Luke 13:31-32 (ESV)
[31] At that very hour some
Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill
you.” [32] And he said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out
demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my
course.
Were these Pharisees friends of
Jesus or were they agents of Herod? We don’t really know. What we do know is
that Jesus follows up with a statement about the signs he has performed and the
assurance that nothing will happen to him until he reaches Jerusalem. That is
his destination and his destiny. In verse 34 he laments,
[34] O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the
city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often
would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under
her wings, and you were not willing!
Jesus does not need to be told
that death is awaiting him in Jerusalem. He is well aware, yet he grieves over the
city. Its history is one of feigned orthodoxy while rejecting the messengers
God has sent. Jesus concludes his lament in verse 35, “And I tell you, you will
not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
Those are the words the crowds were shouting when Jesus entered Jerusalem on
the back of a donkey, only to be killed days later.
Jesus could have avoided
Jerusalem, but that was why he had come into this world. He could have avoided
Herod. He could have stopped the soldiers. He could have continued teaching. He
could have, but that’s not why he came. Still it grieved him to be rejected by
the very people for whom he came. It makes me wonder how much we grieve those
who reject Jesus. Or are we comfortable in our safe enclaves we call church? What
would it look like if we cared for the lost, the broken, and the arrogant
deniers and opposers of the faith the
way Jesus did?
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