MEANWHILE, WHEN A crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying: “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 2There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 3What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.
4“I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. 5But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. 6Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. 7Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
8“I tell you, whoever acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God. 9But he who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God. 10And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
11“When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, 12for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”
Original Meaning
IN 12:1–48, JESUS calls people to discipleship. This includes fearing God rather than human beings (vv. 1–12), being careful with resources (vv. 13–21), trusting God (vv. 22–34), and being faithful in our stewardship (vv. 35–48). The disciple must look to God and pursue one’s calling with an undistracted eye. Knowing God means we have nothing to fear, so we can walk confidently with him.
Jesus turns his attention to the disciples in 12:1–12, as they deal with the huge crowds pressing around them.1 People are almost walking on top of each other. Their press raises an issue that becomes a temptation to the disciples: hypocrisy. An effort to maintain popularity easily leads to hypocrisy. Jesus warns them not to follow the example of the Pharisees, whose record Luke has just noted (11:37–52). He calls them to be on guard against “the yeast of the Pharisees.” Yeast refers to their teaching and its hypocrisy, which can permeate in a community like the substance people put in bread.
To enhance the warning, Jesus emphasizes that everything will be disclosed before God in the coming day of judgment (Rom. 2:15; 1 Cor. 4:5), when our lives will be evaluated. Nothing will be concealed. The reference to “inner rooms” in verse 3 describes the innermost location in the house. God’s omniscience penetrates every locale and every thought. Even what is whispered will be known. On that coming day, disciples will have their stewardship of God’s gifts and opportunities examined, and they will be rewarded accordingly (1 Cor. 3:10–17), though forgiveness and eternal life come only through drawing on the forgiveness Christ provides. Those who do not know the Lord will have their actions condemned (Rev. 20:11–15; 21:27; 22:15).
A being who knows all our secrets should be feared. Therefore, Jesus declares, we should fear the One who has the power to place us in hell, not someone who can merely kill the body. The latter means only the end of this life, while the former means permanent separation from God. As Jesus asked in 9:25, what good is it to gain the whole world and lose one’s soul?2 Jesus discusses the issue of whom to fear because the world’s rejection for identifying with him is a real prospect—so real that some may back off from coming to him. But to fear the multitude and to turn away from God is to make the wrong choice.
On the other hand, the fear of God and his presence can also bring incredible comfort. Our Lord is aware of the needs of those who belong to him, just as he is aware of and cares for birds that are sold for a few small, cheap coins. God knows even minute details like the number of hairs on our head. Someone who knows us so well will certainly care for us. So in fearing God, we have nothing to fear from anyone else, for we are worth more than the sparrows.
This message about fearing God is reinforced in remarks about Jesus as the Son of Man (vv. 8–9). To acknowledge this being is to be acknowledged by God; to disown him is to face disownment later. This juxtaposition of fearing God with the Son of Man again shows the close connection between his ministry and God’s call. Virtually every passage in this Jerusalem journey section highlights the importance and consequences of choosing to believe in Jesus.
Verse 10 is one of the most enigmatic in Luke. The sin of denying the Son of Man can be forgiven, but to the person who blasphemes the Spirit there will be no forgiveness. There are four choices as plausible definitions for this blasphemy: claiming that Jesus has come from Satan (11:14–20), renouncing Jesus because of persecution (that is, apostasy), rejecting the preaching of the apostles, or persistently rejecting the message of the gospel. The final choice is the most likely, since it fits the warning about being thrown into hell and the warnings in Acts about what is at stake for rejecting the apostles’ message (Acts 3:22–26; 13:38–41). Speaking a word against the Son of Man refers to a specific act of rejection, while rejecting the testimony of the Spirit refers to a permanent rejection of that message of salvation. The best example of this principle is Saul, who stood at Stephen’s execution in Acts 7, but who later came to faith and thus received forgiveness for his previous acts against preaching about Jesus. He had spoken against the Son of Man, but ended up not rejecting the Spirit’s call to believe in Jesus. This decision about the testimony the Spirit gives is the key issue for Jesus.
This connection is reinforced in verses 11–12. There is nothing to fear in persecution, because the Holy Spirit will teach his people what to say before the synagogues, rulers, and authorities. Their message will be his message. If they reject them, they reject Jesus, but he will serve as the source of strength and wisdom for his people. Thus, by fearing God, disciples have nothing to fear from people.
Bridging Contexts
THIS PASSAGE ASKS fundamental questions about our identity. Will we fear God or the masses? Does our affirmation come from above or from our neighbors? Some Christians in choosing for God will inevitably face rejection from others. Jesus anticipates this as he speaks of his disciples’ being brought before the synagogues and rulers. In such pressure moments, they will be tempted to court popularity and thus perhaps be hypocritical. Jesus’ call to guard against such “hypocrisy” (v. 1) is a warning to us not to court numbers as we face rejection. The theology that undergirds these remarks—the omniscience of God and the support of his Spirit—also stands as a constant that informs this text and all our lives.
This text addresses our accountability before God. We must fear him, which in this setting means to respect his authority as judge and his knowledge of us. We sometimes like to think that we have moments of privacy when no one sees what we do or knows what we think. That may be true with reference to people, but this is not true of God. He sees in the inner room, even when the lights are out and when no one else can see. Respect for his knowledge and our accountability to him means we will conduct our lives like an open book, where we have nothing to hide.
If we are righteous before God, we have nothing to fear from him. As 1 John 3:1–3 suggests, those who live in light of the hope of the return of God, knowing that he knows everything, will purify themselves with the hope of his return and the responsibility it puts on us to be faithful. If we do fail, we remember the grace of God and the forgiveness Christ offers us rather than fall into a hopeless despair. The availability of forgiveness is part of what makes grace so amazing and God’s love so divine. Hymns like “Amazing Grace” and “Love So Divine” underscore the beauty of the true richness of God’s forgiveness. We fear God without being afraid of him when we rest in his grace, draw on its resources, and pursue righteousness through the enablement he so graciously gives.
The fundamental choice to hear the Spirit’s testimony and fear God is also a theme that spans the ages. The Spirit inside of us leads us into drawing on his enablement in the difficult moments when we are confronted by those hostile to our faith. We need to be prepared both to respond when challenged (1 Peter 3:15) and to draw on the encouragement and instruction God provides within our communities.
We should also rest in the knowledge that God is there with us as we face opposition. Numerous testimonies have come from the former Eastern block of believers who stood firm, even in the face of death or torture, to testify to their faith in God. Sometimes others were drawn to Jesus through their strength.3 There is little in this passage that does not enter into our era, except the express form of persecution that the first generation of disciples faced, which occurs today only in some places around the world. The rejection the early Christians faced tended to come from the Jewish circles in which they grew up; today’s rejection comes from a much wider array of sources and often takes a more subtle form, where physical life may not be challenged but ostracism may occur.
But what must the church do to stand effectively in this era? Charles Colson and Bob Briner both have helpful observations as to how to fear God before other human beings. Colson notes about the church’s need to be prophetic:
When Christianity was made the official religion of Rome in the fourth century, the church became socially and politically acceptable. People with halfhearted faith flocked to churches that could no longer disciple them. Soon the word “Christian” became meaningless. And when the empire that sanctioned it collapsed, the church nearly went down too.
In the Middle Ages, the unholy alliance of church and state resulted in bloody crusades and scandalous inquisitions. And in our own day, one of the most inglorious examples can be found in the church’s failure to stand solidly against Hitler in Germany during the 1930s.
The church must stand apart from the state. Independence from a culture is what gives the church its reforming capacity and enables it to point society toward the truth. The church must be free to address issues biblically across the spectrum and to speak prophetically, regardless of who is in power.
Ironically, political flirtations and dalliances have threatened the church’s independence in the West even more than the direct oppression of the Communists in the East.4
Briner states the hope of the church’s testimony this way, using the image of roaring lambs:
It’s time for lambs to roar.
What I am calling for is a radically different way of thinking about our world. Instead of running from it, we need to rush into it. And instead of just hanging around the fringes of our culture, we need to be right smack dab in the middle of it.
Why not believe that one day the most critically acclaimed director in Hollywood could be an active Christian layman in his church? Why not hope that a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting could go to a Christian journalist on staff at a major daily newspaper? Is it really too much of a stretch to think that a major exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art could feature the works of an artist on staff at one of our fine Christian colleges? Am I out of my mind to suggest that your son or daughter could be the principle [sic] dancer for the Joffrey Ballet Company, leading a weekly Bible study for other dancers in what was once considered a profession that was morally bankrupt?5
The best way to testimony is through credible engagement from within our vocational call.
Contemporary Significance
WE ALL HAVE moments of truth—the time where we must put our soul where our mouth is and stand up and be counted. To be a Christian, we often must face people who do not understand us, who reject the principles we live for, or who may even be hostile to our beliefs about our God. Sometimes in having the opportunity to share him we must risk the possibility of being rejected. Our values may cause us to do things or not do things that produce a negative response to us. All of this can come with the territory of identifying with Jesus.
When I worked with Young Life in college, we often posed the question this way: If you were on trial for being a Christian, would there be evidence to convict you? Do people know by how you live (not just by what you say) that you are allied to him? The foundational attitude that enables such a testimony to emerge is to fear and serve God. Jesus calls for such a basic attitude in the face of a world that often reacts negatively to Christians.
In a sense, Jesus does not call for action here, but for an attitude. There is little to do but much to sense about ourselves in relationship to God and his care. We are accountable to him for how we respond to situations and pressures that come as a result of our walk with him. We should trust that he cares for us and believe that he will supply the Spirit’s strength when needed. To fear him means to respect his presence, to trust in his care, and not to worry about how others react to us. It means not going along with popular opinion, for the majority may not always be right. With this recognition, we can respond with inner strength and dependence to situations that emerge where our faith is challenged.
Another application relates to the serious nature of the choice of rejecting the testimony of the Spirit about Jesus—a point Luke has been making in these last few chapters. The unforgivable sin is rejecting what God has offered in the forgiveness present in Jesus. There can be no “it makes no difference” approach to Jesus’ question. Our culture may say there are many routes to God, but Jesus does not provide that option.
The “no escape” conclusion of this passage indicates just how seriously Jesus took the prospect of final judgment. God can throw someone into hell. This doctrine is among the more controversial teachings of the Christian faith. Some have argued that God does not punish eternally. Rather, those who fall into judgment are destroyed, and all texts on eternal destruction are metaphors for the destruction of the soul.6 But texts like Revelation 20:10–15 and 22:15 suggest that the unrighteous continue to exist outside the presence of God, having discovered that he exists and that it is too late. In what are surely the most tragic texts of the Bible, these passages teach that to reject God and to come into judgment is one of the most despairing experiences possible. For after the judgment, a person knows for certain that there is a God and that they have forever missed the chance to know him. What a horrid feeling it must be to discover God exists, that Jesus is the answer, and then to know, after seeing God face to face, that the opportunity for blessing has been missed. That is why the teaching about judgment is so important, and that is why it is so crucial to share Jesus with those who need to know him.