Lawyer Woe #1:

We are still in Luke 11, verse 46. Jesus turns from the "woes" of the Pharisees to the "woes" of the lawyers. Admit it. We have a love/hate relationship with attorneys. They have been called a lot of names. But, it also is true that when we are in some civil or criminal trouble, they are within our top three list to call. I almost became an attorney. It was one of my three choices for a career or life profession (along with something in the music industry, and you know the other one). How different my life would have been if I had chosen this path. I can see how lawyers in applying the law to specific situations can lay heavy burdens on people. It is one thing for the law to create obligations; it is another for a faulty interpretation of the law to create an unwarranted obligation. Truly this becomes a burden.

Jesus says, "Woe to you lawyers as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers." The burden here is like the cargo on a ship. Too much cargo can sink the ship especially in time of storm. Jesus uses this same word to describe his cargo in Matt.11:30 where he says that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Paul tells us in Gal.6:5 to bear our own cargo or burdens. Burdens under which we groan are common to men who live in tent (2 Cor.5:4). John tells us that Jesus' commands are not burdensome (cargo) (I john 5:3). So how did these lawyers excessively burden people?

In today's governmental environment we often speak in terms of the constitution, the laws that derive from that constitution, and then the regulations that are involved in the carrying out of the laws. The further we get from the constitution the fewer the people who can affect the lives of the many. It takes a lot of folks to enact a constitution. It takes fewer to make laws. But, a much fewer number of bureaucrats can in a few minutes write policies and regulations that will affect millions and make life very difficult. This is what the lawyers did. They were the "regulators" of the religious life of the people. Constitutions, laws, and regulations should make living easier and doable. These should assist us in tackling the real burdens that are against us, the burdens of sin, fear, death, man-made rules, and our own destructive tendencies. These are burdens for which Jesus had to die. For us as humans to effectively undo the work of Christ by creating regulations that make living out the freedom Christ gives is simply wrong. Jesus did what He did to free us not to have men come along and weigh us down with new obligations which we cannot keep. Jesus did not come to make us spiritually successful just to have men come along and make it impossible to be successful. When a regulation undoes the intention of the constitution or a law, it is a bad regulation. Those who craft such regulations deserve a "woe."