The Key

“In one respect at least the Martians are a happy people; they have no lawyers.” – Edgar Rice Burroughs A Princess of Mars

In Luke 11, Jesus confronted the Pharisees and called them out. He accused them of neglecting the important aspects of life and being concerned with appearances and the praise of men. One of the experts in the Law, likely a Levite, complained that when Jesus attacked the Pharisees on these grounds, He insulted the lawyers as well. The Lord did not apologize. Instead He unleashed a fresh assault: Woe to you experts in the law! You have taken away the key of knowledge! You don’t go in yourselves and you have hindered those who were going in (Luke 11:52).

So what is the “key of knowledge”? First, we know those who were experts in the Law had access to it. We know that by their interpretation of the Law and by their teaching, they had “taken it away”. Further, we know that, though they possessed it, or could have, they had no intention of using it. Then, too, we can surmise that some people did want to enter into knowledge, and they might have been able to do so, except the lawyers hindered them.

I suppose we should first determine what is meant by “knowledge”. It cannot be the simple, factual knowledge of what was written in the Law and the Prophets for Israelites were educated in the written word from childhood. Perhaps we are talking about a deeper, revelation knowledge. In fact, I believe Jesus is referring primarily to Himself, the Logos to Whom the logos points. Hebrews tells us that Jesus it the final and ultimate revelation of God to man. This revelation of Christ is said to be “veiled” in the Old Testament, but the references to a Prophet, a King, and a Servant are there. After the Resurrection, on the road to Emmaus, Jesus “opened to them the Scriptures” and interpreted the Old Testament revelation to His followers.

The teaching of the experts did allow for a new king in the line of David and for a restoration of the kingdom of Israel. Much appears to have been skimmed over or missed entirely. When Philip was sent to the Ethiopian eunuch, the man asked him about Isaiah and the “suffering servant”. Though the man was a proselyte and learning the Scripture, he questioned Philip on whether Isaiah was talking about himself or someone else. Philip was able to properly interpret the passage and show him that Jesus fulfilled the prophecy.

In a sense both the knowledge and the Key to knowledge is Christ. The Incarnation gives us full knowledge of God, the complete revelation, but you can only have that knowledge if you believe in Christ. I think it would be appropriate to say the Key to that full knowledge is faith – believing Jesus is the God-Man, the Second Man, the Last Adam.

It says “In Adam all died, so in Christ all will be made alive.” Yet we are participants, by faith in the death of Christ as well. We have been crucified with Him, buried with Him and raised with Him. We now walk in new life – all by faith. All that was of the First Adam is dead and gone. Now we are the branches and Christ is the Vine. His life flows through us. In a very real sense, He lives through us for it is through us that He touches the material world. Obviously Jesus is alive as a transcendent Being in Heaven, yet He is here, dwelling in the hearts of believers, speaking to them and through them. He still heals the sick and sets the captive free by way of His mystic union with the righteous who live by faith.

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day rejected Him, even though they could have known, perhaps even did know in many cases that He was the Messiah. They could have used the key – the Scriptures they so venerated testified of Jesus as the Christ. Yet they, for the most part, refused. They left it for the poor, for sinners and tax-collectors and ultimately the nations, the Gentiles, to enter the kingdom, but even then, they used their knowledge to hinder those who would believe. I sometimes wonder as I wander from church to church, how many churches, ministers, and organizations are opening the door to God and how many are blocking it, or even nailing it shut.