March 16, 2025 Sermon
Sermon title: “Jesus Hears a Warning”
Scripture: Luke 13:31-35
(Other lectionary suggestions include Genesis 15:1-18, Psalm 27, and Philippians 3:17-4:1.)
Luke 13:31-35
The Lament over Jerusalem
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.’ ”
A few years ago, there was a book for kids, I think, called “Horton Hears a Who.” Well, today’s sermon is “Jesus Hears a Warning,” and neither story has anything to do with the other! Seriously, there is nothing funny about today’s Scripture reading. Some Pharisees actually seem to want to help Jesus out, telling him that Herod wants to kill him. Now before we heap TOO much praise on the Pharisees, we should keep in mind that maybe most of them just sort of stood on the sidelines, watching what was going to happen. I mean, most of the Pharisees didn’t really like Jesus very much, because he looked down on all the rules that they seemed to inflict on anyone who would listen. But also, the Pharisees didn’t really like Herod, either. He was no pure Jewish ruler. Essentially, he was a thug that the Romans used to keep order. Remember that he had beheaded John the Baptist because John had criticized him for taking his brother’s wife. If there was a criminal family in Palestine, the Herods fit the bill!
We really have to admire Jesus’s courage. When Jesus called Herod a fox, that was no compliment! And he told them to tell Herod what Jesus said: “I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow. And on the third day I finish my work.” I think Jesus was referring to when he would rise from the dead (ON the THIRD DAY!). So, Jesus courageously speaks truth to power and throws in a little theology for good measure! What he was trying to say, I think, is that he had a job to do, and no two-bit Roman henchman was going to keep him from doing what he thought was God’s will for him to do.
I just realized something: when Jesus calls Herod a fox, that’s part of the image of the hen protecting her chicks. You have heard the expression, “That’s like having the fox guard the henhouse!” Well, Herod the Fox represents the predator, and when Jesus talks about protecting the chicks under his wings, he wants to protect his people from harm.
That really is a great image of a hen protecting her chicks. In real life, there have been times when - after a fire - a dead mother hen has been found, and under her wings LIVE chicks! Jesus IS saving his people at the expense of his own life., which, of course, is what he did on the Cross! SUCH a moving and powerful image here in the 13th chapter of Luke.
And then Jesus gets really sorrowful. He really weeps over Jerusalem, which thus far has rejected his message of peace. I have said this before, but it bears repeating: Jesus here is against war, against the idea of overthrowing the Romans by force. I have to think that his message of “Love your enemy” is aimed toward those who want to overthrow Rome. For one thing, it was an IMPOSSIBLE idea, and we realize how impossible when we remember the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Jesus had gone by this time, but the overthrow attempt was futile. The Temple was destroyed again, and many of those who survived were forced to leave Jerusalem. This really is a sad passage. Jesus wanted SO much for his people to choose peace, but they didn’t, and they ended up paying a huge price for choosing armed violence over Jesus’s message of peace.
Does this mean that Jesus was ALWAYS against war? I don’t think we can answer that question. I like to think that choosing peace is always better than choosing war - but what if the enemy is somebody like Hitler, who killed so many Jewish people? Do you pick up arms against such a foe, or resist another way? American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, who died in 1971, was not against using force to resist evil. His argument was that we are not GOOD enough to resist somebody like Hitler without getting our hands dirty ourselves. It’s a tough question: is non-violence always the way, or was Reinhold Niebuhr right: sometimes we must use violence ourselves?
There is a minister by the name of Michael K. Marsh, and he wrote a sermon on today’s Scripture lesson called “Opening to Life.” He says that sometimes we’re like the Jerusalem over which Jesus laments. Jesus fears that Jerusalem has closed itself off, has refused to open itself to new life. Jesus calls Jerusalem the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it. Are WE ever that way? Rev. Marsh says we are when we refuse to open ourselves to new ways of thinking, when we draw a line in the sand and refuse to try a different way. Says N. T. Wright, “Jerusalem has a long history of rebelling against God,, refusing the way of peace....{{Right now}} the only way for the city and Temple to avoid the destruction which now threatened it was to welcome Jesus as God’s peace-envoy; but all the signs were that they would not.” And as we know, they didn’t. They rebelled against Rome in 70 A.D., and as I said earlier, some had to flee the city for good.
Since the people of Jerusalem will not change their ways, it will be up to Jesus to take on the role of that mother hen and give his life as a ransom for many. Again, a sad story, but maybe a good one for the season of Lent. Amen.
Pastor Skip
