*Based on the sermon from Luke 11:47-51*
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There's a moment in Luke 11 that should make every believer uncomfortable. Jesus stands before the religious leaders and says something that cuts deeper than criticism—it's an indictment:
**"Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your ancestors who killed them."** (Luke 11:47, NIV)
This isn't a devotional moment. It's a courtroom moment. Jesus isn't comforting—He's confronting.
## The Pattern of Rejection
Throughout Scripture, we see a disturbing pattern: **systems always resist the prophet.**
Think about it:
- **Moses** stood before Pharaoh and demanded freedom. Egypt's entire economy depended on free labor, so Moses wasn't seen as spiritual—he was seen as dangerous.
- **Nathan** confronted King David about his abuse of power, risking his life to speak truth.
- **Jeremiah** told the nation their religion was empty. They beat him, threw him in a pit, and labeled him unpatriotic.
- **John the Baptist** called out King Herod's immoral leadership and literally lost his head for it.
- **Jesus Himself** was executed by the state with religious cooperation because He exposed injustice.
The prophets didn't die peacefully. They were rejected violently because **prophets threaten systems at their foundation.** They expose lies, exploitation, and injustice that has been normalized.
When voices expose inequity today, they're still labeled divisive. When truth confronts power, it's called inappropriate. When justice disrupts comfort, it's called political.
**Rejection is the system's reflex** whenever anyone points out uncomfortable truth.
## The Danger of Rebranding
But Jesus exposes something even more disturbing. He says the religious leaders built tombs for the prophets their ancestors killed. They rejected them first, then later **rebranded them.**
Why? Because **dead prophets are safe prophets.**
Dead prophets don't protest. Dead prophets don't organize. Dead prophets don't confront budgets, policies, or systems. Dead prophets can't disrupt comfort.
We still do this today:
- We quote Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech but ignore his warnings about America being "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world."
- We celebrate Rosa Parks sitting down but ignore the economic system she confronted.
- We honor Frederick Douglass but ignore his warning that "power concedes nothing without a demand."
**Systems know how to rebrand prophets.** They turn revolutionaries into relics. They turn disruptors into decoration. They preserve the image while rejecting the instruction. They celebrate the past to avoid changing the present.
Rebranding is how systems protect themselves. They don't change the structure—they change the story.
## Our Responsibility Today
Here's the chilling part. In verse 49, Jesus shifts from past tense to future tense:
**"I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute."** (Luke 11:49, NIV)
This pattern never stopped. God keeps sending truth, and systems keep resisting it.
Which means **every generation faces a choice:** Will we be tomb builders or truth tellers? Will we honor justice in theory or pursue justice in reality?
It's easier to:
- Celebrate past courage than practice present courage
- Quote prophets than follow prophets
- Honor sacrifice than make sacrifice
But God didn't plant us here to decorate graves. God didn't call us to be bystanders. **God planted us here to disrupt injustice.**
If we preach liberation but ignore poverty, we are building tombs.
If we celebrate civil rights but avoid economic justice, we are building tombs.
If we honor history but resist responsibility, we are building tombs.
## The Call Forward
God didn't call the Church to be a monument. God didn't call us to preserve comfort—He called us to pursue justice. God didn't call us to protect systems—He called us to protect people who are often victimized by those systems.
**Prophets don't exist to be admired. Prophets exist to be obeyed.**
They rejected truth, but truth kept rising. They silenced voices, but God kept sending other prophets. They built tombs, but God builds movements.
When history looks back at this generation, may it not say we built monuments. May it say we built justice. May it not say we preserved memory. May it say we pursued righteousness.
**They don't want us to be heroes. They want us to be quiet.**
But God didn't call us to be quiet. He called us to be faithful.
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*"Surely the road is rough and the going gets tough and the hills are hard to climb... but we've decided we're gonna follow Him."*
What seeds are you planting today for generations yet unborn? The question isn't whether we'll face resistance when we speak truth—the question is whether we'll speak it anyway.