34 “Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, 35 so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. 36 Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.” (Matthew 23:34–36 (ESV)
In the context of Matthew 23:13-36, Jesus heralded seven woes against the scribes and the Pharisees. Luke 11:37-54 records an earlier lamentation of six woes. Rather than an oracle from a prophet of God, these woes are an oracle from the God of the prophets; Jesus Christ.
Today’s text is not necessarily a word of woe but rather a word of warning. Jesus warned the scribes and the Pharisees judgment was inevitable and imminent. This concluding pronouncement summarized the impending doom facing these religious hypocrites.
“For centuries the Jews had awaited the arrival of their Messiah. The abiding hope in the heart of the Jew was that the day would soon come when the Messiah’s arrival and establishment of His kingdom would usher in the enduring age of promised blessing for God’s people. Every Jewish woman longed to be the mother of that Messiah, and every Jewish man thought of rising to that place of prominence, honor and service,” states Dr. John MacArthur.
“Yet when the Messiah did come and did offer His kingdom and did promise blessing, hope and salvation, instead of receiving Him in faith and love His people rejected Him in unbelief and abhorrence. They so despised Him that they murdered Him and persecuted and often murdered His followers.”
Today’s text is an overall conclusion to this extended discourse. Jesus declared He would presently and actively dispatch prophets, wise men and scribes to the Jewish religious leaders. Prophets (προφήτας; prophetas) were men who spoke forth the Word of the Lord. Wise men (σοφοὺς; sophous) were godly men clever and skilled in the affairs of life and learning. Finally, scribes (γραμματεῖς; grammateis) would be true biblical scholars and teachers of God’s Word. These would become apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastor/teachers (Eph. 4:11).
Even though God sent these three people groups, the Jewish scribes and Pharisees would flog them in their synagogues and persecute them from town to town. This abhorrent behavior is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 4-9; 13-16; 19-28).
Jesus referenced Abel and Zachariah; the first and last Old Testament martyrs. The New Testament Jewish religious leaders would continue the violent opposition of their predecessors.
“The OT does not record how he (Zechariah) died. However, the death of another Zechariah, son of Jehoiada, is recorded in 2 Chron. 24:20–21. He was stoned in the court of the temple, exactly as Jesus describes here. All the best manuscripts of Matthew contain the phrase “Zechariah, son of Barachiah” (though it does not appear in Luke 11:51). Some have suggested that the Zechariah in 2 Chron. 24 was actually a grandson of Jehoiada, and that his father’s name was also Barachiah. But there is no difficulty if we simply take Jesus’ words at face value and accept his infallible testimony that Zechariah the prophet was martyred between the temple and the altar, in a way very similar to how the earlier Zechariah was killed,” explains Dr. MacArthur.
These scribes and Pharisees would experience such persecution themselves in 70 A.D. with the utter destruction of Jerusalem and the burning of the temple by the Romans. What these religious leaders sowed, they would eventually reap.
Galatians 6:7–8 (ESV) says, “7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”
There may be those who persecute the church today. However, the Lord promises to bring and execute righteous judgment on all those who oppose His disciples. Be encouraged church.
Soli deo Gloria!
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