Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Matthew 23:29-30
What were the Pharisees doing?
Prophets are God’s messengers.
The monuments to martyred prophets were rightly revered.
The Pharisees were especially mindful to honor those prophets.
But they claimed superiority over their forefathers.
THEY would not have martyred God’s spokesmen.
They would have honored those prophets and their word.
Jesus knew their hearts.
He knew they were plotting His death.
He was not merely a prophet speaking FOR God.
He was Emmanuel, speaking AS God.
Every single thing the Pharisees did was for show.
They were self-serving, self-aggrandizing, and self-righteous.
They were deceived. Deluded. Blind.
Do we read Scripture and make the same mistake as the Pharisees?
Are we self-righteous when we consider others?
Do we call out a sin in others when we were committing the same sin or worse?
Do we ever tear down a messenger from God?
Jesus consistently reserved His harshest words for those who were most religious.
Here He unequivocally disabused them of the notion
That they would not have shed the blood of the prophets.
The woes are a caution to us.
Let us be authentic, humble, teachable.
Let us love God with our whole beings.
Let us devote ourselves to His word.
Let us love and serve one another.
Let us be children of God.