Charles Spurgeon Commentary Matthew 23:29-31

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and garnish the tombs of the righteous, and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we should not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye witness to yourselves, that ye are sons of them that slew the prophets." — Matthew 23:29-31 (ASV)

They talk in the same conceited manner and claim self-righteousness, as their fathers did; and if their ancestors killed the prophets, these men garnish their sepulchers, and so they share in their forefathers' deeds. How often it happens that people say they would not have committed such crimes as others have, while they do not know the vileness of their own hearts. If they were under the same conditions as others, they would act in the same way.

It would have been a better sign if the scribes and Pharisees had lamented before God that they themselves were not treating His prophets as they should be treated. How very faithful was our Master! He was very tender in spirit; but still, He spoke very severely. The old proverb says that "a good surgeon often cuts deeply," and so it was with the Lord Jesus Christ. He did not film the evil matter over; He lanced the wound. He is not the most loving who speaks the smoothest words; true love often compels an honest man to say what pains him far more than it affects his callous hearers.

The eighth “woe” referred to their false professions of reverence for “the goodly fellowship of the prophets” and “the noble army of martyrs”: Ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous. They pretended to have such regard for the holy men of the past that, being unable to honor them in person, they would set up monuments to their memory and adorn their resting places with tokens of respect. They also testified as to what they would have done if they had lived in the days of their fathers: we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. What bitter irony there was in such language from the lips of men who were even then plotting the death of the Lord of the prophets and of the righteous of all ages! Thus do men still speak with seeming horror of the dark deeds of past persecutors, whose linear descendants they are, not only according to the flesh, but also after the spirit.

Out of their own mouth our Lord condemned the hypocrites: Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. In effect, Jesus said to them, “You confess that you are the sons of the murderers of the prophets. That admission carries with it far more than you imagine. You are their sons, not only by birth, but also by resemblance. You are veritable children of those who killed the prophets. If you had lived in their day, you would have committed the crimes you pretend to condemn.”