As we saw yesterday, Jesus had been invited into the home of a prominent Pharisee, and was not being a very "nice" guest. He had confronted him about being hypocritical, merciless and foolish. Luke 11 continues:
45 One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.” 46 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. 47 Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. 48 So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. 49 Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ 50 so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, 51 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. 52 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.”
The scribes knew their Bibles well, from Abel to Zechariah, Genesis to the end of the Old Testament. But they did not live by what they knew. Their hearts were untouched by the truths they read to the people. They had the same self-righteous spirit that would lead them to kill Him, the great Prophet Moses had talked about, just like those of the past had killed the prophets they said they revered. The buck stops here. The longer we go in history, the more of God's word, His wisdom, and His martyrs we have, and that means that we are more responsible than ever to live by it. Ever since Eve and Adam, mankind has been proclaiming themselves to be helpless victims for their actions. We cannot do so. We know too much. Even if you or I stopped learning more from God's Word where we are now, we know enough to know how to recognize truth from a lie, right from wrong, and where to go to find out what we do not know. And the more we know, the more accountable we are. Let's not play dumb.
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