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Gospel Reading for October 16, 2025 – Luke 11: 47-54
STUMBLING BLOCKS
The Lord said: “Woe to you who build the memorials of the prophets whom your fathers killed. Consequently, you bear witness and give consent to the deeds of your ancestors, for they killed them and you do the building. Therefore, the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and Apostles; some of them they will kill and persecute’ in order that this generation might be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who died between the altar and the temple building. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be charged with their blood! Woe to you, scholars of the law! You have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter.” When Jesus left, the scribes and Pharisees began to act with hostility toward him and to interrogate him about many things, for they were plotting to catch him at something he might say.
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The scribes and Pharisees were the STUMBLING BLOCKS to Jesus’ work of salvation. And it was so ironic, because the scribes were supposed to be the teachers of the law of Moses, while the Pharisees (set apart), thought themselves and made others believe that they were above everyone else in the practice of religion.
Although they built memorials of the prophets who their predecessors killed for speaking out the truth, they, who were in the present rejected the teachings of Jesus, who was more than a prophet. They did not want to recognize his mighty works and understand his teachings. In other words, they were HYPOCRITICAL.
Like God and mammon, hypocrisy and spirituality cannot go together because they are opposites. Hypocrisy is fake and spirituality is real. No wonder, Jesus was so much against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. Aside from the bad influence they have on their followers, surely, Jesus wanted them to also be saved.
Jesus is the Saviour of all of us. As the Father desires, he also desires that all of us are saved.
Lord Jesus, we are so grateful for all the suffering you had to go through out of your great love for us!
