A Place of Refuge

[This message was shared with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio, during worship this morning.]

Luke 13:31-35
At the end of last Sunday’s gospel lesson, which recounted Jesus being tempted by the devil in the wilderness, we were told, “When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time (Luke 4:13).” 

Today’s gospel lesson, Luke 13:31-35, tells about one of the times the devil deemed “opportune” for tempting Jesus away from His mission of saving us. Here, the devil uses at least one human being, a corrupt and murderous king focused on neither God or faith in God, focused instead on fear and evil, to tempt Jesus.

Jesus has been teaching, casting out demons, and healing the sick in Galilee, when Luke tells us, “At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, ‘Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.’” (Luke 13:31)

Students of the New Testament aren’t sure about the motives of this particular group of Pharisees. The Pharisees, as you know, were a sect of Judaism, who believed in a more literal interpretation of the Old Testament, a strict adherence to Old Testament law, and the resurrection of the dead. Although Jesus had run-ins with many of the Pharisees, their views were closer to those Jesus taught than were those of the Sadducees. The Pharisees weren't altogether bad, as they're sometimes stereotyped to be. The apostle Paul, for example, described himself as a Pharisee all his life, though he followed Christ and offended many Pharisees by insisting that human beings cannot make themselves acceptable to God by fulfilling God’s law, but only by entrusting our lives by faith in Jesus (Acts 23:6; Romans 3:21-26). The Pharisees here then, could have wanted to frighten Jesus, maybe even have been working with Herod. Or they may have had genuine concern for Jesus. We don’t know.

But we do know what they tell Jesus: “Herod wants to kill you.” 

Now, this is not the same Herod who was king when Jesus was born. That Herod, Herod the Great, was a thug put on the throne by the Romans who already had conquered the Jews and found it convenient to have local puppets, with some power, to make their rule a bit more acceptable to the conquered people. When Herod the Great died, his “kingdom” was split into smaller areas overseen by Herod’s sons, who were also thugs. (It was a family thing. Can you imagine what Thanksgivings were like with that brood?) 

The Herod in our gospel lesson today ruled over Galilee, the region in which Jesus grew up. Herod kept a palace in Jerusalem, where one of this brothers was the local puppet king, presumably so that he could suck up to the Roman governor, at this time Pilate, and make sure his brothers didn’t get an advantage over him. This is the Herod who beheaded John the Baptist. 

Although he expressed an interest in watching Jesus perform a miracle, he also wouldn’t have hesitated to have Jesus killed if he thought Jesus posed a threat to him. 

The Herods were all murderous goons like Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, Bashar al-Assad, and Mohammed bin Salman today.

What would we do if we lived in Russia, North Korea, Syria, or Saudi Arabia and learned that the thugs ruling those countries wanted to kill us? Speaking for myself, I would be tempted to save my life by running the other way. 

But, Jesus didn’t come into this world to save Himself; He came into this world to save you and me from sin, death, darkness, and futility by dying on the cross at a day and time of God’s choosing. The preacher in Hebrews says of Jesus, “For the joy set before him [that is, the joy of having us live in God’s eternal kingdom] he endured the cross, scorning its shame...” (Hebrews 12:2) 

The devil was using the Pharisees to tempt Jesus from going to the cross for you and me. “Stay away from Jerusalem,” the devil was telling Jesus through the Pharisees. “Don’t make waves and you won’t get hurt.” But Jesus came to “seek and save” those lost in sin and death (Luke 19:10) and was resolutely headed for Jerusalem and death on a cross for us (Luke 9:51), whether the devil, the Pharisees, or anyone else wanted it to happen or not! Jesus would not be deterred from giving His fulfilling His for you and me! We must not be deterred from following Him!

And so we’re told in verses 32 and 33: “He [Jesus] 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. In any case, I must press on today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!”’”

God’s book, the Bible, of course, teaches that God is the one who establishes governments and that Christians are to be respectful of governments and prayerful for leaders. God instituted government because most people will not voluntarily accede to Christ's Lordship over their lives. Without governments, Martin Luther said, Christians would live in this world as lambs among ravenous wolves. 

But the Bible also teaches that we are to stand against anyone, including leaders, when they try to thwart the will of God. 

• The Hebrew midwives refused to obey the Egyptian Pharaoh’s orders that they kill the Hebrew baby boys the moment they were born By refusing to do so, Moses was allowed to be born and God would later use Moses to lead His people to the promised land. (Exodus 1:15-19)
• Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to obey the Persian king’s orders that they worship idols and worshiped God alone (Daniel 6:10-28; Daniel 3). 

If governments or leaders ask us to be part of something we know is against God’s will, it’s our obligation as disciples of Jesus to follow Christ and not the government. 

Paul writes in Romans, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2)

Jesus refers to Herod as “that fox.” In Jesus’ time, foxes were seen as dangerous and evil, but not very bright. This is how Jesus sees Herod. 

“You tell that fox that I will keep doing my mission no matter if He thinks He can kill me off,” Jesus is saying. 

The phrase “today and tomorrow and on a third day” which Jesus uses here was a common Aramaic expression. It meant that Jesus was going to do what He came to the world to accomplish. But it’s also not hard to see in the words “the third day,” Jesus’ promise that when He was raised from the dead on Easter Sunday, it would be confirmation of the victory for us that He won on Good Friday!

Now, Jesus shifts gears. He thinks of Jerusalem. Verse 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.”

Jesus’ repetition of, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem” was a common way to express sorrow. 

When my great-grandmother lay dying, she looked above her and called the name of a then-deceased brother who had loved Jesus. She then turned her head downward and said the name of a relative who had refused to follow Jesus. “John, John,” she said with sorrow in her voice as she shook her head. 

In our lesson, Jesus is lamenting the fact that because of Jerusalem’s hardness of heart, it had repeatedly refused the protection of God from sin, death, and the devil. Jesus would have gladly protected Jerusalem from the foxes--the devil and his earthly co-conspirators, the Herods--and acted as a mother hen protecting her brood. But Jerusalem and God's people generally, had repeatedly chosen to go their own way (Isaiah 53:6; Acts 1:25).

Listen: Jesus wants to shelter you, your family, our congregation, our nation, and our world from the evil one.

I am convinced that if more Christians would run to take shelter in Jesus, if we would intentionally pray that our families, churches, and nations would come under Jesus’ lordship, and if we were bold and unapologetic in our witness for Christ, we would experience what the Bible calls “the peace of God, which transcends all understandings…” (Philippians 4:7).

That doesn’t mean that all our troubles will disappear. That will have to wait until we, like our Savior Jesus, have been raised from death to live in eternity with Him. But, in the power of Jesus, we can handle all that this world, its Herods, and the devil himself might throw at us. Under Jesus’ protective wings, we are “more than conquerors” and we belong to Him now and forever!

Verse 35: “[Jesus says] ‘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.’” 

Here Jesus looks ahead to future events which, as God in the flesh, He sees with clarity. 

• First, He points to 70 AD, some four decades later, when His people will be decisively put down, the Temple destroyed, many people massacred. This would happen because Jesus’ fellow Jews refused to take shelter under His arms and instead took hope in armed rebellion against the Romans, in their own thinking. When we put our hope in anyone or anything other than the God revealed in Jesus Christ, we sow our own eternal destruction. 
• Second, Jesus points to Palm Sunday when He will be welcomed into Jerusalem with the words of Psalm 118:26. Jesus is telling the Pharisees that, unless they want to hang out with Him, He’s going to keep at His mission on earth and they won’t see Him until Palm Sunday when He comes to complete it.

For those of us who are baptized and who confess Jesus as God and Savior, it can be tempting to cave into the temptations to go along and get along: 

• to not speak the name of Jesus to others who don’t know Him and need Him as much as we do, 
• to not give of ourselves without thought of reward or recognition, 
• to not love God to love neighbor as we love ourselves, 
• to not love fellow believers sacrificially, 
• to give into the fear incited in us by the devil and this world’s foxes. 

But we follow a risen Savior Who has conquered everything that causes us fear. 

He was not bowed by Herod or the devil or death. 

And He’s still in business, still alive, still loving us. 

So, we need not fear:

• to speak His name to those who need Him
• to give of ourselves without thought of reward
• to love God and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves
• to love fellow believers sacrificially
• to take courage in Christ's name by the power of the Holy Spirit in all circumstances.

“As for God,” Psalm 18:30 tells us, “his way is perfect: The LORD's word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him.” 

You can trust in that!

[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

Free to Live!

[This was shared during worship with the people and guests of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio, earlier today.]

Luke 13:31-35
A prominent New Testament scholar tells about a discovery made after a barnyard fire. The fire had swept through the chicken coop. But beneath the burnt bodies of several hens were found living baby chicks. The hens had saved the lives of their little ones, who may never have realized the danger they faced.

In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus is warned that He should avoid going to Jerusalem. There, it’s said that the king, Herod Antipas, was planning to kill Jesus.

The threat is plausible. Herod was one of several sons of Herod the Great. That Herod, called Herod the Great, was king when Jesus was born. It was Herod the Great who ordered the murder of the baby boys in Bethlehem after the magi told him that the Messiah had been born in David’s city.

The son, Herod Antipas, was the one who had murdered John the Baptist. He also, according to the ancient Jewish historian Josephus, generally liked to silence troublemakers through murder.

Whether the Pharisees who warn Jesus away from Jerusalem speak for Herod Antipas or not, Jesus tells them to carry a message back to him. Calling Herod “that fox,” Jesus says that He’s coming to Jerusalem at a time appointed by God and nothing that Herod may threaten, say, or do will prevent Him from going there.

Our passage comes at about the midpoint of a long section of Luke’s gospel called the great interpolation or the travel narrative. It runs from Luke 9:51 to Luke 18:14. The theme of this section is given at its beginning, which says that “Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem” [Luke 9:51].

Jesus tells us why He is going to Jerusalem in today’s lesson: “I must press on today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!” [Luke 13:33] Jesus has a mission, which Herod in this week’s Gospel, every bit as much as the devil in last week’s lesson, wants to keep Jesus from fulfilling.

It’s in Jerusalem that Jesus will fulfill it. God’s will—God’s plans—will triumph not only over the devil, but over the plans of puny human rulers and other wielders of power. In Jerusalem, at a time set by God the Father, Jesus is intent on sacrificing Himself on the cross, taking our punishment for sin, so that all who trust in Him will live forever with God.

Jesus says that Jerusalem is the only place He could possibly do this. Jerusalem, of course, was the holy city of the ancient Jews and their nation’s political capital.

In Jesus’ day, Jerusalem was also the place which the Romans, who had conquered what had once been known as Israel, used as their base of operations. Every sin you can think of was accepted in Jerusalem. Every injustice. Every dirty deal.

And the leaders of what we would today call “church and state”: the priests at the temple, supposed guardians of true faith in God, as well as the Jewish puppet kings and their advisers who wielded power by submitting to Rome instead of God, went along with the sin.

More than that, they got involved with it. It lined their pockets. It gave them nice homes and servants. It gave them influence and power. Jerusalem, like our world today, had become a corrupted, dark place that closed its ears to God, to God’s Word, to God's will.

It was only by going into this heart of darkness that Jesus could do what He set out to do. He would do something very similar to what the mother hens did in the face of that barnyard fire.

In fact, Jesus speaks of what He will do in Jerusalem in those very terms. ““Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” Jesus laments in verse 34 of our lesson, “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.”

Jesus’ desire is to gather not only Jerusalem, but you and me, all our neighbors, all our family members, and our whole world under the protection of His wings, gathered in and by His grace. He will give His very life in order to gather us in, to save from death, and give us eternal life with God. 

The most critical question each and every human being faces—the question of our lives—is whether we will let Jesus gather us in or go our own ways?

Will we live in what Psalm 17:8 describes as “the shadow of [God’s] wings” or will we choose to live in the shadow of sin and death?

We may find that, as was true of Herod and even of the religious Pharisees, a lot within us and around us keeps us from taking shelter with Christ.

The main reason for that is that doing so means swallowing our pride. This is hard. The sin within us resists. Like Adam and Eve, we want to “be like God.”

We don’t want to acknowledge that we’re not in control of our lives.

We don’t want to admit that we’re involuntary sinners who need a Savior to set us on the right path.

We don’t want to deal with the fact that, absent the help of God, we are incapable of becoming the people we sense we could be.

So, we try blocking out the truth about ourselves and our need for God with lots of habits—many not bad in and of themselves, but destructive when taken to excess—from mindless TV channel-surfing to overeating, from overwork to gossiping in order to indulge in a pretense of being superior to others, from harboring resentments of those who have more than we do to a lazy indifference to difficulties faced by neighbors, from frenzied activity and achievement designed to prove to the world—and to ourselves—that our lives are worth something to letting bigotry or the abuse endured by others go unchallenged.

Jesus wants to free us from all that.

He wants us to walk free and forgiven, free and filled with hope, free and full of life, free and without worry, free and certain of our eternal destinies.

Under Jesus’ protective wings, we aren’t given lives devoid of risk, or challenge, or even the possibility of adversity, pain, or tragedy. After all, if the prophets of Old Testament times suffered, why should we be exempt? If Jesus Himself suffered in this world, why should we expect that we on't do so as well?

But when we let Jesus cover us with His grace, we are freed from the weight of our past.

We are freed to begin becoming the people God made us to be.

We are freed to live each day in the awareness that God loves us and will stand with us forever.

When we dare to throw away all the props we use to shelter ourselves from the unpleasantness of life and the reality of our need for God and the salvation He offers through Jesus, God gives us life, an incredible gift that only the Creator of life could possibly give!

The story’s told of a man who always lived a safe life. He tried to shelter himself from difficulties the way the Pharisees were ostensibly trying to shelter Jesus from Herod’s wrath and shelter themselves the trouble Jesus was bound to bring to Jerusalem. This man decided not to love too much because love cost too much. He decided not to dream too much because dreaming brought disappointment. He decided not to serve too much because in serving, we encounter other people’s problems and you can get into trouble. When he died, he presented his life to God--undiminished, unmarred, unsoiled by the messiness of life. He proudly said, “God, here is my life!” And God asked him, “What life?”

Jesus could have played it safe. He could have skipped out on going to Jerusalem. But He knew that without His death and resurrection, our lives would be meaningless pilgrimages to eternal separation from God, death marches.

Jesus chose instead to spread out His arms on the cross and welcome all who will receive Him as their Lord and King into the shelter of His grace.

No matter what life brings our ways, what Jesus accomplished in Jerusalem makes true and everlasting life possible for all with faith in Him.

And Jesus didn’t go to Jerusalem, face down the evil of the devil and the world, suffer agony on the cross, and rise from the dead so that you and I could play it safe.

Jesus did all of that so that, like the chicks saved by their mother hens, we could live!

He calls us to join Him in the risky business of facing the evil of the world with love, confronting sin with the gospel, filling the needs of the hungry, the jobless, the victims of natural disasters, and others with Christian service, praying even for our enemies, and not only reading God’s Word but praying for God’s help in living that Word.

Christian living isn’t always safe living. But it is living!

And it’s made possible when we dare to take shelter under the wings of just one God, just one King, just one way, one truth, one life. It happens only under the wings of Jesus. May that be the way we all live each day! Amen

Living Under the Shadow of Christ's Wings

[This was shared during worship with the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, this morning.]

Luke 13:31-35
A prominent New Testament scholar tells about a discovery made after a barnyard fire. The fire had swept through the chicken coop. But beneath the burnt bodies of several hens were found very living peeping chicks. The hens had saved the lives of their little ones, who may never have realized the danger they faced.

In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus is warned that He should avoid going to Jerusalem. There, it’s said that the king, Herod Antipas, was planning to kill Jesus. The threat is plausible. Herod was one of several sons of Herod the Great. That Herod was king when Jesus was born. It was Herod the Great who ordered the murder of the baby boys in Bethlehem after the maji told him that the Messiah had been born in David’s city. The son, Herod Antipas, was the one who had murdered John the Baptist. He also, according to the ancient Jewish historian Josephus, generally liked to silence troublemakers.

Whether the Pharisees who warn Jesus away from Jerusalem speak for Herod Antipas or not, Jesus tells them to carry a message back to him. Calling Herod “that fox,” Jesus says that He’s coming to Jerusalem at a time appointed by God and nothing that Herod may threaten, say, or do will prevent Him from going there.

Our passage comes at about the midpoint of a long section of Luke’s gospel called the travel narrative. It runs from Luke, chapter 9, verse 51, all the way to chapter 19, verse 27. The theme of this section is set at its beginning when we’re told that Jesus “set his face to go to Jerusalem.”

Jesus tells us why He is going to Jerusalem in today’s lesson: “It is impossible for a prophet [and Jesus is the greatest of all the prophets, as well as being Messiah and God-in-the-flesh]…impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem…”

Jesus has a mission, which Herod in this week’s lesson, every bit as much as the devil in last week’s lesson, wants to keep Jesus from fulfilling. It’s in Jerusalem that Jesus will fulfill it. God’s will—God’s plans—will triumph not only over the devil, but over the plans of puny human rulers and other wielders of power. In Jerusalem, at a time set by God the Father, Jesus is intent on sacrificing Himself on the cross, taking our punishment for sin, so that all who trust in Him will live forever with God.

In our lesson, Jesus says that Jerusalem is the only place He could possibly do this. Jerusalem, of course, was the holy city of the ancient Jews and their nation’s political capital. In Jesus’ day, Jerusalem was also the place which the Romans, who had conquered what had once been known as Israel, used as their base of operations.

Every sin you can think of was accepted in Jerusalem. Every injustice. Every dirty deal. And the leaders of what we would today call “church and state”: the priests at the temple, supposed guardians of true faith in God and the Jewish puppet kings and their advisers who wielded power by submitting to Rome instead of God, went along with the sin.

More than that, they got involved with it. It lined their pockets. It gave them nice homes and servants. It gave them influence and power. Jerusalem, like much of our world today, had become a corrupted, dark place that closed its ears to God, God’s Word, and God's will.

It was only by going into this heart of darkness that Jesus could do what He set His face to do. He would do something very similar to what the mother hens did in the face of that barnyard fire. In fact, Jesus speaks of what He will do in Jerusalem in those very terms. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” He laments, “the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to you. How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing…”

Jesus’ desire is to gather not only Jerusalem, but Logan and Saint Matthew, you and me, and all our neighbors, under the protection of His maternal wings.

He will give His very life in order to gather us in, saving us from death, and giving us life.

The most critical question each and every human being faces—the question of our lives—is whether we will let Jesus gather us in or go our own ways?

Will we live in the shadow of the Lord’s wings or not?

We may find that, as was true of Herod and even of the religious Pharisees, a lot within us and around us keeps us from taking shelter with Christ. It means swallowing our pride, for one thing. This is hard. The sin within us resists.

We don’t want to acknowledge that we’re not in control of our lives.

We don’t want to admit that we’re involuntary sinners who need a Savior to set us on the right path.

We don’t want to deal with the fact that, absent the help of God, we’re incapable of becoming the people we sense we could be.

So, we try blocking out the truth about ourselves and our need for God with lots of habits—many not bad in and of themselves, but destructive when taken to excess—from mindless TV channel-surfing to overeating, from sex outside the bounds of marriage to overwork, from gossiping to indulge a pretense of being superior to others to harboring resentments of those who have more than we do, from a lazy indifference to difficulties faced by neighbors to frenzied activity and achievement designed to prove to the world—and to ourselves—that our lives are worth something.

Jesus wants to free us from all that. He wants us to walk free and forgiven, free and filled with hope, free and full of life, free and without worry, free and certain of our eternal destinies.

Under Jesus’ protective wings, we aren’t given lives devoid of risk, or challenge, or even the possibility of adversity, pain, or tragedy.

But we are freed from the weight of our past.

We are freed to begin becoming the people God made us to be.

We’re freed to live each day in the awareness that God loves us and will stand with us forever.

When we dare to throw away all the props we use to shelter us from the unpleasantness of life and the reality of our need for God and the salvation He offers through Jesus, God gives us life, an incredible gift that only the Creator of life could possibly give!

Author Steve Smith tells of a man who lived a “safe” life. [He tried to shelter himself from life’s realities the way the Pharisees supposedly sheltered Jesus.] He decided not to love too much because love cost too much. He decided not to dream too much because dreaming only brought disappointment. He decided not to serve too much because serving got your hands filthy and got you into trouble. When he died, he presented his life to God—undiminished, unmarred, and unsoiled by the messiness of a fallen world. He proudly said, “God, here is my life!” And God said, “What life?”

I don’t know about you, but that’s not the kind of interchange I want to have with God when I face Him in eternity. Someone has said, “Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, ‘Wow! What a ride!’”

Jesus could have played it safe, He could have skipped out on going to Jerusalem. But He knew that without His death and resurrection, our lives would be meaningless pilgrimages to eternal separation from God. He chose instead to spread out His arms on the cross and welcome all who will receive Him as their Lord and King into the shelter of His grace. No matter what life brings our ways, what Jesus accomplished in Jerusalem makes true and everlasting life possible for all with faith in Him.

Jesus didn’t go to Jerusalem, face down the evil of the devil and the world, suffer agony on the cross, and rise from the dead so that you and I could play it safe. Jesus did all of that so that, like the chicks saved by their mother hens, we could live!

He calls us to join Him in the risky business of facing the evil of the world with love, confronting sin with the gospel, filling the needs of the hungry, the jobless, the victims of natural disasters, and others with Christian service, praying even for our enemies, and not only reading God’s Word but praying for God’s help in living that Word.

Christian living isn’t always safe living. But it is living!

And it’s made possible when we dare to take shelter under the wings of just one God, just one King, just one way, truth, and life. It happens only under the wings of Jesus. May that be the way we all live each day! Amen

[Agnus Day appears with the permission of www.agnusday.org.]

Programmed for God's Will

[This message was shared during worship celebrations of Friendship Lutheran Church, Amelia, Ohio, on March 3 and 4, 2007. If you live in or are visiting the Cincinnati area, you're invited to worship at Friendship. Our weekly services happen on Saturdays at 5:30PM and Sundays at 10:00AM. There will be no Saturday worship on March 10, 2007.]

Luke 13:31-35
A funny thing sometimes happens to me when I’m typing on my computer keyboard. Let’s say I’m going to type the word, freedom. Before my mind can think about it, my hands are typing my favorite word that begins with the letters fr, Friendship.

Or, as I’m thinking say, jeans, I actually type Jesus.

It’s as though I’ve programmed my will (and my slow typing hands) by the things I most commonly think and write about. And even when I’m thinking of writing one thing, I'm apt to write another.

Our human will is a mechanism which we can guide or influence by the thoughts, habits, and practices we feed into it. This can be funny.

But it can also be dangerous, like the guy who programmed himself not to stop for red lights and once, when there was a car coming down the intersecting road, accidentally stepped on the gas pedal when he meant to hit the brake. He had so programmed his will to ignore red lights that he nearly got killed. If we feed our wills the wrong habits and the wrong information, our wills will soon control us and not the other way around.

I bring all of this up because our short Bible lesson for today, Luke 13:31-35, presents a clash of many different wills. And it has a lot to teach us about our own wills.

In the opening verse of our lesson, we’re told, “some Pharisees came and said to him [Jesus], ‘Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.’” If you have the lesson in front of you in our bulletin or if you have your Bible with you, underline the word wants.

That word in the original Greek of the New Testament is theleo, meaning I will, I want, or I desire something.

The Pharisees are saying that it’s Herod’s will to kill Jesus. They’re warning Jesus to stay away from Jerusalem, where Herod can get his hands on Jesus and have Him executed.

And what exactly is the will of these Pharisees here? Most of the Pharisees hated Jesus because He said that life with God isn’t earned by jumping through religious hoops, that salvation is a gift granted to all who turn from sin and follow Christ.

Some Bible scholars suggest that these Pharisees liked Jesus. Maybe. But it seems likelier to me that they were similar to the character Rex, the dinosaur in Toy Story. When asked to decide between following Woody or Buzz Lightyear as his leader, Rex tells the other toys, “I don’t like confrontation.”

The Pharisees may have wanted to avoid a confrontation between Jesus and Herod for fear that if it happened, the bloodthirsty Herod would make life harder for everybody else, including them.

Whatever the Pharisees' motives, in trying to prevent Jesus from going to Jerusalem, they were going against God’s will for Jesus’ life. Jesus had become human so that He could go to a cross, a sinless Savior accepting our punishment for sin and so, allowing the repentant who believe in Him to live with God forever. Even if their motives were kindly, the Pharisees were trying to thwart Jesus from fulfilling the will of the Father.

The Pharisees may have wanted the sort of Messiah...

who would do their will,
who would let them live with their sins of pride and self-will,
who wouldn’t go to a cross or call people to crucify their sins so that they could be made new by God.

But the Christian life revolves around surrendering to the God we know in Jesus Christ with a simple, daily plea, “God, Your will, and not my own, be done!”

Jesus’ response to the Pharisees is emphatic. Read what He tells them next:

“He 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. Yet 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.” Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!’”

One word left untranslated, though implied, in this part of our lesson is the Greek term, dei. It means, it is necessary. (Not to be confused with the Latin term that can be seen in the phrase, Gloria Dei, which means Glory to God, dei [and deo] meaning God in Latin.) Jesus says, “It is necessary that I cast out demons, perform cures, and on the third day finish my work.” It was necessary for Jesus to do the will of the Father, He says. He refused to consider any other option.

But Jerusalem, which here represents the whole rebellious human race, especially those who wear the robes of righteousness and religiosity to cover their self-will, has other ideas. Jerusalem--the world, you and I--wants to go its own way. We want to pursue the sins of ignoring God and looking out for number one. We don’t want a Savior Who comes to save us from sin. We want a King Who will tell us, “Do whatever you want; I won’t stand in your way.”

Jesus compares Himself to a mother hen who wants to protect her chicks from sin and death. (And faith-killing foxes like Herod.) But the chicks want to scurry away from God.

Jesus here speaks of the clash of wills that goes on between Him and us: “How often have I desired--underline desired, which once more is that Greek word theleo--to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing--underline not willing, theleo again.

Speaking for myself, I admit that lots of the time, I want just enough of Christ to be saved, but not so much of Him that my life is changed; enough of Christ that He will hear my prayers, but not enough for people to think that I'm weird.

But we really don't have a choice in this matter: We will either have all of Christ or we will have none of Him.

That doesn’t mean that we’ll be perfect. It means simply that we're surrendered to Christ’s will for our lives.

So how do we do that? How do we surrender to Christ?

It begins by allowing our wills to be reprogrammed by Christ. Reprogramming our wills isn’t easy.

These days, I’m praying for Josh Hamilton. Hamilton is a twenty-five year old baseball player with all sorts of talent: a fielder with a cannon for an arm, a hitter who can stroke for average and power, a runner who's quick and smart on the base paths.

But several years back, after signing a huge rookie contract, Josh Hamilton got involved with drugs. His addictions were destroying him. He finally got into a Twelve Step-program and has been clean for eighteen months.

But someone on sports radio the other day said that if Hamilton were at the microphone at that moment, he probably would say that he’s been clean for a day, that day.

Josh Hamilton’s will was programmed by drugs and now, day by day, each day, he must reprogram himself in order to stay clean.

Similarly, you and I must live in what Martin Luther called “daily repentance and renewal” in order to reprogram ourselves to remain clean of the stain of sin, to stay away from the habits that rob us of joy, peace, hope, and a relationship with God. (I find that I have to do that moment by moment, not just day by day!)

The Bible says that we reprogram our wills by letting Christ fill our thinking.

At the beginning of Romans 12, the apostle Paul writes, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern the will of God--what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

In Philippians 2, Paul challenges us to have Christ’s mind in us.

Young people, that may mean ignoring the hype of the crowd and instead, obeying the parents God has given to you.

Older folks, that may mean saying no to that second cookie--something I find very hard to do--in order to take care of the body God has given you.

For all of us, it will mean deliberately displacing sinful thoughts--thoughts that don’t express love for God and love for neighbor--and replacing them with thoughts from God.

If we don’t fill our minds with Christ, what’s going on inside of us will become manifest, no matter what fake face we try to show the world.

Once, I was deeply angry with someone. Instead of dealing with it by talking first with God and, then, if necessary, with the person, I stewed over all the things I wanted to say to let the other person have it. This went on for weeks. My will was becoming programmed to spew a Mount Vesuvius of venom. That’s exactly what happened. After I finally let loose on this person, I found out that my anger was completely unfounded. But I did great damage to our friendship.

A friend of mine is blessed with a magnetic personality. Everybody seems to take an immediate liking to him. That’s the sort of thing that could go to your head if you weren’t programmed to do God’s will. My friend, a layperson, uses this facility for making friends not to get things for himself. Instead, as he befriends and listens to people, he becomes a trusted confidante and is able to comfortably and credibly speak to his friends of what Jesus Christ means to him, pray with them, and sometimes, invite them to worship with him. He's able to do this because every day, my friend programs his will to put Jesus Christ first in his daily life.

Reprogramming our wills isn’t easy. It’s a day by day process.

It also isn’t very glamorous.

No weeks in rehab with Britney.
No time on the beach at Cozumel.
No climbing a mountain to consult with a guru.

Just seven simple things that can help replace all the other idols and lies on which we may be tempted to build our lives with the one true God of the universe revealed to us through Jesus Christ.

They are:

• prayer;
• studying God’s Word;
• regular worship;
• inviting others to follow Christ with us;
• encouraging others;
• serving in Jesus’ Name; and
• giving to Christ’s mission in the world.
  

When we adopt these seven habits, the will of God becomes paramount in our lives.

And something else happens: We see Christ working in our lives and in the life of the world.

Of Jesus, Who becomes apparent in our lives, we can say, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.”

You might, in fact, want to underline those very words in our lesson today. From time to time this week, look at those underlined words and then offer this simple prayer, “God: Reprogram my will so that people see Christ in me every single day.”

Third Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: Luke 13:31-35

[For an explanation of what these passes are about and to read the first pass, go here. The second pass is here.]

Verse-by-Verse Comments (continued)
34Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
(1) These are among the most consequential and interesting words Jesus ever spoke. It's an incredible window on the nature and personality of God. Among the things it shows us are:

• God never gives up on His love for us. In spite of centuries of rejection, God never forgot that the people of Israel, now conquered or dispersed and beaten down, were His people. They were be the beneficiaries of salvation and through them, in the person of Christ, Israel was still a light to the nations. God's love is tenacious.
• Here, we see Jesus, God enfleshed, portraying Himself with female imagery, a hen with its chicks. According to Genesis 1:27, men and women reflect various aspects of God. The Old Testament often refers to God as "compassionate," a word which, in the original Hebrew, had the word for womb in its root. Those who claim that they can't pray to God because of masculine imagery forget passages and images like these.

(2) The contest of wills that permeates our lesson is seen here. Twice, verbs with the root, theleo, which means to will something, appear in this verse. Jesus says, "How often I willed/wished to gather the children of you..." And then, Jesus expresses the rebellious will of Jerusalem, "and you willed not."

The life of faith, rarely easy, consists in the surrender to the Father's will which Jesus expresses in Luke 22:42.

35See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
(1) In 70AD, Jesus knew, Jerusalem would be destroyed by the Romans, in the process of crushing a Judean rebellion. The houses of Jerusalem, including its "house of worship," the Temple would be destroyed. But for now, the willful people of Jerusalem would have their houses.

(2) Only when people see Jesus with the eyes of faith can they declare Him to be the One Who comes in the Name of the Lord. Similar words were used by the Jerusalem crowds to welcome Jesus on the Sunday before these events, on what we call Palm Sunday. Those crowds could apparently see what the Pharisees Jesus here addresses couldn't.

Second Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: Luke 13:31-35

[To see the first pass and find an explanation of what these passes are about, go here.]

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.

First Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: Luke 13:31-35

[Most weeks, I present as many updates on my reflections and study of the Biblical texts on which our weekend worship celebrations will be built as I can. The purpose is to help the people of the congregation I serve as pastor, Friendship Lutheran Church of Amelia, Ohio, get ready for worship. Hopefully, it's helpful to others as well, since our Bible lesson is usually one from the weekly lectionary, variations of which are used in most of the churches of the world.]

The Bible Lesson: Luke 13:31-35
31At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” 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. 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.’ 34Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 35See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

General Comments
1. This is one of three lessons that are drawn from Luke, chapter 13, in the C or Luke year of the lectionary. (Remember that there are three yearly sets of lessons, each set called a lectionary. We're in Year C, with the bulk of the Gospel lessons coming from Luke.)

2. Luke 13:31-33 are unique to the Gospel of Luke, whereas vv. 34-35 are similar to verses found in Matthew's Gospel.

3. The broader context in which this lesson falls is a great section of Luke's Gospel which runs from Luke 9:51 to 19:28. We might call it The Journey to Jerusalem. In it, Jesus is seen as being intent on fulfilling His mission of being crucified and of rising from the dead in that city. Along the way, He meets people who, for various reasons, either attempt to stop Him from fulfilling that mission or spurn Him because that's His destination. But Jesus is faithful and will not be deterred.

Considering the more immediate context, it follows a place where Jesus says that salvation won't necessarily belong to those who can claim that they had eaten and drunk with Him or that He once taught in their streets. This gives some poignance to Jesus' weeping over Jerusalem in our lesson.

4. One of the most interesting aspects to consider about this passage is that "some Pharisees" warn Jesus that Herod is determined to kill Jesus. Was this group of Pharisees, members of a sect of Judaism so often opposed to Jesus, sympathetic to Him? Were they trying to save Jesus' life? Or were they afraid of the consequences of a confrontation between Jesus and Herod? Or were they, like so many people in this section of Luke, doing what they could to thwart Jesus in His intention of going to Jerusalem? We don't know for certain. But I'm inclined to think that it was a combination of fear over a confrontation and a desire to prevent Jesus from going to the very center of religious life, where His considerable popularity might grow.

Tomorrow, I hope to post verse-by-verse comments.