Do you think of yourself as religious? My hunch is that actually we could all do religion pretty well, it would look different from person to person but we could all do religion. We like rules and laws from a young age and religion can provide us with those things.
What do you expect Jesus to say about religion? Luke 11:37-54 gives us a bit of a jolt! Jesus says religion is not enough. He is speaking to the Pharisees and religious experts of his day, they did religion brilliantly - they had ways of washing and strict rules about giving - but Jesus comments to them are quite devastating. He calls them 'fools' (v40), now that's not particularly polite in any circumstances but especially when sat around someones dinner table. But Jesus doesn't do it because he wants to be cruel he does it because he wants them to repent.
You see a fool in the Old Testament was someone who was blind towards God and therefore couldn't respond to God properly. That was the religious leaders problem, and Jesus does the most loving thing someone can, he risks opposition and offence by warning them of their mistake and the danger it placed them in.
You don't need religion he says you need a change of heart. Your religion isn't enough to make you right with God. He then goes on to show that he has come to do that, the prophets all point to him and if they want to honour them they need to recognise who he is and what he has come to do. To win a people for God who can come into a holy God's presence not because of religion but because they trust in Jesus who will make them right with God.
The tragedy is 2000 years later, I can still find myself slipping back into religion mode rather than trsuting in God's means of being right with him his Son dying in my place.
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