Luke 16:15

‘And he said to them, “You are they who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts, for that which is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.”

Jesus recognises that their derision goes to the very heart of what is wrong with them. They have built up a theology to which they can point to demonstrate the ‘rightness' of their behaviour, much of which is actually an abomination to God, for it makes idols of their ‘laws' which in fact themselves fail to make them righteous. He wants them to recognise that God does not smile on their posturing, it makes Him sick. All their emphases are in the wrong place.

It is true they can thus justify themselves in men's eyes. Indeed men, who have similar wrong ideas, actually admire them for it. They parade their asceticism (Matthew 6:16), they parade their phylacteries (Matthew 23:5), they parade their almsgiving (Matthew 6:2), they parade their praying (Matthew 6:5), they parade their excessive ‘cleanness' (Matthew 23:25; Mark 7:3), they tithe more than is necessary so as to make a good impression (Matthew 23:23), they make a great fuss about the Sabbath (while at the same time providing ways of avoiding the strictness that they profess), and it makes them proud, and arrogant. And people think they are wonderful and exalt them (compare Luke 14:11; Romans 11:20; Romans 12:16) because it is far more than they do themselves, and accords with man's false view of God as someone to be manipulated by such methods.

Yet they are at the same time cold, and heartless, and supercritical and lacking in compassion when dealing with people. They are missing out on ‘the weightier matters of the Law', justice, faith and mercy (Matthew 23:23). Their whole way of life is thus an abomination in the sight of God because of their pride (compare Proverbs 16:5), their religious posturing (Isaiah 1:13), and their unjust dealings (Proverbs 11:1). This is because it all stems from the wrong motives, from the idea of bargaining with God to obtain His favour (if we obey the covenant you will give us eternal life and establish Israel), the desire to be approved of and admired by men, and an over-readiness to criticise anyone who fails to agree with and fit into their ideas. Men may esteem such ideas, but God abhors them. For while the first statement, that a satisfying life comes about through keeping the Law, is, if correctly stated, theoretically in accordance with Scripture (Leviticus 18:5), none of them can achieve it because they have already sinned, and sin constantly. Thus if it is seen as a bargaining counter they are seeking to achieve the impossible.

But what the Scripture was promising (Leviticus 18:5) was not some arduous way into Heaven, it was that by living in accordance with His Law they would enjoy a full life in fellowship with God. So God was not there speaking of achieving eternal life through it. That could only be through God's gift (Romans 6:23). That could only be obtained through God's mercy alone. Thus in doing what they were doing, they were striving to fulfil a goal that they had laid out for themselves, and were missing what was most important, the fact that the new age with its Good News was here, so that eternal life was being offered through faith in Him. Furthermore they had also by their methods distorted the written and infallible Law of God, which they had transformed into something unrecognisable.

‘That which is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.' We have seen above some of the things that men exalt in, but which God hates, but there are two actually mentioned in the passage. The first is their love of wealth. Most men agree with them and exalt in it, but how much God abominates it comes out in the parable that follows. For it stands between men and true goodness. In the parable Abraham, (surely an authority whom the Pharisees will recognise), is pictured as informing the rich man that ‘remember that you in your lifetime received your good things ---but now --- you are in anguish'. Here then is a warning of the danger of riches. Those who bask in good things now are in danger for the future unless they ensure that others more needy can bask in the good things too. But the second will be mentioned rather unexpectedly in Luke 16:18, for we must ask why does He in context bring up the question of divorce? We have already seen that the verse parallels Luke 16:14 in the chiasmus, which suggests that it speaks of something else which the Pharisees love. This suggests that while they were too chaste to engage in open adultery or involvement with prostitutes, they did not mind, or object to, indulging in adultery through marriage with divorced persons. (Perhaps some recent case was especially in Jesus' mind). That too was esteemed among men, but was abomination in the sight of God.