One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.” And he said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.”(Luke 11:45-52 ESV)
The Pharisees were not the only ones who greatly grieved Jesus by their lack of response. These lawyers, or scribes of the law had been entrusted with preserving and presenting the Word of God so the people could understand and apply it. Instead, they had made it more painful to obey God, played "kill the messenger", and actually "locked up" the law to keep it from the people - an earlier version of the Dark Ages. We might not do such severe things, but do we make pleasing God seem so hard others give up seeking Him? Do we have "fried preacher" for dinner? Do we turn the word into secrect knowledge we try to hoard?
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