NOTES for Mat 23:29-39
Jesus' words leave the impression of the Judgement coming upon Jerusalem and of retribution for all the evil committed in its streets over the centuries. One could, of course, say that the coming of the Messiah marks the beginning of the Judgement, and this would be true. But there is something here that does not fit the messianic expectations traditional for that time. What is most striking is that Jesus links the city's condemnation precisely with its rejection of Him as Messiah. Here it is no longer God who punishes Jerusalem; Jerusalem punishes itself by rejecting its own salvation.
This rejection is evidently connected with the same religiosity that prevented so many Pharisees from seeing the Messiah in Jesus and entering the Kingdom. And it seems not to change over the centuries, while adapting perfectly to new realities and incorporating into its tradition even that to which it has no moral right. For Jesus, the monuments over the prophets' graves become a symbol of such opportunism: once they were killed by the predecessors, the “fathers,” of those who now erect monuments to them and honour their tombs.
History, of course, knows many similar examples: contemporaries seldom appreciate great people in accordance with their greatness, especially in matters of spiritual life. But the issue is evidently not belated recognition as such, but its causes. And those causes do not change over the centuries: formal, legalistic, or ritual religiosity, hostile to any revelation that threatens in any way to disrupt the integrity of its religious system. Jesus, of course, understands perfectly well that the Pharisees of His day who reject Him would have rejected in exactly the same way the prophets to whom they erect monuments had those prophets appeared before them alive. He likewise understands that the road leading Him to the cross has been laid out by the same forces that brought about the death of the prophets who, in their time, bore witness to the very Kingdom that He has now brought into the world.