At
that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here,
for Herod wants to kill you.” 32 And
he said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and
perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. 33 Nevertheless, I must
go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be
that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’ 34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the
city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How
often would I have gathered your children together as a hen
gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 35 Behold, your house is
forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is
he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ (Luke 13:31-35)
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 would have gathered 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) is 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
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