The key to knowledge

“Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.” Luke 11:52
This verse is similar to Matt. 23:13, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” In this verse in Luke, Jesus announces woe on them because not only have they shut the door to the kingdom of heaven, but they have thrown away the key.
The teachers of the law had a responsibility to teach the people about the coming of Messiah. They, more than anyone else, should have recognised Jesus for Who He was. But not only did they fail to recognise Him as Messiah, but they openly denounced and rejected Him, and forced others to do the same (c.f. John 9:22, John 12:42).
In the Old Testament, we read, “He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure” (Isa. 33:6). This is another thing the Pharisees and teachers of the law had lost – the fear of the Lord. They were willing to conspire to murder Jesus, in order to maintain the status quo with themselves at the top of the heap.
The message is still the same to us today. We can find ourselves placing restrictions on people – ‘You can’t wear jeans to church’, or ‘you shouldn’t go shopping on Sundays’, or ‘you can’t be a Christian if you smoke.’ The Bible doesn’t say anything about any of these. It’s not up to us to judge the jeans-wearing, smoking, Sunday shoppers concerning their own liberties. Let us not be guilty of hindering people from entering the kingdom.