"'A curse is on you, for you build monuments to the prophets your ancestors killed. So you approve and agree with what your ancestors did. Is it not so? They got rid of the prophets, and you build monuments to them!
For that reason the wisdom of GOD also said: I will send prophets and apostles and these people will kill and persecute some of them. But the present generation will have to answer for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was murdered between the altar and the Sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, the people of this time will have to answer for them all.
A curse is on you, teachers of the law, for you have taken the key of knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you prevented others from entering.'
As JESUS left that place, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees began to harass HIM, asking HIM endless questions, setting traps to catch HIM in something HE might say." - Luke 11:47-54
(Those who, before Luke, wrote down this saying of JESUS: I will send prophets... [which we also read in Matthew 23:34], introduced it with the formula: "Wisdom says," which was a way of designating JESUS. When Luke placed these lines within JESUS' discourse, he forgot to take out these words. Removing them would have made the text a lot clearer.
JESUS states that the Pharisees and the teachers of the law will be mainly responsible for the persecution against the first Christians [against those apostles and prophets HE is going to send].
The warning of JESUS is equally relevant for Christian institutions and all those who in one way or another guide the community. We too, perhaps, build a church for the "elite" who unconsciously despise the poor and the lowly. So very quickly were the prophets paralyzed or eliminated.
You yourselves have not entered, and you prevented others from entering. Is not this one of the reasons why so many simple people go to other churches?)
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