We are not alright. That can be hard to hear, but it is the truth: we are not alright. We are sinful people who need a savior. That is why Jesus Christ came to the earth: to show us the way and then to die in atonement for our sins. Yet there is this movement in the modern world to minimize that aspect of Jesus. There is a movement to make him a nice guy: a guru who tells us to simply love each other and take care of one another. There is no need to repent of your sins or amend your ways. This Gospel passage presents a very different Jesus than the modern characterization.
Jesus Denounces Pharisees and Lawyers (finale)
“Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your ancestors who killed them. So you testify that you approve of what your ancestors did; they killed the prophets, and you build their tombs. Because of this, God in his wisdom said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute.’ Therefore 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. “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.” When Jesus went outside, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely and to besiege him with questions, waiting to catch him in something he might say. Luke 11 : 47-54
Scriptural Analysis
Recall that Jesus was invited to dinner at the house of a Pharisee. While there, the Pharisees and Lawyers remarked on Jesus failing to observe the ritual washings. Jesus has already rebuked them for that and then began to pronounce a series of woes direct towards them: three for the Pharisees and three for the Lawyers. In the previous passage he addressed the woes for the Pharisees and the first woe directed at the Lawyers. In this passage, Jesus picks up with the second woe.
In the second woe, Jesus warns the Lawyers that history is repeating itself: namely, the killing of the many prophets sent by God. The phrase, “Abel to the blood of Zechariah” represents the full gamut of Old Testament prophets. While the lawyers appear to honor these people by building them memorials, they prefer them dead and buried. They will continue to kill those sent by God including Jesus himself as well as some of the Apostles of the early church. This will later be called out again by Stephen, “Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute?” (Acts 7:52)
Note that in the second woe, Jesus again refers to this generation. Jeremiah had prophesied to this generation because the people had not listened to the prophets sent by God:
Say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says: If you do not listen to me and follow my law, which I have set before you, and if you do not listen to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I have sent to you again and again (though you have not listened), then I will make this house like Shiloh and this city a curse among all the nations of the earth.’” The priests, the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speak these words in the house of the Lord. But as soon as Jeremiah finished telling all the people everything the Lord had commanded him to say, the priests, the prophets and all the people seized him and said, “You must die! Why do you prophesy in the Lord’s name that this house will be like Shiloh and this city will be desolate and deserted?” And all the people crowded around Jeremiah in the house of the Lord. Jeremiah 26 : 4-9
Jesus will again use the term, this generation, when he foretells of the destruction of the temple later in Luke’s Gospel, “this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.” (21:32). Rome will eventually destroy the temple in A.D. 70.
The last woe is again a woe of irony. Just as he did with the Pharisees, Jesus is pointing out to the lawyers how they are failing to, “hear the word of God and keep it!” (11:28) The lawyers are responsible for passing down that they have heard, teaching others the word of God. However, they have kept the word from others by focussing on trivial matters and neglecting important one. This failure will keep the Lawyers, as well as others, out of the kingdom.
After pronouncement of the woes, Jesus leaves the meal. Rather than listen to his words, the Pharisees and Lawyers react with hostility. They will question him again in hopes that they can catch him in speech that incriminates Jesus.
Daily Application
Jesus spared nothing when he spoke to the Pharisees and the Lawyers. He laid it all on the table telling them that they have failed to appropriately carry out the duties that their particular positions require. Furthermore, their spiritual heart was ill. He was particularly tough on this group of people because they, more than anybody, should have recognized what the law required of them and should have recognized Jesus. Yet they were leading the charge against him just as they had all of the prophets who proceeded him.
We are not much different. Jesus has clearly laid out for us the path to heaven: has clearly laid out the need to repent of our sinful ways and follow him. He tells us that following him is not easy. The metaphor he uses it taking up the cross. He tells us we are blessed if people despise us on account of him.
Yet we try to ignore this. We ignore this in a couple of ways. First, we outright reject him In our post-Christian world, we see more and more people doing this. However, the far more sinister rejection that we see, is the attempt to remake Jesus into the savior we want instead of allow him to be the perfect savior we need. We see that his message gets watered down into some kind of feel good self help advice. God loves you just as you are. There is no need to change. Just love everyone, take care of the poor, be a good person. That is all that Jesus’s message is about. That is all he demands of us.
There are aspects to that which are true. God love’s each and everyone of us no matter how bad of a sinner we are. We are also called to love everyone and that love manifests itself in service of the poor. However, just as important as that is, the call to repentance, to amend our ways, is equally as important. Mark’s Gospel opens right away with a call to repentance. As a loving Father, God wants the best for us. Remaining in a life of sin is not what is best for us. So he sent prophets to call us to repentance and then finally sent his Son to complete that call: a call he completed on the cross.
We are not alright and that is okay. It is okay for us to acknowledge that we are sinners and need a savior. What is not okay is to deny that: deny that there is anything wrong. It is not okay to ignore repentance as a central theme in Jesus’s mission. It is not okay to try and remake Jesus into something he was not: something that allows us to remain as we are, remain in our sins.
Allow Christ to be who his is: our Lord and Savior. Recognize that you are not alright: none of us our. Then allow Christ to show those areas of your life where you have not allowed him to fully penetrate you: those sins that you still struggle with and need to repent of. Then head to confession and receive his mercy and forgiveness lest you be part of this generation.
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