Sunday Feb 28th, thoughts going in

Lent 2
Luke 13:31-35
31 At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, "Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you." 32 He replied, "Go tell that fox, 'I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.' 33 In any case, I must press on today and tomorrow and the next day--for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem! 34 "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, and you were not willing. 35 Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.' "

The 2nd Sunday of Lent’s gospel reading in year C comes from a section in Luke that is commonly called the “travel narrative,” or in other words, the series of stories that occur WHILE Jesus is traveling to Jerusalem to die.
Given that I have chosen to hook myself to a Lenten sermon series of “Roads of Life,” a passage from the Travel Narrative is particularly appropriate on several fronts. This week’s “road” is the “ROAD OF DANGER,” which is extremely evident within the text itself.
V31 says: At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, "Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you. Some commentators see this as a less than genuine “concern” on the part of these Pharisees, because they have fallen into the thinking that ALL Pharisees are ALWAYS antagonistic to Jesus. This is an over-simplification of the matter, especially in Luke-Acts. There’s nothing in the context of the text to make us think that these PARTICULAR Pharisees—whoever they are—don’t have Jesus’ well being in mind. Another part of that thinking is that they’re trying to ‘herd’ Jesus from this trans-Jordan area that’s under Herod’s control toward Judea, where the Jewish ruling class has more control (so that they can do him in). The problem with this logic is that (a) if they wanted him ‘done in,’ they’ve already said Herod wants to kill him, why not just rat him out to Herod? And (b) Jesus is on his way to Judea/Jerusalem anyway! So, I go with the opinion that these particular Pharisees mean Jesus no harm and they’re legitimately warning him about threats they’ve heard.
Another important detail is that these are extremely VALID threats. This is the same Herod [Antipas] who had John the Baptist—an EXTREMELY popular local prophet—not only imprisoned, but then put to death. Clearly, Herod had no qualms against killing a supposed ‘holy man.’ One can well imagine that if Herod “wants to kill you,” you will likely end up dead. The practical application here is that on the ROAD OF DANGER, the risks & threats are REAL. In 21st c. America we almost have to deal in metaphors, as we risk practically nothing when we gather in worship or buy one of hundreds of possible copies of the bible at our local reseller. We constantly need to remind ourselves that brothers & sisters in the faith in other lands risk their lives simply by trying to follow Jesus. Their threats are real. What are our threats?
Another interesting aspect of this reading is Jesus’ response to the news that he’s in danger. It’s almost belligerent. Vs 32: “Go tell that fox…” basically, go tell him that I’m not changing my itinerary one bit. “Fox,” by the way does not likely carry with it our sense of “cunning” or “shrewdness.” Herod was about as cunning as a wrecking ball. A fox was a dangerous, though lower level predator; an apt description of one of Rome’s client bully-kings, to be sure. I think Luke’s primary point in this section of the text is to remind us that Jesus chooses this path INTENTIONALLY. He knows, or at least senses what lies ahead, and yet he is driven to it because he realizes it’s the Father’s will. In vs 33 he says, “in any case, I MUST PRESS ON…” which is the English rendering of the Greek “dei” (it is NECESSARY).
One of those perplexing mysteries for me has always gone like this….if Jesus HAD to die for the sins of the world, why didn’t he die at some of the other places of danger in his life? Why didn’t Herod the Great kill him when he slaughtered the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem? Why didn’t the mob at Nazareth succeed in throwing him off the cliff? Why, why why? Texts like this seem to point to something necessarily PARTICULAR about the type & place of death as being just as important as the death itself. Regardless, Jesus illustrates his ultimate dedication to the Father’s will in deliberately holding fast to this path. It’s CHALLENGING for us, because we--especially in our post-modern culture—do not often idealize someone with a “martyr complex.” We tend to think, what a dope! Run away! Choose life! But for Jesus, it’s not that he was choosing death….as much as he was CHOOSING LOVE….which happened to lead through death.
The passage ends with a poignant and heavily symbolic lament over Jerusalem. The “house that’s left to them desolate” V35 is an obvious Lukan (post 70AD) remark regarding the utter destruction of the Temple by Rome. The imagery of chicks who refuse to be gathered brings several things to mind: in nature it’s instinctive; they WOULD have come, but in God’s kingdom, robotic or forced conversion is never the case. The hen stands willing to gather us in, but it’s through the love of the Gospel not force. The other thing that comes to mind is that if the chicks refuse to be gathered, it’s either because they feel powerful enough on their own OR they feel they can find a better protector than a mother (who in nature usually protects her chicks simply by giving her own life to the predator). In either case, the chicks are sadly mistaken.
When I read this passage and think of the ROAD OF DANGER, I can’t help but think of Salvation Army Maj. Philip Wise. Major Wise was gunned down by two men outside of a community center in Little Rock, AK, this last Christmas Eve. That’s right, CHRISTMAS EVE. The men wanted money. Major Wise and his wife (also a Salvation Army officer) and three kids were supposed to be going home to spend the holidays with family. Some of us, when we read that story, were filled with hatred and loathing that such a good man was brutally murdered. If he were with us in earthly ministry today, I wonder what Jesus would’ve done. My hunch is that he would’ve gone to Little Rock to minister on that ROAD OF DANGER.

Cheers,

TM