vs 45
The Teachers of the law feel like they're getting some subtle punches against them too, so one of them speaks out, in the hope I guess that Jesus will say "My apologies! It's only the Pharisees that are stupid."
vs 46
Well, you ask for it, you got it. Jesus clarifies that the Teachers of the Law specifically are to be insulted for loading people up with rituals and ordinances that are unecessary, and not trying to help them keep them at all.
vs 47
I have a feeling that these tombs are like little (or big?) shrines of remembrance for the prophets. Which is ironic because yes, Israel killed most of them.
vs 48
So Jesus interprets their building of tombs for the prophets as an acceptance of their killing by their forefathers. That's a bit rough, but I guess if we wanted to commemorate someone's life (rather than death) we'd build them a statue.
vs 49
I don't know quite where God said that, but I'll take it as read that he did. And if God said it, I'll take it as read that it was wise too.
vs 50
Ack! That's probably a lot of prophets, and might seem unfair, especially as Israel surely didn't kill them all.
vs 51
Abel!? He was a prophet? Didn't say much. But regardless, it does seem unfair that the murdering by Cain gets lumped on the Teachers of the Law, and the whole generation! It seems on the face of it a harsh thing, but when you read the next verse, then you realise what it means.
vs 52
The killing of prophets is the same as the hindering of knowledge - you are stopping God's message from getting to people. If the Teachers of the Law aren't letting people get the message, then they may as well have killed everyone from Abel to Zechariah (I wonder if those are the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet?).
You know that later in the NT it says that teachers will be judged doubly harshly. I wonder if our modern teachers who stuff up (me included) will get blamed with killing the prophets too?
vs 53-54
It's on for young and old now, and Jesus really threw down the gauntlet too. I mean, what do you expect when you stand up and say "Woe to you, because you suck and are fools and don't even get me started on the murderers over there"? Of course, the only person who really has a right to say things like this is a servant of God like a prophet or something (messiah counts), and Jesus, having pointed out the history of the prophets and their demises and who caused them, has really nailed his own coffin shut.
4 comments:
...teachers will be judged doubly harshly. I wonder if our modern teachers who stuff up (me included) will get blamed with killing the prophets too?
I'm assuming that was at least partially a flippant statement?
If not, then no. There's a difference. A teacher humbly and carefully searches out the truth in order to serve those who s/he is teaching (in the knowledge that they will not only have to answer for their own actions but also those who trusted their teaching).
An honest up-stuffing will not be treated equally to a self-serving expert who burdens rather than helps others through their instruction. Not the same at all, even if results may seem similar.
Also noticed that Jesus doesn't refer to them at any point as "teachers", only "experts" - not sure how significant that is, since Luke identifies them as "teachers of the law"...
I'm sorry, perhaps I'm not getting what you're saying here. Are you saying that the teachers of the law were purposefully seeking to burden people through instruction? Are you saying that they are purposefully denying people the knowledge of God, including themselves? If so, to what end?
Luke uses experts in the law and teachers of the law interchangeably apparently (vs 45,53)otherwise there might be something to what you say.
Sorry I haven't replied before now; I came down with a wicked 'flu last week and am only now getting to a place where I can both sit in front of a computer for a substantial period of time and compose coherent sentences.
Now, my clarification of what I meant can only be in the nature of speculation, since Luke doesn't go much into the deliberate motives of the experts in the law, nor really the details of what they do. I'm really just inferring from Jesus' accusations, so I do acknowledge that I could be right off the mark, and am open to instruction.
In the interests of clarity, I'll restate what seems (to me) to be your main concern in this question: What constitutes mishandling of God's word, making a teacher liable to doubly harsh judgement, with the blood of the prophets on his hands?
Jesus doesn't say whether the experts were consciously aware of the burdens they were putting on people or not, which seems to me to be the crux of your question; you want to be sure that you're not burdening people with your teaching, and so the idea that they - and therefore you - could be doing it without even realising is worrying.
However, that doesn't quite seem to be Jesus' point. Jesus seems to me to describe a self-seeking, rather than God-seeking, attitude. So I'm a bit confused your term "purposefully"; the idea of a definite purpose in denying knowledge of God to ourselves, or others, seems to imply that denial of God is not our default state, that we need a reason for it.
The experts of the law were sinful men, and I don't need any other reason to account for their actions. They sustained their own status by claiming authority over how the people could have access to God, and by keeping their understanding and knowledge esoteric, and by their teaching making access to God problematic and burdensome. They never even availed themselves of the benefit of their own expertise, humbly seeking God and wisdom, or they would use that wisdom as God wanted them to: to open the way to God for people and help them along it.
That seems to me to be what they have down, in light of what Jesus accuses them of. Now, to my original point: any teacher, humbly and with the fear of God, trying to understand God through his word, and to use that understanding as well as he can to serve God's people the way God wants him to, will sometimes stuff up. But I maintain that will be judged far differently to a teacher who is not motivated by serving the people God put in his care, but is far more interested in how great his knowledge and intellect is - who, in short, loves himself far more than God and God's work.
Sorry if that is still unclear; my head is still a bit hazy and I don't know if I expressed everything as well as I wanted to. Flu. Blegh!
"That seems to me to be what they have done, in light of what..."
Flu typos. Sorry.
Kfuetvpd! Gesundheit.
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