Luke 11:47-54 - Killing the prophets, throwing away the keys

11:47,48

It is not clear whether this woe is directed specifically at the experts in the Law, but it doesn’t really matter, it applies generally to the religious leaders of the time. They expressed honour for the prophets of old, building tombs in their honour. Yet the religious leaders of the time had often killed them. Prophets were rarely welcomed with open arms. Now that a prophet, and one infinitely greater than a prophet, was among them they reacted in exactly the same way as their ancestors. They did not listen to the word of God and sought to kill Jesus. We can see the same pattern in our day, and we must be wary of this occurring in our own lives. When God speaks or acts He speaks to change our lives, He speaks because there is something that needs to change, usually us! It is easy to venerate a man or woman of God who is speaking the word to someone else, challenging someone else. It is a very different matter when God is challenging us! It is also worth noting that a key aspect of prophecy is challenging individuals, the church or society. A lot of what goes under the banner of prophecy today is quite frankly pathetic.

11:49-51

Now these verses illustrate something of how the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man work together. We are forever wanting to put things completely into one category or the other. Ie something is entirely down to the sovereignty of God, or it is down to human free will. We do not find the Bible doing this. In verse 49 we see that God decided to send prophets and apostles, knowing and with the intention that some would be killed and others persecuted. Then in the next verse we see that men are held responsible for their actions. No one understands exactly how human free will works, but the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man go together and there is no conflict between the two. The Zechariah mentioned here is from 2 Chron 24:20,21.

So why is “this generation” held responsible for death of all the prophets? It seems a bit like when politicians “apologise” for things that happened centuries ago and in which we played no part. I don’t know the answer, but perhaps Jesus is looking forward to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD66-70, seeing this as a judgement on Israel for all her past sins.

11:52-54

The experts in the Law were so proud of their knowledge, but in reality they knew nothing. The same could be said of many so-called theologians today. Worse than that, they stopped others seeing the truth, they were a hindrance not a help. We always need to remember that we are here to present God’s wisdom, not what we might imagine to be our own wisdom, and our purpose is to help others see the kingdom of God.

The Pharisees and teachers of the Law reacted in typical fashion. Instead of repenting and seeking help from Jesus they were full of anger and sought to plot to see how they could catch Jesus out. If we faithfully seek to follow the Lord there will be times when we encounter fierce opposition. This does not mean we have made a mistake, it does not mean God’s plan is out of control, it is just the way that things work.