Luke 11:45-46. After Jesus upbraided the Pharisees, one of the lawyers in the crowd pointed out that His words condemned lawyers, as well. Jesus answered "Woe to you lawyers also! for you load men with burdens hard to bear and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers."

This struck me in a mostly non-religious way today. This truly one of the reasons people dislike lawyers so much (and I am one, but I get it!). The law has become almost like a game, with loopholes and complexity that none but those who write and interpret the rules can truly understand. Ordinary people can't hope to comply with everything, so they are most certainly in violation of some law if one just looks hard enough. 

This leads to a cementing of the power of the ruling class, and eventually to tyranny. The people in power in thr US today are almost all lawyers, or at least can afford them, and the law never seems to touch them no matter how egregious their behavior (look at what the Clintons got away with, and what the Bidens seem to be getting away with!). But for ordinary people, there is so much complexity and confusion over the law, it serves to keep people in line for fear of being in violation of some unknown rule. Normal people are punished for the most minor of infractions, and political enemies have the book thrown at them, while a blind eye is turned to the crimes of those in power.

The American justice system is now so corrupt, that I can see exactly what Jesus was talking about when he spoke to the Pharisees and the lawyers. This level of corruption is not sustainable, and I wonder whether it can be fixed or what will come next. Jesus was, of course, talking to the Jewish leaders and lawyers - the people who were supposed to be guiding His people. I hope that the same level of corruption is not present in the Church today. I do not follow Church politics as closely, but it does not seem to be to me, not yet at least.