Could Jesus accuse people of a crime when they were innocent?
If someone accused me, for example, of starting World War I, I would tell him that he was unreasonable. I wasn't even born when it started!
But Jesus accused the Jewish leaders of His day with responsibility and guilt for a crime committed 800 years before any of them were born. Under such circumstances, how could His hearers possibly be guilty? His charge against them sounds like one of the most fantastically irrelevant and unreasonable ever made.
The story is found in Matthew 23. Jesus has just finished upbraiding the scribes and Pharisees with a series of "woes" accompanied by vivid flashes of irony and indignation. There is no doubt that they were personally guilty of all the sins He catalogued in this series of "woes." He concludes in verse 34 with a prophecy that they would in future be guilty of even greater crimes, and then springs on them the charge of murdering a man 800 years before they were born:
"That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar" (verse 35).
For many years I read this verse assuming that this Zecahrias was a victim whom Christ's hearers had personally murdered in the temple during their lifetime. I took for granted that the crime must have taken place not more than 30 or 40 years previous.
Human Guilt from "A" to "Z"
It was a real shock to discover that this "Zacharias son of Barachias" was murdered in 856 B.C. (The story is recorded in 2 Chronicles 24:20, 21.)
Why did Jesus charge the responsibility and guilt of this crime upon the Jews of His day eight centuries after the real murderers had gone into their graves?
When we recognize the principle of corporate guilt, the picture becomes clear. Jesus was not being unfair. In hating Him, the Jewish leaders were merely acting out all human guilt from "A" to "Z," even though they may not as yet have personally committed a single act of murder. Jesus recognized that the Jewish leaders of His day were in spirit one corporate body with their "fathers" who had actually shed the blood of the innocent Zacharias in the temple.
Now, by refusing the call to repentance which John the Baptist and Jesus had sent them, they had chosen to retain the guilt of corporate involvement with all murders of innocent victims ever since the days of Cain and Abel. One who could not err fastened the entire load of guilt upon them.
Suppose the Jewish leaders had decided to repent? If so, they would have experienced a corporate repentance. They would have repented of "the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world" (Luke. 11:50). This would have been a repentance appropriate to their guilt in hating and rejecting the Son of God.
This idea was deeply ingrained in Hebrew thinking. More than we may have supposed, the Hebrew pattern of thought regarding Israel and the church as a corporate personality makes sense to our modern minds.
It is one of Paul's dynamic ideas that the church is the "Isaac" of faith, "one body" with Abraham and all true believers of all ages. To Jewish and Gentile believers alike Paul represents Abraham as "our father" (Romans 4:1-13). Isaac is the "seed" (see Romans 9:6-33). To the Gentile believers Paul speaks of "our father: … all baptized unto Moses," and adds, "we, being many are one bread, and one body" (see 1 Corinthians 10:1-17). "By one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit."
We "all" means exactly what the apostle says-"we all" are both past generations and the present generation. Christ's "body" is composed of all who have believed in Him from the time of Adam down to the last "remnant" who welcome Him at His second coining. All are "one" corporate individual in the patter of Paul's Hebrew thinking. The moment we believe, we become a part of that "body" composed of the saints of all ages, each individual member as closely connected with all other members as the various organs of the human body, being separate, yet partake of one corporate unity.
How a Man Paid Tithe Even Before he was Born?
So deeply imbedded in Paul's mind was this Hebrew idea that he used a curious example to explain it. He said that Levi "paid tithes in Abraham." He was talking about the time when Abraham paid his tithes to Melchizedek, priest of the Most High God, and type of Christ. A little reflection will show that at the time Abraham paid these tithes following the battle of the vale of Siddim he as yet had no child at all. Levi was Abraham's great-grandson; yet Paul says that Levi paid tithes "in Abraham" before even his own grandfather, Isaac, had been begotten! "He was yet in the loins of his father (Abraham), when Melchizedec met him" (Hebrews 7:9, 10). Either Paul was seriously, even ludicrously, mistaken; or the Bible recognizes the principle of corporate identity "in Adam" and "in Christ."
The Corporate Personhood of Israel and the Church
Now let us see how the Old Testament further clarifies this idea:
- Speaking as a mouthpiece for the Lord, Hosea represents Israel through many generations of history as a single individual, stages in growth from birth through youth and adulthood. "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my Son out of Egypt" (Hosea 11:1). Israel "shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the days when she came up out of the land of Egypt" (2:15). Israel as a nation is personified as a girl who is to become the wife of Israel's Lord.
- Ezekiel further develops the idea. He portrays the history of Jerusalem as an individual biography: Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem: thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite … When I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love … And thou wast exceedingly beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. (Ezekiel 16:2-13).
Generations of Israelites may come and go, but the corporate personal identity remains. The guilt of "youth" is retained in adulthood as a person when an adult remains guilty of a wrong committed when he was a youth, even though the scientists say that every physical cell in his body has been replaced during intervening years. One's personal identity remains regardless of the molecular composition of his body. In Israel's case, their corporate guilt extended even to Calvary.
- Moses taught the same principle by projection into the future, addressing his generation as the "you" who should witness the fulfillment of his words in the ultimate captivity into Babylon which actually took place nearly a thousand years later (see Lev. 26:3-35).
- Moses also called upon succeeding generations to recognize and confess their corporate guilt with "their fathers:"
If they shall confess their trespass which they trespassed against Me, and that they also have walked contrary to Me; and that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept the punishment of their iniquity … I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt. (Lev. 26:3-40). They were explicitly to "confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers."
- Succeeding generations often recognized the truth of this principle. King Josiah, seeking to promote a corporate repentance in his day, confessed that "great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us" (2 Kings 22:13). He said nothing about the guilt of his own generation, so clearly did he see their involvement with the guilt of previous generations. The writer of the Book of Chronicles agrees with this confession of corporate guilt (2 Chronicles 34:21).
- Ezra lumps together the guilt of his own generation with that of their fathers: "Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands" (Ezra 9:7). "Our" kings" were those of previous generations, for there was no living king in Ezra's day.
- David writes his profound Psalms, experiencing in himself what Christ was to experience so perfectly that Christ actually used David's words to express the feelings of His own broken heart. "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" the Saviour cries as He hangs upon His cross (Psalm 22:1; Matthew 27:46). The meditation and prayer of His stricken heart finds perfect expression in the experience of David. Christ is in fact the Hebrew Word "made flesh."
Nowhere is the perfect corporate identity of the "member" with the "Head" more clearly seen than in the David-Christ relationship. Christ knows Himself to be the "son of David." He has feasted upon David's words and been inspired by David's experiences. The perfect corporate identity He sees of Himself in the Old Testament, manifested through the experience and the words of the prophets, becomes lived out in His own flesh through faith.
- The Hebrew idea of identity reaches a zenith in the strange Song of Solomon. Here is the love story of the ages. Christ loves a "woman," even His church. Israel, the foolish "child" called out of Egypt, the fickle girl in her "time of love" in "youth," the faithless "wife" in the Kingdom days, "grieved and forsaken" in the Captivity, at last becomes the chastened and mature "bride" of Christ. At last she is prepared though perfect corporate repentance to become a mate to Him.
Someday soon, as soon as we really want it to be, it will be said, "The marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready" (Revelation 19:7).
A Demonstration of Corporate Repentance; Pentecost
Jesus was disappointed in His appeal to the Jews for a national repentance. Yet there did come in the experience of Pentecost a perfect demonstration of the principle of corporate repentance. At Pentecost the "remnant" who saw their sins as one with the sins of their "fathers" recognized their guilt of the blood of the Son of Cod. Peter charged them all with the same guilt: "Ye have crucified … Christ" (Acts 2:36).
It is hardly likely that the "three thousand" who were converted that day were all personally present at Christ's trial and shouted "Crucify Him!" or mocked Him as He hung on the cross at Calvary. Peter's hearers at Pentecost recognized their guilt shared as a nation and as a people, even though they may not have personally taken part in murdering Christ. Repeatedly Peter laid the charge upon the leaders of the Jewish nation: "Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified,. . . even by Him doth this man stand here before you whole" (Acts 4:10). Yet they stubbornly persisted in refusing to recognize their guilt. "Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? … Ye … intend to bring this man's blood upon us" (Acts 5:28).
Peter was kind enough to concede that the people and their rulers did what they did "through ignorance;" but nevertheless, the guilt was laid where it belonged: "Ye denied the Holy One;" "ye delivered Him in the presence of Pilate; "ye … desired a murderer to be granted unto you;" "ye … killed the Prince of life" (Acts 3:13-15).
Pentecost was a glorious model and ideal inspiring God's people for nearly 2000 years. What made those grand results possible? The people accepted the principle of corporate guilt, and frankly confessed their part in the greatest sin of all ages. "When they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?" (Acts 2:37).
The antithesis of Pentecost was the refusal of the Sanhedrin to accept Stephen's portrayal of corporate guilt through their national history. "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers" (Acts 7:51, 52). This was too much for these men. They "stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him" (verses 57, 58).
A pattern had been worked out. It began with Cain, and extended throughout Israelite history. Generation after generation refused to acknowledge their corporate guilt. Israel earned her unique distinction to demonstrate to the world a tragic example of national impenitence, a solemn warning of the hopeless consequences of denominational pride and stubbornness. A similar ruin must overtake any church who follows her in impenitence.
But in that very hour when Israel sealed her eternal doom by murdering Stephen, a process began to work itself out in honest human nature that would lead to a corporate and national correction of the sin of Israel.
When the "witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul," they little realized that this young man with a disturbed conscience would soon think through the structuring of a worldwide "body of Christ." It would eventually exhibit in full and final display the blessings of corporate and national repentance which the Jews tragically refused.
Ezekiel And Corporate Guilt
At this point, a sincere question needs to be considered: does Ezekiel deny the principle of corporate guilt and repentance? He says:
What mean ye, that ye use this proverb, … The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge? … Behold, all souls are Mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die. . . .
Yet ye say, Why? doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father? When the son hath done that which is lawful and right, and hath kept all My statutes, and hath done them, he shall 'surely live. The soul that sinneth it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. (Ezekiel 18:2, 4, 19, 20; cf. Jeremiah 31:29, 30).
Ezekiel discusses a good man who does everything right, but who has a son who does everything wrong. Then he discusses how the wicked man's son "seeth all his father's sins … and doeth not such like." "He shall not die for the iniquity of his father" (verses 14-17). The prophet's point is that sin and guilt is not communicated genetically.
But Ezekiel surely doesn't intend to suggest that any "righteous" man is righteous of himself, nor does he intend to deny the Bible truth of justification by faith. Any "righteous" man must be righteous by faith, and apart from Christ he has no righteousness of his own. The "wicked" man is the one who rejects such righteousness by faith. The prophet does not deny that "all have sinned," and "all the world … become guilty before God" (Romans 3:23, 19). Apart from the imputed righteousness of Christ, therefore, "all the world" is alike "guilty before God." Ezekiel is not denying the reality of corporate guilt which we all share "in Adam."
The "son" who saw his "father's sins" and repented is delivered from the guilt of those sins by virtue of Christ's righteousness, but he is not intrinsically better than his father. There is a certain sense in which his repentance is a corporate one: he realizes that had he been in his father's place he could well have been alike guilty. He does not think himself incapable of such sins. He humbly confesses, "There but for the grace of God am I."
Ellen White offers a challenging insight into the reality of corporate guilt and repentance:
The life we live is to be one of continual repentance and humility. … When we have true humility, we have victory. … The mind is susceptible to divine impressions, and the light of God shines in, enlightening the understanding. . . .
A true sense of repentance before God does not hold us in bondage, causing us to feel like persons in a funeral procession. We are to be cheerful, not sorrowful. But all the time we are to be sorry that after Christ had given His precious life for us, we gave so many years of our life to the powers of darkness. . . .
As we see souls out of Christ, we are to put ourselves in their place, and in their behalf feel repentance before God, resting not until we bring them to repentance. If we do everything we can for them, and yet they do not repent, the sin lies at their own door; but we are still to feel sorrow of heart because of their condition, showing them how to repent, and trying to lead them step by step to Jesus Christ. (MS. 92, 1901; SDA Commentary, Vol. 7, pp. 959, 960).
However faint such a reflection may be, repentance like this in "behalf" of others must be based on Christ's "repentance … in behalf of the human race" that Ellen White discusses (General Conference Bulletin, 1901, p. 36). It would be impossible for any of us to feel such concern and sorrow "in behalf" of others, had He not felt it first in our "behalf."
If it is true that "we love because He first loved us," perhaps we can also say that we repent because He first repented in our "behalf." He is our Teacher. Let us be His disciples.