Reacting to Current Events
Luke 13: 31 At that time some Pharisees came and told him, “Go, get out of here. Herod wants to kill you.” 32 He said to them, “Go tell that fox, ‘Look, I’m driving out demons and performing healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will complete my work.’ 33 Yet it is necessary that I travel today, tomorrow, and the next day, because it is not possible for a prophet to perish outside of Jerusalem.
34 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! 35 See, your house is abandoned to you. I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’!”
Yes, the fox on the front cover of the bulletin is a photo one of the four that hung out at church last spring and summer for a couple of months. They usually hid in the bushes but sometimes they would lounge on the sidewalk or in the parking lot. One time, all four were outside the main doors on Sunday morning. However, they did not stay for the service, probably because they had already heard the sermon around 6 a.m. as I was rehearsing it. Recently I have seen signs of one of them, but no actual sightings. We will see.
Jesus called Herod a fox.
But before we go there, we read that some Pharisees warned Jesus to flee because Herod was seeking to kill him. If the Pharisees wanted Jesus dead – and they did – why would they warn him about Herod? It may be that these Pharisees realized there was a better chance of Jesus being arrested and killed in Jerusalem (where the Jewish leadership was already plotting to arrest and kill Jesus) than in this Herod-ruled jurisdiction (where Jesus was more popular). Whatever the case, they were trying scare Jesus off.
And then we have the reaction of Jesus: “Go tell that fox…” Let’s stop there. Herod was not religious leader; he was a political leader. Jesus called a politician a fox. Why? Because, like a fox, Herod was craftily, cunningly, deceptively, opportunistically undermining the work of Christ. He did so by imprisoning John the Baptist, to silence him, and finally behead him. John the Baptist was all about telling people to repent of their sins and pointing people to Christ, the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. So Herod locked him up and killed him.
By calling a politician a fox, Jesus was not trying to change the political environment. Rather he was pointing out that this politician was willing to undermine, to stop, and even destroy Christ, the word about Christ, and the church Christ was establishing. There are such politicians, both then and now. They are foxes, smart and cunning.
In other words, there are not only religious authorities out there (like the Pharisees) who are opposed to Christ, his word, and his church and who wish to destroy Christ, his word, and his church, but there are also those within the civil realm, the government realm, with that same mindset and intention. We have seen this throughout the history of the world.
We have to be careful that the distinction between the two kingdoms – church and state as we often call them – and the clear directive in the Bible to honor our governing authorities, do not blind us from the reality that politicians, governing authorities – what they do and decide and mandate – can often seek to undermine and even destroy Christ, his word, and his church. In other words, politicians can be aiming at theology under the guise of politics.
And that brings us to what Jesus said after calling Herod a fox: “Go tell that fox, ‘Look, I’m driving out demons and performing healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will complete my work.’ Yet it is necessary that I travel today, tomorrow, and the next day, because it is not possible for a prophet to perish outside of Jerusalem.”
Herod’s craftiness and authority, the desire of the Pharisees, and anyone opposed to Christ cannot prevail against Christ and his church. Christ would not and could not be deterred. He would continue to do his appointed work of healing and casting out demons by which he declared himself to be the Messiah so people back then and people today would know. And then he would, undeterred, complete his work, reach the pinnacle of his work by perishing, by dying, in the city of Jerusalem for the sins of the world. Nothing would or could stop his work for it was of God.
Today, nothing will stop the spread of this message of Christ, even though we may too often be intimidated. And nothing will destroy his church on earth, “even when steeples are falling.” Even when there are wars and rumors of war. Even when foxes and governments seek to wipe out the church, marriage, and the family.
Not that it will be easy. Not that believers will not suffer loss and be persecuted. Not that the church will not have to fight. But as we do, we gather, we are comforted, we are fed, we are nourished, we are encouraged and strengthened. Stanzas six and seven from our sermon hymn for this morning (#211):
Here stands the font before our eyes,
Telling how God did receive us;
Th’altar recalls Christ’s sacrifice
And what His table doth give us;
Here sounds the Word that doth proclaim
Christ yesterday, today, the same,
Yea, and for aye our Redeemer.
Grant then, O God, where’er men roam,
That, when the church-bells are ringing,
Many in Jesus’ faith may come
Where He His message is bringing:
“I know mine own, mine own know me,
Ye, not the world, my face shall see;
My peace I leave with you, Amen.”
Nothing can stop the work of Christ. And no one can separate God’s elect from God’s love in Christ.
But back in our text Jesus goes from this confident and unstoppable determination regarding his mission to a very sad and depressing reality. He says, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”
Notice Jesus here claims divinity, claiming to be that one who had expressed throughout the centuries, “I often I wanted to gather” you. But this is connected to the reality that over and over again the Jews “were not willing” to be gathered together with him. Nothing had changed over the centuries for the majority of them. And not only had they been unfaithful but also, like Herod and the Pharisees, they wanted death for those who brought them the word of God, something they would accomplish again when Jesus would enter Jerusalem one last time. A very violent and guilty people.
You would have done better, right? You may think so, but I’m afraid not. St. Paul says: “Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds…” (Col. 1:21) Or as he says in Romans, “Are we any better off? Not at all! For we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin.” “The mindset of the flesh is hostile to God…” (Rom. 3:9; 8:7) Hostility toward God was embedded in human nature. And hositility toward God means having to face the wrath of God. The Jews would face that wrath of God in 70 A.D. when up to one million Jews were killed in the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. This is what Jesus was referring to in our text when he said, “See, your house is abandoned to you.” Or as read a few chapters later, “As Jesus approached and saw the city, he wept for it, saying, ‘If you knew this day what would bring peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. For the days will come on you when your enemies will build a barricade around you, surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you and your children among you to the ground…'” (Luke 19:41-44)
And this earthly wrath will be turned into an eternal wrath on the last day when they will be forced against their stubborn will to acknowledge that Jesus is the blessed one of God. “I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’!” But by then it will be too late.
However, for those of you who are in Christ, who have had your sins washed away, who through baptism are united with Christ, the story is so totally different.
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Christ, and through him to reconcile everything to himself, … by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds as expressed in your evil actions. But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him—if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith…
(Col. 1:19-23)
But like Jesus, we can become very sad and depressed when we think of loved ones and friends who have either never known Christ or loved ones, members, and friends who have known him and fallen away. The book of Hebrews talks about the impossibility of renewing “to repentance those who were once enlightened, who tasted the heavenly gift, who shared in the Holy Spirit … and who have fallen away. This is because, to their own harm, they are recrucifying the Son of God and holding him up to contempt.” (Heb. 6:4-6) Let us pray that our loved ones who have fallen away are only prodigal sons who will someday come home.
And we have in our text good reason for such hope. For what we notice within Jesus as he speaks and prays is the deepest compassion: “How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.” This compassionate heart of Jesus has not gone away. If it had, the world already would have ended. As long as there are Christians, as long as there are Christian parents, Christian pastors, Christian evangelists, Christian missionaries, the deep compassion of Christ is being extended to any and all who continue to live and breathe. Even up to the very last moment of life, the compassion of Christ can be found, as the thief on the cross discovered.
Our elders and president a couple of weeks ago called members we have not seen for a while. We were trying to find out what’s going on. We want them to come to church again. But it’s not the mere coming to church that matters, but the why. What we find here on Sunday are a bunch of sinners who want to hear about and receive the deep compassion of Christ – forgiveness. What we find here on Sunday are those who want to know what the word of God teaches so they may believe rightly. What we find here on Sunday are those united with Christ and with one another for mutual encouragement. What we find here on Sunday are those who are instructed, comforted, and encouraged by the word of God in order to go out into the world for another week to face whatever and love their neighbor. What we find here on Sunday are those who know that heaven and hell are realties, and the only way to avoid hell and enter into heaven is through Christ alone.
So we pray for one another, and as we pray we remember the determination of Christ – he was not stopped – and the compassion of Christ, which never ends.
Amen.
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