Do Not Lose the Key of Knowledge

GOSPEL READING: Luke 11:47-54

Woe to you! for you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. So you are witnesses and consent to the deeds of your fathers; for they killed them, and you build their tombs. Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, `I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it shall be required of this generation. Woe to you lawyers! for you have taken away the key of knowledge; you did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.” As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard, and to provoke him to speak of many things, lying in wait for him, to catch at something he might say.

Meditation: How can God’s wisdom free us from being double-minded and spiritually blind? God sent his prophets to open the ears of his people to hear and understand God’s word and intention for their lives. God’s wisdom is personified in the voice of the prophets, a voice that often brought rejection and death because they spoke for God rather than for human favor and approval. Jesus chastised many of the religious leaders of his day for being double-minded and for demanding from others standards which they refused to satisfy. They professed admiration for the prophets from the past by building their tombs while at the same time they opposed the message that the prophets spoke in God’s name. They rejected the prophets’ warnings and closed their ears to the word of God.

Jesus in the key of knowledge that opens God’s kingdom for us
What does Jesus mean when he says they have taken away the key of knowledge? The religious lawyers and scribes held the “office of the keys” since they were the official interpreters of the Scriptures. Unfortunately their interpretation of the Scriptures became so distorted and difficult to understand that others were “shut off” to the Scriptures. They not only shut themselves to heaven – they also hindered others from understanding God’s word. Through pride and envy, they rejected not only the prophets of old, but God’s final prophet and Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the “key of David” (see Isaiah 22:22; Revelations 3:7) who opens heaven for those who accept him as Lord and Savior. He is the “Wisdom of God” and source of everlasting life.

Humility helps us to be receptive to God’s wisdom
Only the humble of heart – those who thirst for God and acknowledge his word as true – can truly understand the wisdom which comes from above. [See Psalm 119:99: “I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation.”] God is ever ready to speak his word to us and to give us true wisdom and understanding. Do you hunger for the wisdom which comes from above?

By Don Schwager

copyright © 2020 Servants of the Word, source:  dailyscripture.net, author Don Schwager