whom your fathers killed.
It doesn't sound so bad on the surface. Isn't it good to honor the prophets? Even if our fathers were involved in killing the prophets isn't this memorial building a step in the right direction? Isn't it honoring them rather than killing them?
Not here. Building a memorial to the prophets could be a great thing. But here the motivation is the same that caused the killing in the first place.
Consequently, you bear witness and give consent
to the deeds of your ancestors,
for they killed them and you do the building.
The motivation seems to be that the scribes and Pharisees want to be in the spotlight themselves. They ultimately have no room for the prophets. They kill them when they can. When it is too late, when the prophets are already known to be prophets, they appropriate them to their own ends. They build memorials so that everyone will have to think about the prophets through the lens of their own accomplishments.
In fact, we are much the same. We don't give God the room he deserves. We're content to have a memorial to his work. We are content to have him as decor. But we don't like it when he starts to rearrange and redirect our lives. We are happy to have a statue of him on his glorious throne upon the cherubim. We are much more reluctant to give him the throne of our own lives.
When this motivation dominates the key of knowledge of taken away from those who genuinely want to find it. Seekers only see us and not God at work within us. We ourselves do not enter the kingdom and we become stumbling blocks to those trying to enter. We see this motivation climax at the crucifixion of Jesus. It is as if the whole hostility toward God throughout history is joined together in one terrible deed.
in order that this generation might be charged
with the blood of all the prophets
shed since the foundation of the world,
But God is bigger and stronger than our hostility against him. He accepts this hostility and uses it to bring us redemption, the forgiveness of transgressions.
In Christ we have redemption by his Blood,
the forgiveness of transgressions,
in accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us.
The keys to knowledge are no longer held inert by our selfishness. In his selfless love Jesus makes known what the scholars of the law and Pharisees will not tell, what they in fact cannot tell.
In all wisdom and insight, he has made known to us
the mystery of his will in accord with his favor
that he set forth in him as a plan for the fullness of times,
to sum up all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth.
Just as our selfishness prevents us and the world from obtaining saving knowledge of God's will and unites us in bloodshed and hostility so does the selfless love of Jesus make known the saving knowledge "of the mystery of his will" and unites us in love, summing up all things in Christ.
Sing a new song to the LORD,
for he has done marvelous deeds.
His right hand and holy arm
have won the victory.
The LORD has made his victory known;
has revealed his triumph in the sight of the nations,
The grace offered to us this morning is a grace to know the greatness of God's love for us and to be united in his plan.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in Christ
with every spiritual blessing in the heavens,
Every blessing? Yes, every blessing.
as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world,
to be holy and without blemish before him.
We are blessed and we are chosen. We are given wisdom. We are united in Christ. There is nothing else we need.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation by our God.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
break into song; sing praise.
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