Collective Guilt

This is why I am sending you prophets, sages, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will flog in your synagogues and hound from town to town. So all the righteous blood shed on the earth will be charged to you, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. I assure you: All these things will come on this generation! – Matthew 23:34-36 HCSB

What an amazing statement to come from the Master Who also said “Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged. For with the judgment you use, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”[1]

He essentially ascribed to them the cumulative guilt of a thousand years of sin, regarding them as one collective being. It’s bad enough to bear the consequences of our own sin – is Jesus saying that we also bear some responsibility for the sins of our entire nation?

As harsh as that may seem, there is Scriptural support for this view. After all, didn’t humanity’s inherent sin nature stem from the actions of a single man?[2] And didn’t God cause an entire nation to be defeated because a single family had sinned? God clearly assigned the guilt of a single man to all of Israel when He said, “The Israelites…were unfaithful regarding the things set apart for destruction. Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of what was set apart, and the Lord’s anger burned against the Israelites.”[3]

And Jesus elsewhere[4] accused the Jewish people of His day of killing the prophets and then building their tombs. He called them witnesses, consenting to the deeds of their fathers. This is the same thing said of Saul who witnessed and approved of the death by stoning of Stephen.[5]
Of course, this principle goes the other way too. Ten righteous people could save an entire city[6]. As sin entered into the world by one man, the death of another provided salvation for all mankind.[7]

In light of this concept, we have no room for complacency in our lives. If I understand what Jesus is saying correctly, if my nation undergoes an unjust war and I don’t protest, I assume my portion of the collective guilt. If my nation slaughters millions of babies and I don’t at the very least protest, I am guilty of their murder[8].

Ezra understood this principle and systematically asked forgiveness for himself, his nation and his ancestors.[9] By doing this, he freed himself of that curse.[10] But Ezra not only confessed these sins in prayer, he devoted himself to changing his society.
Let’s strive to free ourselves of the trap of collective guilt.


[1] Matthew 7:1-2
[2] Romans 5:12
[3] Joshua 7:1
[4] Luke 11:47-48
[5] Acts 8:1
[6] Genesis 18:32
[7] Romans 5:18; 1 Timothy 2:4-6; Hebrews 2:9; 1 John 2:2
[8] Proverbs 24:11-12
[9] Ezra 9:6-15
[10] Ezekiel 18:2-4, 9, 11, 13, 14, 17, 20-24; Jeremiah 31:29-30; 32:18-19