Killing God's Messenger

Moving on in Luke 11:50, Jesus warns that those responsible for the murder of God’s prophets, from Abel to Zechariah will be judged by Him for those death’s.

Again, we live our lives under the false impression that God is not paying attention to the details. Those that have, continue and will murder the messenger’s of God, think that they will get away with their transgressions because there is an absence of immediate Godly judgement immediately following the sinful deed.

In the case of Abel, he was woefully unprepared for the murderous wrath coming from his brother. After all, I am sure that he trusted Cain and when he was invited to walk in the fields with his brother, he was delighted to go with him.

In my bible I have made a note that the name Cain means “Acquired” and Abel means “Breath”. In Genesis 4:1-12 gives an accounting of the death of Abel and how the blood of Abel cries out to God, from the ground. I think that we have to keep in mind that this is the very picture of a dysfunctional family of man, from the get go. God must have and I’m sure continues to wonder if we are worth the trouble to keep around.

I found a website that offers a pretty good sermon on the death of Zechariah in a historical framework. I highlighted a portion of the sermon here and if you would like to visit the website, the address is http://www.rutgerschurch.com/Sermons/sermon071303.html .

On Speaking God's Truth to Power
© by the Reverend Dr. Byron E. Shafer
A sermon preached at Rutgers Presbyterian Church
on July 13, 2003; the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
Scripture Lessons: II Chronicles 24:17-22; Mark 6:14-29

In your imagination, travel with me back to the last half of the 9th century BCE, some 2,850 years ago, when God’s people of Israel were divided into two kingdoms, the southern nation of Judah and the northern nation of Israel.

When King Ahaziah of Judah is slain by followers of the new and insurgent dynasty up north, in Israel, Ahaziah’s mother, named Athaliah, seeks to succeed her deceased son and to assume the throne of Judah herself. Her move is absolutely unprecedented in at least two ways—first she is a woman, and in all of Judah’s history there has never been a female monarch; and second she is not a descendant of David, and there has never sat on Judah’s throne anyone other than a descendant of David, that venerable ancestor-king, to whom God had promised a perpetual dynasty.

In order to cement her claim to the throne, Athaliah and her allies go about finding and slaying every last one of the living male descendants of David. But the wife of the high priest in Jerusalem, a woman who is herself a descendant of David, succeeds in hiding her infant nephew Joash, saving him from Athaliah’s massacre. Time passes, and then when Joash reaches the age of seven, the high priest Jehoiada leads a revolt against Athaliah that is successful, and she is put to death. So the rescued boy Joash, who is the last living male descendant of David, becomes king. And so long as the high priest Jehoiada is alive, King Joash does that which is right in the sight of God.

But today’s First Lesson begins with the notice that Jehoaida has died, and it goes on to say that after Jehoiada is buried Joash abandons the ways of God and lapses into the corruption and arrogance of power.

In response, God sends some prophets to admonish the king and his courtiers, but the king and his retinue do not listen. So God chooses a special prophet, one named Zechariah, who is a son of that high priest Jehoiada, a son of the very man whose wife had protected Joash from death as an infant, a son of the very man who had led the revolt against Athaliah and had made Joash king.

But over time, as I said, power has corrupted Joash and has made him arrogant, so when the prophet Zechariah seeks to speak God’s truth to him, Joash does not listen. Instead, he turns Zechariah over to his courtiers so that the prophet can be stoned to death right then and there, in the very courtyard of God’s own temple. So this prophet, this spokesperson for God’s truth, is put to death for daring to challenge the king’s misuse of power. And that is the story of Zechariah!

The words of Jesus in Luke 11:50, are the same words of a dying Zechariah, who said, “May the Lord see what they (the murderers) are doing and hold them accountable”. From the prophet who lived a thousand years before Christ to the word that we read today, the message is a consistent one, that those who murder God’s messengers will be punished by Him.

The last thing that I would like to say about this passage is that, it is normal for a man who is about to be murdered, to cry out for justice and judgement against those who are killing him. In the case of Jesus, He cried out for forgiveness from the Father for those who murdered Him, not retribution.