2nd Sunday in Lent
March 7, 2004
Luke 13:31-35.

^13:31At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, “Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.” ³²He replied, “Go tell that fox,

‘I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’ ³³In any case, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day-- for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!

³⁴“O 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, but you were not willing!

³⁵Look, 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.’” (NIV).

We Were Not Willing, but He Was.

  O 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, but you were not willing! This word of Jesus confronts us with God’s grace, i.e., his undeserved favour and mercy which we cannot comprehend. Humanity as a whole has not been willing to receive Jesus. Yet despite our rejection, he was willing to save us. We were not willing, but he was!

  Today’s Old Testament lesson about Jeremiah serves as an excellent example of this sad truth which repeats itself over and over throughout the Scriptures. People have rejected God’s prophets and priests and even tried to kill them. This is especially true during the centuries when Israel had a king. Saul, the very first king, killed 85 priests one day because he felt they were sympathetic to David. Later, king Ahab married the infamous Jezebel—a devout worshipper of the idol Baal. She tried to exterminate all the prophets of God so that Obadiah, one faithful minister in Ahab’s government, took a hundred of the Lord’s prophets and hid them in caves! That was the setting for the familiar story of Elijah’s challenge to the prophets of Baal after which Jezebel tried to kill him. Still later, came Jeremiah. Again the king and his advisors didn’t want to hear God’s word so they tried to get rid of the prophet!

  Fast forward to Jesus’ day and we again see this familiar scene. The Scribes and Pharisees, i.e., the Jewish theologians and pastors, had already rejected John the Baptist, a prophet sent by God. Then Herod killed him. Now they had rejected Jesus as prophet and were already plotting how to put him away. The bit about Herod wanting to kill him was probably just a lie to lure Jesus out of Herod’s jurisdiction into that of the council in Jerusalem.

  Now it is quite true that many Jews did not reject the prophets and died with them. But it is also true that the majority of the nation always followed the leader. As goes the king, so go the people. By Jesus’ day, the people had become so used to having no great prophet, so used to having no king and Roman occupation, so used to the religion of the Pharisees, that they were quite unprepared to recognize and receive a true prophet. Thus Isaiah’s prophecies about the servant of the Lord were fulfilled. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. “We esteemed him not.” Yes, Isaiah speaks for us too. Humanity esteemed him not. So Jesus says that he must die in Jerusalem, the place where prophets and apostles die.

  In rejecting Jesus, what have we rejected? God’s love! How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! I guess we often have the idea that God is some sort of tyrant or slave driver who wants to exploit us and make our life miserable. God does put some restraints on us, but he does so to protect us from our own madness and misery. He treats us as his children whom he loves and for whom he will give his very life. Jesus compares himself to a hen gathering her chicks under her wings. That is a picture of protection.

  Perhaps you have heard the story about how, after a forest fire, a group of firefighters were working to make sure all the hot spots had been extinguished. As they went along, one of them found the charred remains of a large bird that had burned nearly half way through. Since birds can so easily fly away from the approaching flames, the firefighter wondered what must have been wrong with this bird that it could not escape. He kicked the carcass over and was startled by a flurry of activity around his feet. Four little birds flailed in the dust and ash then scurried away down the hillside. The mother's body had covered them from the searing flames. She could have flown away and saved herself, but she gave her life for her chicks. That is the picture that Jesus applies to himself! How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!

  The tragedy of human misery is that we are not willing to let Jesus gather us under his wings. Satan has convinced us that God—and I mean the God of the Bible—is somehow holding us back. “God doesn’t want you to eat that fruit because he knows you’ll become like him!” Ever since then, we have the will to power, the will to make our own destiny. We like whatever earthly wealth and power we have accumulated and want to get more. To suggest that we risk using it as God directs rather than how the top stock brokers and CEOs direct us offends us. We begin to suspect God of trying to take away what we have and want, of trying to limit our potential. We don’t trust God to know what is best for us even though he made us. In many ways we are not willing to follow Jesus, to gather under his wings.

  So Jesus responds, 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.’ On the one hand, that is a word of judgment. Rejecting God’s word has always brought negative consequences. Adam rejected God’s word and became subject to death and life outside the garden. The people of Noah’s day rejected God’s word and perished in the flood. The Pharaoh rejected God’s word and lost his first-born son. King Saul rejected God’s word and lost his kingdom. And so we could continue through the history of the Bible. The tragedy is that all of them could have listened. Then, not only would they have avoided disaster, they would have received God’s blessing!

  Jerusalem, through it’s leaders rejected Jesus and clung to the Law of Moses and the Temple, a system that was about to be fulfilled. Once Jesus had come, God had no more use for the Temple and its sacrifices. He really had no more use for Judaism as a political system. The Church of Jesus Christ was taking over. So within forty years the city of Jerusalem was destroyed and the temple razed never to be built again. Look, your house is left to you desolate. It’s like there was a fire or a flood coming. Jesus called, gathered and warned his people to escape but they refused.

  Yet, even that sad word of judgment has a promise attached to it. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ Despite the fact that people of all ages have rejected God’s prophets, Jews, Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, even Canadians, God has prepared our salvation and is ready to gather us now! The central point of this text is that Jesus would accomplish his mission despite Herod, despite the Pharisees, despite Jerusalem! That is our hope!

  When these Pharisees told Jesus to leave the area because Herod wanted to kill him, Jesus replied, “Go tell that fox, ‘I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’ In any case, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem! One thing that comes out clearly the movie, The Passion of the Christ, is that Jesus did not die because people wanted to kill him. He died because he was the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father. (John 10:18 NIV).

  Herod had no power to kill Jesus the son of God. The Pharisees had no power to kill Jesus the son of God. At Jesus’ trial, Pilate will say to him, “Do you refuse to speak to me? Don't you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. (John 19:10-11 NIV). In other words, Jesus died according to the plan of God and not because men or the devil got the best of him. That is why Jesus ignores the threat of Herod and says that he must go to Jerusalem. That’s where prophets die!

  In Jerusalem, on the third day, Jesus will reach his goal. Jesus refers to his resurrection on the third day. It is in his death and resurrection that he will accomplish his work and gather his people to himself. The flood or firestorm coming upon all of us is death. By dying in our place, Jesus makes it possible for us to live again. He invites us to take refuge from death under his wings. There, joined to him we have the promise that we will rise from the dead just as he did.

  How do we hide under Jesus’ wings? A hen gathering her chicks is a metaphor. What is the reality to which it corresponds? I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ When we confess him as Messiah, we see him and receive the salvation he brings. On what we call Palm Sunday, Jesus entered Jerusalem to the delight of a crowd that shouted, Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Those people recognized Jesus as the Messiah, the Saviour for whom they waited. Their joy will be short lived, because five days later he will be crucified. But what they confessed remains. Jesus is the Blessed one who comes in the name of the Lord, a long way to say the Messiah. And whenever a man, woman or child recognizes Jesus and makes that confession, he or she enters under the cover of the wings of the Saviour. Paul later confirms the same thing, If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. (Romans 10:9-10 NIV). That is the Gospel or the Good News of Jesus Christ. Though we have not been willing to receive Jesus, he remains willing to save us!

  That is an extremely important point of Christian doctrine that we must grasp and hold fast: if you are saved, it is the work of God; if you are lost, it is your own fault. Jesus said, In any case, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem! He had to do this not only because God willed it, but because it was the only way for you and me to live. Apart from Jesus we cannot rise from the dead. Apart from Jesus, we will not see God. But under the protection of his wings, we shall inherit eternal life!

  Jesus says, O 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! Let us say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’