Jesus said to a scribe:

47 “Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. 48 So you testify and consent to the works of your fathers. For they killed them, and you build their tombs. 49 Therefore also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles; and some of them they will kill and persecute, 50 that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary.’ Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. 52 Woe to you lawyers! For you took away the key of knowledge. You didn’t enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in, you hindered.”

53 As he said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be terribly angry, and to draw many things out of him; 54 lying in wait for him, and seeking to catch him in something he might say, that they might accuse him.

Luke 11:47-54 - World English Bible

In the third set of woes from Luke 11, Jesus took aim at the scribes, experts in the Torah who arbitrated legal disputes and handed down judgments for ordinary Jews. Implicitly, he equated their focus on the legal decision with the death of God's messengers. They dug into the minutia that allowed loopholes for the ruling elite to ignore divine will, the same escape clauses the prophets railed against. The scribes honored the holy martyrs from the past (at a safe distance) while the apostles and prophets of the Messiah brought a message that endangered their status in the community. In the eyes of the scribes, these later critics had to go.

In Luke 11:49-51, Jesus quoted an unknown saying or source. Notice the sweep of the statement that summarized salvation history in the blood of the prophetic martyrs, from the foundation of the world to the death of the last prophet (2 Chronicles 24:20-21). Yet, new messengers arose beyond Zechariah. The concern for the right ruling for the right instance bogged down the scribes, keeping them from entering the Kingdom and impeding those who wished to enter.

The rant of Jesus exploded any possible goodwill between him and the Pharisees, thus setting the stage for his arrest on trumped up charges.

Have you been bogged down in the details of Christian life? What has challenged you to look beyond your needs to God?