Rev Gav

How do we press on towards our goal?

Luke 13.31–35

As with most passages from scripture there is so much packed into a short section that it would feed a hundred sermons! So, where do we begin with this one?

Well, firstly, this Bible reading comprises two different sections that have been stuck together.

There is the first section:

At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” 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.’”

and then there is the second section:

“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! See, 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.’ ”

You can see why Luke put the two together. Firstly there’s the ‘prophet’ theme that links the two, and secondly there’s the ‘animal’ theme with Herod being described as a fox, and Jesus comparing himself with a hen — and we all know what foxes do to hens given half a chance!

So, going back to the first section, we see some pharisees coming to warn Jesus. Now, I know that we preachers often paint the pharisees as the bad guys in the gospel. Yes, some pharisees and sadducees did plot to have Jesus murdered, but we must not tar everyone with the same brush! There was good in everyone, and although some may have disagreed with Jesus, we know that others followed Jesus. Incidentally, whilst I’m on this topic of tarring people with the same brush, we must also be very careful not to say that the Jews murdered Jesus on the cross. They did not! Pontius Pilate had Jesus executed, and he himself was summoned back to Rome to account for his cruelty against the Jewish population.

I digress. So, we have some pharisees warning Jesus not to go towards Jerusalem, where Herod lived. Jerusalem was the stage where the final showdown would be, and as Jesus asserts, it is where people killed the prophets. Now, if the passage stopped there, then we could assert that Jesus was a prophet, yet the second section provides more information!

Before we look at the second section, let’s dive deeper and remind ourselves of what Luke wrote just a few pages back:

“Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your ancestors killed. So you are witnesses and approve of the deeds of your ancestors, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. For this reason the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ so that this generation may be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world…” (Luke 11.47-50)

In this section, Jesus quoted the Wisdom or Spirit of God speaking in the first person, and then in our section starts speaking himself in the first person, as if he is the Wisdom of God! In other words Jesus is not only a prophet, but divine.

Each of us is called by God to be God’s ambassador in the world. We each have a journey to make and a path to take. Your journey will be different to my journey. It is not that God has preordained a path for you to take, but each of us works with God, as we work out God’s ongoing will in the world. Our lives are a partnership between ourselves and the Holy Spirit living in us. Each of us needs to spend time listening to God, and stay in tune with the Spirit, to work out how and when and where God is leading, and to enable us to work out God’s purposes in the world.

The thing is that not everyone is in tune with the Spirit and listening to God — even those who are sincere and well-meaning. The pharisees that approached Jesus to warn him not to go to Jerusalem were trying to do a nice thing! We have to stay true to the course we have been handed, even if others, with the best intentions, try to steer us from that path. Sometimes we have to make decisions that seem irrational from an earthly perspective, like give up a secure job in the best church in the world (cough).

So what is the faith lesson for us today? To press on towards our goal in God, no matter what opposition we face.