“And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.”
My Notes
What Does Matthew 23:30 Mean?
"And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets." The scribes and Pharisees build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous — honoring the dead prophets while simultaneously plotting to kill the living Prophet standing in front of them. Their claim: if we had been there, we wouldn't have killed the prophets. Jesus' response (v. 31): you just testified that you're the sons of the prophet-killers. And (v. 34-35): you're about to do exactly what you claim you never would have.
The self-deception is the indictment: the people most confident they wouldn't have killed the prophets are the people currently killing the Prophet. The distance from the past blinds them to the present.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What living prophetic voice are you ignoring while honoring the prophets of the past?
- 2.Why is it easy to honor dead prophets and hard to listen to living ones?
- 3.Where is the 'if we had been there' self-deception operating in your community?
- 4.What uncomfortable truth is being spoken in your generation that you're treating the same way your 'fathers' treated theirs?
Devotional
If we had been there, we wouldn't have killed the prophets. The most confident claim made by the people currently plotting to kill the ultimate Prophet. The historical distance creates the moral delusion: we can honor dead prophets while murdering the living one and not see the contradiction.
The Pharisees decorate the prophets' graves. They build elaborate tombs. They say: our ancestors were wrong to kill these men. We're different. We would have listened. We would have honored them. We would not have been partakers in their blood. The self-assessment is sincere. And it's completely wrong.
Jesus' response is devastating: you're proving you're exactly like your fathers. You're building tombs for the prophets your fathers killed while building the case to kill the Prophet your father sent. The tomb-building and the murder-plotting are happening simultaneously — and you can't see it because the historical prophets are safely dead. Dead prophets are easy to honor. Living prophets are dangerous.
The pattern is timeless: every generation thinks it would have recognized what the previous generation missed. We would have sheltered the Jews. We would have supported the civil rights movement. We would have listened to the prophets. And the generation making these claims is simultaneously ignoring the prophetic voices of its own era — because the contemporary prophet is as uncomfortable as the ancient one was.
The test isn't whether you honor dead prophets. Everyone honors dead prophets. The test is whether you recognize the living one. The voice in your generation that says the uncomfortable thing. The person who disrupts your religious comfort with the same message Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Amos brought to theirs. The prophet you're currently plotting against while decorating the tomb of the one your parents killed.
You say: if we had been in their days. Jesus says: you're in those days right now. The prophet is standing in front of you. What are you doing about it?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves,.... Or "against yourselves", as the Syriac reads; for what they said was a…
And say ... - This they professed to say by rebuilding their tombs. They also, probably, publicly expressed their…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture