Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 11:39

"And the Lord said unto him, Now ye the Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter; but your inward part is full of extortion and wickedness." — Luke 11:39 (ASV)

Now you Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup.—See Note on Matthew 23:25. The verses that follow stand in relation to the great discourse against the Pharisees in that chapter, as the Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6) does to the Sermon on the Mount. Here, too, we recognize another instance, not of a narrative misplaced, but of words actually repeated.

All past experiences, all faults previously noted, were gathered at last into one great and terrible invective. We note, as an instance of independence, St. Luke's use of a different Greek word for “platter”; namely, that which is elsewhere (Matthew 14:8; Matthew 14:11) better translated charger, the large central dish, as distinguished from the smaller “platter” or side-dish.

For the “excess” of St. Matthew, St. Luke has the more generic “wickedness.” From one point of view, the words are more startling here than in their context in St. Matthew. There they are spoken as in open conflict with a class; here they are addressed to an individual member of the class, and by One whom he had invited as a guest. It must be remembered, however, that there was a touch of supercilious scorn in all these invitations. Perhaps this scorn was even more evident in the looks and whispers in which the wonder, in this instance, showed itself. And the words point to secret sins which the Searcher of hearts knew, and which it was necessary to reprove.