Thursday in the 28th Week of Ordinary Time, October 13, 2022

Luke 11, 47-54

The Lord said: “Woe to you who build the memorials of the prophets whom your fathers killed. Consequently, you bear witness and give consent to the deeds of your ancestors, for they killed them and you do the building. Therefore, the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them Prophets and Apostles; some of them they will kill and persecute’ in order that this generation might be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who died between the altar and the temple building. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be charged with their blood! Woe to you, scholars of the law! You have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter.” When Jesus left, the scribes and Pharisees began to act with hostility toward him and to interrogate him about many things, for they were plotting to catch him at something he might say.

“Woe to you who build the memorials of the prophets whom your fathers killed.”  The Lord’s words used for today’s Gospel Reading seem hard for us to understand.  This is because they reflect a way of thinking quite foreign to us.  First of all, in understanding what the Lord is teaching, it is necessary to get a correct translation.  The Greek word translated here as “memorials” actually means “tombs” or “sepulchers”.  These are not memorials in the usual sense of the word, as George Washington’s body is not buried at the Washington Memorial in D.C.  Now, the Jewish authorities of the time were the descendants of the authorities who had killed the Prophets.  According to the thought of the time, these descendants still bore responsibility for what their ancestors had done.  We find this expressed when Almighty God says to Moses, “I am the Lord your God, a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon their children unto the third and fourth generation, to them that hate me” (Deuteronomy 5, 9).  The Jewish authorities of the Lord’s time could have separated themselves from this responsibility by condemning their actions, but they did not.  Instead, they seek to legitimize their authority in the eyes of the people by building beautiful tombs for the murdered Prophets.  Thus, he says, “Consequently, you bear witness and give consent to the deeds of your ancestors, for they killed them and you do the building.”

“I will send to them Prophets and Apostles; some of them they will kill and persecute.”  The Lord Jesus quotes his Father, but since this quote does not occur in the Law or the Prophets, it seems to be a statement the Father made directly to the Son, evidently before his Incarnation.  This statement reveals God’s Providence: he will send Prophets and Apostles with the definite knowledge that certain of them will be killed.  While this may seem cruel, it is for the salvation of those who are killed, for those who benefit from the steadfastness of their witness, and for those who will benefit from their intercession in the future.  God will do this also “in order that this generation might be charged with the blood of all the Prophets shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who died between the altar and the temple building.”  St. Luke is quoting our Lord here with an eye for his Gentile audience who might be wondering why they should worship Jesus, whom his own people had rejected.  Here, Jesus charges the Jews, or, at least, their wicked rulers, with having rejected and killed those whom God had sent to them.  In short, the Jews rejected Jesus, the Son of God, because they were wicked from the very beginning, and they will be held responsible if not during their lifetimes, then certainly at the final judgment.  By “this generation”, the Lord might mean the “generation” or “race” of humans, as it were, descended form Cain and sharing his desire to murder the good.  The Lord says “from Abel to Zechariah”, which the Greeks would have understood as “from A to Z” (“from Alpha to Zeta”).  “Yes, I tell you, this generation will be charged with their blood!”  All the wicked, and especially those who persecute and kill the Apostles and Prophets God sends into the world.

“Woe to you, scholars of the law! You have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter.”  The “keys of knowledge” means the correct way to interpret the Scriptures.  These scholars stop those trying to enter the house of knowledge by repeating and attempting to defend the false teachings of the Pharisees having to do, particularly, with the Messiah.  

“When Jesus left, the scribes and Pharisees began to act with hostility toward him and to interrogate him about many things, for they were plotting to catch him at something he might say.”  We recall that Jesus had eaten that afternoon at the house of a Pharisee (cf. Luke 11, 37).  His rebuke of the Pharisees began with his host wondering, accusingly, why Jesus had not washed before dinner, as he thought the Law commanded everyone to do.  It is hard to say whether the Lord spoke up about this at that time or after the meal was concluded when there was an opportunity to talk.  From the way Luke relates this event, it appears that after the Lord finished speaking, he got up and made his way to the door, and as he did so, the scribes and the Pharisees began to “interrogate” him, but he did not answer their questions, for they did not ask them in good faith.

You and I are among the Apostles and Prophets whom God sends into the world to convert it through our preaching, example, and prayers.  We know that we are opposed by wicked people, but we also know that Jesus has told us, “I am with you until the consummation of the world” (Matthew 28, 20).