Verse-by-Verse Comments
31At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.”
(1) My own view is that the Pharisees in question here weren't saying this primarily for Jesus' benefit. I believe that they were frightened by the prospect of Herod coming down hard on the people of Jerusalem if Jesus went to the city. Herod, they might have reasoned, would not be keen on anybody welcomed to Jerusalem as a king. Herod's willingness to kill John the Baptizer certainly indicated that he felt no hesitation about killing off religious leaders he saw as threats to him.
(2) The Herod here is Herod Antipas, the son of the Herod who reigned at the time of Jesus' birth. While they ruled over various portions of Judea at the pleasure of their Roman overlords, they had substantial latitude. The Romans found it convenient to use local rulers in an attempt to quell the restiveness of conquered peoples resentful of foreign dominion.
The Herods were ruthless, violent, unscrupulous, and murderous. They certainly belong in the same category as such monstrous rulers as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Idi Amin, Saddam Hussein, The Shah of Iran, and others.
(3) The very first verse of this lesson introduces one of its overarching themes: The clash of wills between God and the opponents of God. In the original Greek, the Pharisees literally tell Jesus, "Herod wills you to kill." The verb in its root form is theleo. It will come up again in this short passage.
(4) By the way, Lutheran pastor Brian Stoffregen points out the two sections of this lesson--remember that yesterday we pointed out that vv.31-33 are unique to Luke and vv.34-35 are similar to a passage in Matthew--have three key words in common: kill, prophet, Jerusalem.
(5) The Pharisees' words, translated as "Get away..." are in imperative form, as though uttered as an order. We see then, that it isn't just the wills of Jesus (with God the Father) and Herod in contest here. The Pharisees also have the outcome they will; for whatever reason, they don't want Jesus to go to Jerusalem.
32He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work.
(1) Interpreters disagree on just how Jesus is using the term fox. Some suggest that it denotes a sly subtlety on the part of Herod. But this wasn't his reputation. There was nothing subtle about Herod's methods. Beheading a preacher who challeneged his faithfulness to God's will is hardly the act of a subtle ruler.
I have the feeling that Stoffregen, in his comments on this passage, has it right. Herod, as the fox, will be the counterpoint to Jesus' representation of Himself as a mother hen looking out for her chicks.
(2) The term fox can also be translated as jackal. That begins to convey, I think, the murderousness that Jesus is associating with Herod Antipas.
(3) Jesus responds to the Pharisees' imperative statement with one of His own, "You go tell that fox..."
(4) Scholars are divided on whether "the third day" refers to the resurrection. I'm personally satisfied that it does.
(5) The phrase "finish my work" renders the word teleioumai, which can mean bring to completion or perfect or fulfill.
33Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’
(1) From Luke 9:51 to Luke 19:28, Jesus has His face set toward Jerusalem. It's there that He will fulfill the mission of His life, described in many ways from the early verses of Luke's Gospel. For example, when Jesus was eight days old and just circumcised at the Temple, the elderly Simeon seemed to hint to Mary that a cross was part of that mission, Simeon told Mary:
“This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.” (Luke 2:34-35)(2) Jesus knows that the ultimate contest between God's will and the self-will of rebellious humanity must be Jerusalem. It's the site of the Temple in which it was believed the very presence of God dwelt in the Holy of Holies, the city where the civil and religious leaders of Judea lived, and the city that Rome chose to be its base of operations in the region. Jesus' rendezvous with Jerusalem, which He was bound to keep, would spark the ultimate war between God and sinful humanity, a war which God would win through the voluntary death of Jesus--an offering for our sin.
(3) The idea in this and the next verse seems to be that since Jerusalem kills prophets, like the John the Baptist, it's appropriate that Jesus be killed there as well. Jesus isn't saying that all prophets were killed in Jerusalem, which is clearly not the case anyway.
(4) Don't read fatalism in Jesus' words either. This isn't like Rick, Humphrey Bogart's character in Casablanca, responding to a person desperate to get safe passage out of the Vichy-occupied city for fear that they will die there, "Why not, a lot of people are going to die in Casablanca?" Jesus isn't fatalistic; He's faithful. He, sinless God-in-the-flesh, is willing to share the same rejection and death that had come to God's prophets, all so that He can be the perfect sin-sacrifice for humanity.
I hope to finish these verse-by-verse comments tomorrow.
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