“He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ “
Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them’ ”
‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’”
He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”
Jesus was a prophet. And in this parable, Jesus is setting himself up as greater than all the other prophets. Like all the other prophets before him, the people killed Jesus instead of listening to him. But unlike all the other prophets before him, Jesus would rise again, come back from the dead, prove that there is an afterlife, and STILL there are many who do not listen.
Being a prophet is not a fun job. Prophets tell people what they don’t want to hear. So if you’re a prophet, at best the people don’t listen. At worst they kill you.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!
“You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.
I think churches and pastors and ministry leaders kill prophets all the time. We don’t like to work with prophets. We don’t want them on our teams. Prophets are the “negative” ones that “bring everyone down”. They’re always asking tough questions, telling us we’re making the wrong decisions, pointing out our faults, our shortcomings. Shouldn’t they just humbly support us? We ARE the pastors after all! But NOOOO, they have to keep being negative and tell us everything we’re doing wrong all the time…
So we kill them. We ostracize them. We sideline them. We refuse to work with them. We call them aside and have a “talk” with them about their “authority issues”. In our hearts we want them to leave our church and go somewhere else. But we know its wrong to say that. So we just make it impossible for them to use their gifts and serve. Then after a while they go away and we forget about them. To us, they’re dead. We killed them.
Who are the prophets in your life? Are you listening to them? Or are you killing them?
Prophetic communities
Ken, I entirely agree that churches have problems hearing the voices of lone prophets in their midst. But isn’t this inevitable? Isn’t it precisely because communities tend towards conservatism and self-interest that prophetic voices emerge in the first place? Prophecy is a reaction against the stubbornness and deafness of churches.
I would suggest that part of the answer to this is that we should understand the prophetic voice to be embodied not so much in individuals but in the whole community. Localized groups of believers should have a collective prophetic function not just through words but through their whole life together that challenges society’s deviation from the ideals of God’s creation.
Re: Prophet Killers
Those are great thoughts! The church as the “collective prophet”. Thanks!
Ken Bussell Minister of Music & Administration Our Place Christian Church www.emergingworshiper.org
Re: Prophet Killers
Ken said: “Being a prophet is not a fun job. Prophets tell people what they don’t want to hear. So if you’re a prophet, at best the people don’t listen. At worst they kill you. “
hey Ken, good topic. I totally agree with you that “being a prophet” is not a fun job. I only function as a prophet when there are no others around (jack-of-all-trades I guess). Of all the graces, gifts and anointings, that is the only one I hate. I become known as the trouble maker (but sometimes catalyst). You said: “at best they don’t listen” … I don’t entirely agree with you on that. I would say, that often they don’t listen, but occasionally they do. Look at Jesus with the Samaritan woman; Jesus and the twelve (Peter: “master, where would we go? You have words of life”). Jesus and Zachheus.
In my life, on those rare occasions, when I have functioned as a prophet, I have had to be very patient… and I have had to spend literally years removing the planks (2X4’s) out of my own eye in order to see clearly to remove the specs out of my brothers’ eyes. I find that many prophets are angry…and not functioning out of love. They set themselves up to be rejected, not because of their word, but because of their lousy, critical attitude. “Love covers a multitude of sin” … this is why people DID listen to Jesus the prophet…with the exception of the excessively religious ones who had power and position to lose.
“And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. (1CO 13:2 & 8).
Since you asked us several questions Ken, let me answer and then allow me to ask you a question. Yes, I know who the prophets are in my life, starting with my wife (named after Deborah, imagine that). I try to listen to them, but I am stubborn and deaf…thank God that they are patient with me and stick with me until I “get it.” And I have occasionally killed them with my words, but I have aftwards repented and asked their forgiveness. Now my question: is there some hurt in your own heart? and perhaps with it some anger? Your comments are good, but there is a sharp edge to them… with little feeling of love or compassion. Forgive me if I am wrong or being too personal… it is just an observation.
Andrew said: “Prophecy is a reaction against the stubbornness and deafness of churches.” Hey Andrew, I don’t’ think this statement bears up. You could more accurately say, ‘often’ prophecy is a reaction…or ‘some’ prophecy is a reaction… but not such an absolute blanket statement. All prophecy is a mixture of the human and the divine…some more purely divine, others more influenced by the human vessel. Hence the need for the prophet to go through a desert experience…a season of testing, sifting and purification of heart motives. We need more weeping prophets who speak forth God’s truth with loving tears in their eyes, who are willing to be crucified by the people God loves in order to reach them with his heart. We are all stubborn and deaf (even the prophets) and we have all gone astray.
I like you comments about the prophetic community. I agree that God’s desire is that we be a kingdom of priests…and prophets! And that we as the church live as a prophetic witness to the world. It has happened in some times and some places (the Catholic Church in Brazil in 1966-74? Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 1950s?) but it is all too rare.
There are prophet killers, but let us not forget there are also killer prophets. Thats why, in the words of the immortal Beatles, “All we need is love…love…all we need is love…love is all we need.”
Joseph Holbrook