Key verse: “This generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world, from the Blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all.” - - Luke 11:50-51
“If only I had been there. I wouldn’t have…” It’s pretty typical for us to imagine that we would have behaved differently in a tragedy, or unfortunate past event. Think about it: If you had lived in Nazi Germany would you have participated in the persecution of the Jews? If you had lived in America before the Civil War, would you have participated in the slave trade? We all want to think that we wouldn’t be tempted to participate in the evil of human history. If we had been “there,” wherever or whenever “there” is, we would show them right from wrong and would have been the heroes of the day.
This is the kind of thinking that Jesus is accusing the leaders of His day for having. They thought that if they had been around back then, they would have supported the prophets their ancestors killed. Throughout Jewish history, God continually sent prophets to warn the people to repent and do right or they would face judgment. More often than not, rather than heeding the warning, the people of each generation became angry and punished, or even killed the prophets that God had appointed.
The leaders of Jesus’ day would build memorials to these prophets, finally recognizing what great men those old prophets had truly been. But Jesus states that in so doing they testify against themselves that they are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. By descendants here, Jesus means that they have inherited the same spirit that hates the truth. By opposing rather than supporting him, they are making the same mistakes their ancestors made. They are no better than their ancestors.
Specifically, Jesus refers to an event during the reign of Joash, a king of southern Judah. When Joash was an infant, his grandmother put the entire royal household to death. The high priest’s wife hid Joash and got him to the temple where she and her husband cared for him until he was seven years old and able to assume the kingdom from his wicked grandmother. Throughout his reign, Jehoiada, the husband priest gave Joash wise counsel and helped him become a good king.
Eventually, however, Jehoiada died and Joash gave in to wicked counsel and his own fleshly desires. When Jehoiada’s son, Zechariah, tried to warn Joash to repent, Joash and the people murdered him in the temple. (In Matthew, Zechariah is said to be the son of Berekiah who was a prophet at the end of the exile! By doing this, Jesus reminds his audience of two Zechariah’s at once and encapsulates all of Jewish history, both in terms of the last recorded murder, and in terms of one of the very last prophets. )
Of course, this is not a good event in Jewish history. The leadership of Jesus’ day seem to think that they would not have behaved that way. Jesus, however, knows what is in their hearts. He knows what they are about to do to Him, which is far worse than the death of Zechariah could ever be. So, He issues this warning to them to reconsider before it is too late, before what they do makes them guilty of the blood of all the saints from Abel to that present day.
Jesus is acting as a prophet of old. He is acting as Zechariah had done for Joash before Him. Like Joash, however, they will ignore His warning and take matters into their own hands. Jesus knows this as well.
Most of our sins are like this. We don’t usually accidentally fall into sin. We are usually aware of our choices and consequences. But we fool ourselves into thinking that we can handle what comes our way. Usually, however, it is true that we bite off more than we can chew. Someone once said, “Sin will cost you more than you want to pay and hold you longer than you want to stay.” If the leaders of Jesus’ day had heeded His warning, life could have turned out differently for them. So it is with us. Whoa. Be careful what you think of those with whom you disagree. “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” (Hebrews 3:15)
Hymn: For All the Saints
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