Thoughts going in, Sunday Feb 24th

Luke 13: 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.' "

            Lent is often a confusing time for people in terms of the Lectionary readings. There is so much 'out-of-sequence' stuff going on. It actually begins even before Lent as we merrily skip over the wilderness experience immediately following Jesus' baptism in Epiphany. This is done purposely/liturgically so as to be able to backtrack and pick up the wilderness experience on the first Sunday of Lent. Then for the second Sunday (year C) we go to the end of Luke 13, but next week we'll be at the start of Luke 13.  The point is that Lent is much more interested about certain THEMES than it is about an exact sequence of events. It is helpful to remember that the underlying purpose of Lent is PREPARATION ....either for baptism or for renewal of baptismal vows. In that sense Christians need to be keenly aware of the CALLING behind those vows and the mission involved with living the Christian life.

            THERE WILL BE OPPOSITION. That point is painfully obvious in week 1 of Lent as we see Jesus confronted by Satan. Opposition in week 1 is about several things; it's about personal and personalized temptation; temptation to turn back or nullify one's new life in Christ. But it's also about IDENTITY. Satan begins his temptations with the questioning statement "**IF you are the son of God..." And so many times we the baptized can relate, as the accusation rings in our ears "you call yourself a Christian?!...HA! AS IF God would call you His child."

            And now in week 2 of Lent other opposition is detailed. To begin with there are the Pharisees in vs 31 who come to warn Jesus. We the readers have a real problem here because we do not know if they are on Jesus' side or not. Just because someone delivers a warning doesn't mean they're truly on your side. Further complicating matters is that in the Luke/Acts narrative, the Pharisees are sometimes cited as either full converts or at the very least not unsympathetic to Jesus and his followers. The absolute 'bad guys' in Luke/Acts are the High Priest(ly) families/power brokers. The lesson here is that part of the Christian life means that such ambiguities should be expected. Some will attempt to silence the Gospel's witness, and we may not exactly know their motives.

            There are other interesting tidbits to hold up. In the face of this danger of Herod's desire/wish to kill Jesus, he MUST (Gk dei) press on. Theologians like to call this the DIVINE IMPERATIVE. In other words, it's not just that Jesus had a schedule to keep; it's not simply that he felt duty-bound to continue on. This is a 'dei.' It's a MUST from the perspective of God's divine will, and Jesus, the perfect/obedient son of God follows his Father's will.

            The lament over Jerusalem is also interesting--especially from Luke's narrative perspective. The reader could think it odd that Jesus weeps over Jerusalem and states in vs 34 , how often I have longed to gather your children together... As some point out, Jesus hasn't been to Jerusalem in his messianic mission yet. There are two ways to approach this. One is to hear the words as the voice of God who, for generations and generations sent prophets and pleaded with "Jerusalem" (aka his people in general). Another option would be to emphasize the word 'children.' Jesus' entire ministry up to this point could be seen as an attempt to reach the 'children' of Jerusalem. And as much as modern theology wants to play down any whiff of anti-Semitism (a pursuit I'm in happy agreement with generally), there's really no way to get around the idea that when Jesus says behold your 'house' is left to you desolate, he's referring to the Temple's destruction in 70AD (some 40yrs hence).

            There's an interesting thing with animal symbolism going on here as well.  Herod (and the forces aligned against Christ) are portrayed as a fox (or perhaps jackal). Christ is portrayed as a hen desirous to gather her brood under her wings. In a rock-paper-scissors scenario, fox pretty much beats hen all of the time. But down on the farm fox also has no trouble running down & gobbling up chicks. The point of the metaphor isn't that the hen beats the fox; it's that the chicks get to LIVE; they are SAVED because the hen sacrifices herself.

            Putting it all together, Jesus is fully informed about what lies ahead. He MUST go to Jerusalem; it's the divine will. This will be a place of death for him, as Jerusalem is the place that kills its prophets. But his won't be a pointless/meaningless death. His is the death that SAVES. And so he presses on. For us, the point is to celebrate the salvation won and to follow the example of PRESSING ON in the face of opposition.

cheers,

TM