A Curse Accepted on Behalf of Children
"His blood be on us and on our children." — Matthew 27:25
Words Spoken in a Crowd
There is a moment in the trial of Jesus that most readers pass over quickly, and it is one of the most sobering sentences in Scripture.
Pilate, unable to control the situation, called for water and washed his hands before the crowd, declaring himself innocent of the blood of this just Person.
"And all the people answered and said, 'His blood be on us and on our children.'" (Matthew 27:25)
They did not merely demand an execution. They formally accepted responsibility for it — and they extended that acceptance to their descendants.
It was a crowd in a moment of fury. Almost certainly none of them weighed the words. That is precisely the point.
What This Teaches
Here is the principle to take from it, and it applies far beyond that day.
People can accept a curse on behalf of their descendants. Not merely provoke one. Accept one, in words, out loud, on behalf of children not yet born.
This should stop us cold, because families do this constantly in less dramatic ways.
This family has always been poor and always will be. The men in our family die young. We're all alcoholics — it's in the blood. My children will turn out just like me. There's a curse on this family.
Those sentences are not observations. They are acceptances. They are agreements with something, spoken over people who had no say in the matter.
The Remedy Runs Both Ways
If words can accept something on behalf of descendants, then words can renounce it on behalf of descendants.
You have authority over your own household. You can stand as the head of your line — or as one member of it who has come to Christ — and say plainly: I do not accept this. I renounce what was accepted on my behalf. I revoke what my family agreed to. My children will not inherit this.
This is not presumption. It is exactly what Scripture models. The whole pattern of confessing the iniquity of the fathers assumes that one person's honest words can affect a family line.
And there is a blood that speaks louder than any agreement ever made in anger:
"To Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel." (Hebrews 12:24)
Whatever your family accepted, the blood of Jesus speaks better things.
Point to Ponder
Words that accepted something over your family can be answered by words that renounce it.
Verse to Remember
"To the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel." — Hebrews 12:24
Question to Consider
What has my family said out loud about itself, over and over, for as long as I can remember?
Today's Practice
Write down the family sayings. Every family has them — the fatalistic sentences repeated at kitchen tables so often that nobody hears them anymore.
We never get ahead. Nothing ever works out for us. There's something wrong with this family. That's just how we are.
Write them exactly as they are said.
Then take each one and renounce it out loud:
"In the name of Jesus Christ, I renounce the words spoken over my family that ______. I do not accept them. I revoke every agreement my family made with this. I break its power over me, over my children, and over every generation after me. The blood of Jesus Christ speaks better things over this family."
Then replace it. Say aloud what God says about your household instead.
Prayer
Father, my family has said things about itself for generations, and we have all believed them without examining them. Some of those words were agreements with an enemy.
I renounce every word of hopelessness, fatalism, and self-condemnation spoken over this family — by my parents, my grandparents, and by me.
Where anyone in my line accepted something on behalf of descendants, I revoke that acceptance now in the name of Jesus Christ. I do not receive it, and my children will not receive it.
Thank You that the blood of Jesus speaks better things. Let His voice be the one that stands over this family from now on.
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. In Jesus' name. Amen.
The blood of Jesus speaks better things than anything your family ever said in anger.