An Examination of This Interesting Passage: Luke 11:47-51

Luke 11:47-51 as an interesting passage. In Christ's day the Jewish authorities were moving all of the prophets' tombs to the outskirts of the city. They were moving the tombs for the sake of the tourist trade. People traveled from all over the Roman world to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem. As they walked around the city, some of them would touch the prophets' tombs accidentally; however, having touched a tomb, they were ceremonially unclean, even if the tomb was over five hundred years old. Being ceremonially unclean they could not participate in Passover. This would make people pretty angry. So, all of the tombs were being moved to a safe area outside of town. Christ said to the Scribes and Pharisees, "Your fathers killed the prophets, you build their tombs. So, you are guilty of their deaths too." Well, there's certain logic to this, and it was exactly the kind of logic the Pharisees themselves used to condemn people; however, there's far more to the story than this.

The guilt of every righteous man since Abel would be charged against that generation. Why Abel? He certainly wasn't buried in Jerusalem. He lived long before Noah's flood. The heart of the thing is really this: Christ was present within all of His people through all of time. He was one with the prophets and His Word was on their lips. So, by killing Jesus, they were also in a sense murdering all of those who had died in Him and for His Word in the past. They were therefore guilty of the murder of all of Israel's prophets. Typology results at least partly from this unity in Christ that is shared by all of God's people. Since Christ is in the heart of His people, elements in Christ's life tend to resemble events in their lives. Since all of God's people are united in worshipping the Lord, elements of their worship point to Him. Since all of God's people are one in Him, events at any one point of redemptive history will resemble events at other points of history. This works both ways. Events and prophecies in the Old Testament point forward both to the New Testament church and to the kingdom that will come after Christ returns. Events in the New Testament point in two directions. These are backward in redemption history and forward to the return of Christ.