It was unusual for Jews to refer to God as Father. Such an address would seem too personal and familiar. Even though Luke emphasized the offer of the kingdom of God (4:43) and the nearness of the kingdom in Jesus’s ministry (10:9,11), some aspects of the kingdom are still future (your kingdom come). All people are dependent on the Lord to meet their daily needs, as in give us . . . our daily bread. In debt refers to what is “owed” to us spiritually (i.e., having been sinned against). The phrase do not bring us into temptation is in contrast with Christ himself, who was led by the Holy Spirit to be tested by Satan (see note at 4:1-2). See also note on Mt 6:13.

11:5-8 The point of this story is that shameless boldness pays off. But, as with the story of the widow and the judge in 18:1-8, it must not be understood that God is like the hesitant homeowner in the story. If bold persistence is rewarded even by someone who is disposed against granting our request, how much more so will God, who cares about his children, delight in responding generously to our persistent prayers.

11:9-10 Ask . . . seek . . . knock refer to prayer and reflect the persistence theme emphasized in the story of vv. 5-8. The assurance that everyone who asks receives does not mean that every prayer is answered as we want it to be. Rather, it means that if we persist in prayer, our prayers will eventually be answered according to God’s best for us.

11:11-12 No human father who really loved his child would be so uncaring as to give him a snake in place of a fish or a scorpion in place of an egg.

11:13 The parallel passage in Mt 7:11 reads, “Give good things to those who ask him.” If those good things are related to the Holy Spirit, the wording may be speaking of spiritual gifts (Rm 12; 1Co 12). This verse reflects Luke’s emphasis on the Holy Spirit. Leading up to the day of Pentecost, the apostles and other believers waited in prayer (Ac 1:14) for the baptism of the Spirit to come. In that instance, the heavenly Father gave the Holy Spirit to those who asked him. See also note on Mt 7:11 regarding you . . . who are evil.

11:14-16 Instead of praising God for Jesus’s healing of the mute demon-possessed man, some in the crowd accused him of casting out demons by the power of Satan. Beelzebul, the god worshiped by Philistines in Ekron, had become a nickname for Satan. Others were trying to trap Jesus by asking him to perform a miraculous sign.

11:17-20 A kingdom or house divided against itself is self-destructive. Jesus made two key points in his defense: (1) It is nonsense to think that Satan would divide his own “house” by casting out his own demons, and (2) it is unlikely that Jewish exorcists were drawing on a different source of power than Jesus. Thus the best explanation of what happened was that Jesus drove out demons by the finger of God (God’s power active in the world).

11:21-22 The stronger man can usually overpower the weaker man and disarm him. The implication is that Jesus, being stronger than Satan, was in the process of disarming him. Divides up his plunder may refer to the same thing as the giving of gifts related to Christ’s victory in Eph 4:8.

11:23 This is the opposite principle from what is stated in 9:50. Since the context has to do with demonic activity and power, anyone who did not believe that Jesus cast out demons by the power of God was against Christ. Anyone who does not gather with me scatters is a reference to a shepherd gathering or scattering a flock of sheep. This could refer to either Israel or the church as a flock since Luke wrote his Gospel after the church’s beginning.

11:24-26 These verses warn that the exorcism of a demon is incomplete unless Christ enters by faith and indwells the person who is healed. Otherwise, there is nothing to prevent the demon and seven other spirits from reentering and possessing the person. In that case, this person’s last condition is even worse than it was initially.

11:27-28 Jesus did not deny that his mother, Mary, was greatly blessed. Instead, he stated that a person who hears God’s word and acts upon it in faith is even more blessed than anyone who has mere family ties to him (Rv 1:3).

11:29-32 There are two possible meanings of the sign of Jonah. (1) Since Jonah’s preaching prompted repentance by the people of Nineveh (Jnh 3), such preaching was the only sign Israel would receive from Jesus, or (2) Jonah’s three days and nights in the large fish (Jnh 1:17) was a foreshadowing of Jesus’s death and resurrection, which was the sign that would be given to that evil generation. The queen of Sheba (queen of the south) responded to the wisdom of Solomon, which was not equal to the wisdom and salvation offered by Jesus, the Son of Man. If Nineveh repented at Jonah’s preaching, how much more should the crowds repent at Jesus’s preaching.

11:33-36 Jesus held forth the light of the gospel for all to see. Those who rejected him and his message had bad spiritual eyes, which turned the light of Christ into darkness. But those who received Christ by faith were filled with light.

11:37-38 The ritual washing that took place before a meal was an ancient Jewish tradition, but it was not commanded in the Mosaic law (Mk 7:3).

11:39-41 Jesus declared that the problem of uncleanness on our inside is not taken care of by cleansing our outside (hands, feet, etc.). The way to make sure everything is clean in God’s eyes is to give freely from a heart devoted to God.

11:42-44 The first woe pronounced by Jesus on the Pharisees was not because they tithed everything but because they did not practice justice and love. The second woe was because they loved the spotlight, not the Lord. Regarding the third woe, if Jews walked over unmarked graves, they became defiled. Ironically, Jesus said that following the teachings of the Pharisees was like walking over an unmarked grave; you would become defiled without even knowing it. The teachings of the Pharisees seemed genuine and true, but in reality they were corrupted and misleading.

11:45-46 The scribe (expert in the law) standing by realized that the three woes Jesus had just pronounced against the Pharisees also reflected negatively on the scribes. So Jesus leveled an additional woe on the scribes. They burdened the average Jew with a load that they themselves did not carry. This could mean that the scribes were hypocritical in their keeping of the law or that they had no compassion for the people who tried to live by their burdensome regulations.

11:47-48 Jesus’s point in these verses is that the scribes and Pharisees were pleased to honor the prophets with tombs, now that the prophets were dead and silenced. The scribes and Pharisees were like their fathers, who killed God’s prophets.

11:49-51 The Lord was not surprised when some of his prophets and apostles were persecuted or killed. Because of the presence of Jesus—who was far greater than prophets or apostles—that generation of Israel was held responsible (see the similar statement about Babylon the Great in Rv 18:20). The judgment for that responsibility was apparently the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Abel was the victim of the first murder in Scripture (Gn 4:8), while Zechariah’s murder is recorded in 2Ch 24:20-25. Since 2 Chronicles was the last book in the Hebrew Bible, that would make it the last murder in the Bible of Jesus’s day.

11:52 In Mt 23:13, Jesus accused the scribes (experts in the law) of locking up “the kingdom of heaven.” Here in Luke, the key to knowledge is the Scriptures, which the scribes and Pharisees mishandled. Thus the people were locked out from understanding the things of God.

11:53-54 The Pharisees and scribes reacted with accusations and hostile questions. Their intent was to trap Jesus by some statement for which he could be arrested.