Dan Herold | Luke 13:31-35 | February 21, 2016
(Sermon begins at 19:15)
I have to confess something about myself this morning. I have what you might consider a bit of a problem with authority from time to time. I really don’t like being told what to do. My wife will confirm for you that telling me to do something is typically the easiest way to get me to not do something. As I grow up and mature little by little I’m starting to understand that sometimes I need to be told to do things and sometimes it’s good for me. Everyone that tells me to do something isn’t trying to put me down or be bossy. But I still have a sinful nature and my sinful nature doesn’t like being told what to do.
That part of me that doesn’t like being told what to do really likes hearing what Jesus says to the pharisees in this morning’s gospel lesson, though. Since from time to time I may have a tendency to be a little defiant, it’s really cool when Jesus is defiant and he acts that way for the right reason. Jesus acts that way because he is a man on a mission. He knows that without a doubt he has to accomplish his mission and he won’t let anything distract him from that mission.
Jesus knew that his mission was to pay for the sins of the world and the whole way along his path to complete that mission there were obstacles and distractions that tried to derail his mission. Last week we heard about how Satan tempted Jesus and tried to get him to abandon his mission. Today, Luke tells us about some pharisees that tried to do that as well.
Luke says that some pharisees came to Jesus and said,
“Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.”
Now, it might be entirely possible that Herod hadn’t even expressed any interest in killing Jesus yet and the pharisees just made this up to try to get Jesus to leave, but that’s not the point Luke wants to make here. Luke wants us to see how Jesus responds to someone trying to distract him from his mission. Luke wants us to see how deeply and passionately Jesus loves us and you can see that in the way that Jesus responds.
If someone came up to you and said, “Y’know, you should probably get out of town, somebody here wants you dead,” how would you respond? I think if I were in that situation, I’d probably at least be a little concerned. I’d probably wonder if somebody really was trying to kill me and if it might be a good idea to leave town—at least for a little while. Jesus doesn’t seem to even give that option any consideration though. Last week when we heard about Jesus being tempted in the wilderness he was incredibly weak from not eating for 40 days. His responses to Satan’s temptations were firm, but I wouldn’t call them forceful. Today, in Luke 13, Jesus is not weak and he is forceful.
Jesus says to the pharisees,
“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!”
Isn’t that awesome? Don’t you want to just go give Jesus a high five and say, “Yeah! You tell ‘em!”?
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Does Jesus response to the pharisees change how you look at Jesus’ suffering and death? It really does for me. He wasn’t just the rag doll that got shoved around. He willingly went to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. He went to meet the mob that came to arrest him in Gethsemane. He stood before Pilate on trial. He carried his cross as he walked to calvary. He never tried to get out of doing his Father’s will. I’m not saying that Jesus enjoyed suffering and dying, but it wasn’t as though all these things were just happening to Jesus either—he put himself on a path of suffering and death for our sake.
Jesus knew exactly what his mission was and he knew that it was all going to happen in a set time and that time was coming soon. He said to tell Herod that on this day and the next day he was going to continue on driving out demons and healing people, but on the third day—very soon—his mission would be completed. And then there’s this biting jab at Herod, at the pharisees, and at all the people who would reject Jesus as their Savior because he wasn’t the political or earthly Savior they wanted. Jesus said,
“for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!”
Those are not the words of a passive man being forced to suffer and die. Jesus is jabbing back at the very men who would put him to death. He knew what was coming and not once did Jesus try to get out of it. He knew what had happened in Jerusalem in the past. He knew that prophets like Jeremiah had been executed in this so-called holy city, and he still planned to go there. Jesus knew that Herod thought himself to be a mighty and powerful king, but in reality he was nothing…just a pawn of the Roman emperors. So, when these pharisees tried to tell Jesus what to do, he responded with force. He didn’t let them tell him what to do, but instead he told them what would happen.
Jesus told them that he would go to Jerusalem, the place where prophets are put to death, and he had a message for Jerusalem. Jesus said,
“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! 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.”
Even though Jesus knew what was waiting for him in Jerusalem he wanted to go there and care for the people—but they wouldn’t have it. The reason behind the state of Jerusalem wasn’t because God forgot about them…it was because they rejected their Savior. Jesus had spent a lot of time in Jerusalem and the people had many chances to hear Jesus teach and preach, but now Jesus said they wouldn’t see him again until they said, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”—which is exactly what they said on Palm Sunday when Jesus arrived in Jerusalem.
Jesus shows us that he is a man on a mission. He is dedicated. He is focused. He isn’t going to let anything disrupt his plan to be our Savior. He had plenty of opportunities to change his mind or to abandon the plan, but he never did. Luke records this incident for us so that we can see just how committed our Savior was to carrying out God’s plan to save us. We can see how he stood up and defied those why tried to threaten him and scare him. We can see how he carried on with the plan even when he knew it wouldn’t be easy and we can see that Jesus truly wanted to be our Savior even knowing that it meant he would have to suffer and die.
This account from Luke 13 can also serve to encourage us. Our lives as Christians are not always easy. We face persecution and from what God tells us it only seems like persecution is going to get worse. How are we going to react one day if someone comes and tells us that someone wants to kill us for what we believe? Will we run? Will we hide? I can’t say for certain how I’d react if that day comes. But, if we keep Jesus, the man on a mission, as our role model we can learn from him. Jesus fully expected resistance and rejection so that when he encountered it he wasn’t caught off guard.
Jesus told us that the world will hate us because of him so if we expect that response we’ll be ready to handle it when we encounter it. We’ll be ready to handle that sort of rejection because Jesus completed his mission, paid for our sins, and defeated our true enemy for us. No matter what this world throws at us, our eternal victory has already been won. We will face opposition and rejection in this world, but we can endure it. We can endure it because Jesus willingly endured so much more for us.
Amen.