The Brood Who Would Not Repent
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The text for today is our Gospel, Luke 13:31-35,
which has already been read.
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the
Lord Jesus Christ.
When your enemies act like your friends, watch
out! You know things are getting dangerous when that happens. The
Pharisees are Jesus’ enemies. And now all of a sudden they act like His
best friends. Taking an interest in His safety and well-being. “Get
away from here,” they warn. “Herod wants
to kill you.”
These Pharisees sound so helpful. Are they different from the Pharisees who
have been opposing Jesus every step of the way?
The ones that Jesus called hypocrites because they trumpeted their
zealous keeping of religious traditions, all the while failing to love and
trust God alone, and neglecting to show mercy to their neighbor in need? Have they seen the light and turned a new
leaf?
No, they’re the same Pharisees whom Jesus spoke His
woes against. The ones who bristled at Jesus’
criticism, then “began to press Him hard and to provoke Him to speak about many
things, lying in wait for Him, to catch Him in something He might say.” It seems they might have invented (or at
least, perfected) what we call “gotcha politics” today. Try to catch your opponent with a slip of the
tongue and then hammer him with it repeatedly until he loses credibility and
support.
These are the same Pharisees about whom Jesus warned
the people: “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy” (Luke
12:2). Not averse to hiding their
diabolical intentions behind masks of piety, it’s more likely the Pharisees
were trying to deceive Jesus into abandoning His journey to Jerusalem, not so He would be safe, but for
their own sake. The Pharisees realize
that any man who wants to be a leader of the Jews must establish Himself in Jerusalem. Any ploy that could keep Him away from Jerusalem will surely
foil His plans.
No, these Pharisees are not being helpful. They’ve already rejected Jesus and His purpose. In fact, they’ve allied themselves with Herod
and his people. Talk about politics
making for strange bedfellows! They’ve
been longtime, bitter enemies. Still, St.
Mark tells us that early in Jesus’ ministry “the Pharisees went out and
immediately held counsel with the Herodians against [Jesus], how to destroy
Him” (3:6).
Yes, this is a ruse.
But that is not to say that Jesus does not face some very real
threats—only they come from the Pharisees themselves, not Herod. Herod is more amused and intrigued by
Jesus. The Pharisees are scared
witless. St. Luke tells us in chapter 6
that after Jesus restored the withered hand of a man on the Sabbath, the
Pharisees “were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might
do to Jesus” (v. 11).
What’s more—Jesus already knows all of this. The Pharisees aren’t fooling Him one
bit. In fact, Jesus knows very well not
only what could happen to Him, but what will happen to Him. But He seems incredibly unconcerned. What’s the worst thing that could happen to Him? He dies?
That’s what He came to do—to die for the sins of the world, to lay down
His life and take it up again. In fact, Jesus
has been stating it clearly to His disciples: “The Son of Man must suffer many
things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be
killed, and on the third day be raised” (Luke 9:22). Jesus knows full well what’s in store for Him,
where He is going, what He is about to do.
Nevertheless, Jesus will go to Jerusalem.
The Prophet who was “honored” with a parade out of Nazareth, and brought for a close up view of
their town’s cliff, could have passed through this crowd, too. The Valiant One who battled and bested the
evil one in the wilderness has nothing to fear from the likes of Herod. So He says to the Pharisees: “Go and tell
that old fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow,
and the third day I finish my course.’”
There’s an unspoken sentence after this that I think
we can safely plug in: “And no one is going to stop Me.” That’s the comfort of this text. Jesus is in complete control of His
destiny. He’s not living by the seat of
His pants, outwitting His opponents for one more day like the Roadrunner with Wile
E. Coyote. He’s going to keep going about His ministry until it’s time
for Him to go to the cross. No matter
how much Herod wants Him dead, the Son of God is going to stay alive for as
long as He wills. No matter how much the
Pharisees want Him out of the way, He’s going to keep going about His Father’s
plan of salvation.
If the plan is to preach and heal today and tomorrow,
He’s going to preach and heal today and tomorrow. If it’s His will to finish His course on the
third day, He’s going to finish His course on the third day. He can’t be stopped from saving you. Jesus will cast out demons and perform cures
today and tomorrow, and the third day He will finish His course.
The “third day.”
That’s an interesting phrase for Jesus to use. Outside of this passage and a reference to a
wedding and a shipwreck, “the third day” is only used in the New Testament to
refer to Jesus’ resurrection. So let
this be a reminder, too, of Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. On the first day, He dies willingly for your
sin, and nobody can keep Him from redeeming you. On the next day, He descends into hell to
proclaim His victory, and not even the devil can keep Him from doing so or from
leaving again. And on the third day? He rises again from the dead. Not even death can stop Him!
Jesus knows His mission. His course is set.
He will die and rise in Jerusalem. No one could deflect Him. Not the devil
in the wilderness. Not the devil that comes as His friend in the form of
the Pharisees. Not His own well-intended, but devil-inspired disciples. Jesus follows the Father’s agenda. As
much as Herod and the Pharisees want Jesus dead, it will be on the Father’s
terms. Not theirs. After all,
Jesus says, “No prophet can die outside Jerusalem.”
Jerusalem—the City of Peace.
What a reputation she had. Hers was a reputation of killing God’s
prophets. Stoning to death those sent to preach to her. As we heard in our Old Testament lesson, Jeremiah
experiences this rejection first hand. The congregation who hears him
preach, lays their hands on him and says: “You shall die!” And then they bring him before the officials,
and the priests and prophets charge Him with prophesying against the
city. The people in Jeremiah’s day refuse to repent. They (the political and religious
authorities, in particular) think they were doing God a favor by killing their
preacher.
Hmmm… sounds vaguely familiar, doesn’t it?
It is the same in Jesus’ day. The Pharisees are
very religious. At synagogue every Sabbath. Fast twice a
week. Give a tithe of everything they have. Speak out against the
evils of society. Patriotic. Moral. Conservative.
Outstanding citizens. They would
probably fit right in at a Tea Party rally or pro-life march or VFW
convention. And yet Jesus says that all
that isn’t good enough, for they will not repent. That, the Pharisees can
do without. They are doing fine on their own. They have their self-righteousness. They have the Law. They have their traditions. And they have the courage of their
convictions, and the willingness to follow through on them, even if they have
to step on a few toes or crack a few skulls to do so. “Repentance?
Why? We don’t need no stinking
repentance!”
What about you?
During this Lent can you do without repentance? Are you a Pharisee
at heart? Are you getting along just fine on your own? Are you afraid of Jesus? Perhaps
harboring a guilty conscience that is worried that His light might expose that
wickedness you’ve kept hidden in the dark recesses of your heart. Or maybe scared that He’ll take away all your
good works and call them worthless? Perhaps you are afraid that Jesus’
death and resurrection isn’t good enough?
That you must add something of your own?
A little self-justification, perhaps?
A little manageable law?
Jerusalem’s impenitence drove Jesus to tears. “O
Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!”
Unbelief breaks Jesus’ heart. He takes it personally. For when
God’s faithful prophets and preachers are rejected, it’s really the Lord and
His Word that are being rejected. And
it’s not the Lord who will suffer, but those who refuse to repent and believe.
You can hear the deep sorrow and bitter irony in
Jesus’ words. The holy city of Jerusalem
and yet so unholy. The City of Peace
that kills God’s prophets. Isn’t it
amazing how the godly and ungodly can be so close together? How truth and
error can be separated by such a narrow margin?
And that’s true of the Church today.
The greatest faith and the worst of unbelief lie close beside one
another. Within the same congregation.
Within the same pew. Often within
the same heart.
The devil doesn’t care about what goes on in the
world. He’s the prince of this fallen world. But he does care about
what goes on in the church. He’d rather you not be here. But once
you are here, he’ll do his best to distract you. Get you to dwell on some
pesky problem in your life rather than confess your sins and be forgiven.
He wants you to pay attention to the preacher’s many shortcomings rather than
the sermon that proclaims Christ’s death and resurrection for you.
The devil is thrilled when churches fire their
pastors for restoring individual confession and absolution. For calling
sin “sin” even when it offends and decreases membership. For urging people
to receive the Lord’s Body and Blood.
For daring to teach the historic practice of closed communion. For
calling people to repentance. The devil
delights in all this. But Jesus weeps. He wept over Jerusalem. He
laments their unbelief and rebellious spirit. “How often would I have
gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and
you would not.” A tender, yet tragic picture. A mother hen clucking
after her little ones. Trying to gather them under her protective wings.
Willing to sacrifice herself to save them. And yet they stubbornly
refuse.
They say, “Hell hath no fury like a woman
scorned.” If that’s true, then what
fury—and hell—awaits those who scorn a mother hen who longs to gather her
chicks under her wing? What fury is in
store for those who spurn their Creator, the One who’s given them
everything—including life itself? What
hell lies ahead for those who would even dare destroy the One sent to save them
from such fury?
A gracious God has chosen Jerusalem to be His holy city, to receive a
small measure of His attention and blessings.
But time and again, she rejects the men the Lord sends to deliver His
message. And now, in today’s text, the
people of Jerusalem
are on the brink of rejecting even their Creator and Savior as He comes to them
in person, to reject the Prophet who is God Himself. What fury!
Yes, hell is waiting.
But that’s not the point of our text.
Instead, and amazingly, Jesus still longs to gather them, just as He
still longs to gather all who time and again reject Him—all of us. When Jerusalem
has earned only wrath, the rejected Prophet will still go to the City of Peace that kills God’s
prophets to suffer that wrath Himself. He
will still go to the brood that refuses to repent, to gather as many of those
little ones under His saving wings as He can!
If anything should cause Jesus to reject Jerusalem, it should be
their repeated rejections of Him. How
many times can one—even God—be hurt and not give up on loving? We understand, we think. We’ve reached out. We’ve put our feelings on our sleeves. We’ve loved or offered our love, and been
rejected. We’ve tried to share God’s
Word with our loved ones and been shot down.
After a while, we pull pack, if for no other reason than self-preservation. More likely out of disappointed frustration,
perhaps even personal anger. So we
understand.
But do we? Do
we understand—really?—how often we’ve rejected Christ’s love extended to
us? We must face it, and Lent is a good
time to square ourselves to the harsh truth that there is a little religious
Pharisee and a little tyrannical Herod in each one of us. We are constant trying to orchestrate things
our way, to be little gods in place of God, exerting our wills to control
others, and even, were it possible to control God. We use religion as a bargaining chip. We use politics as the muscle. We use politics to bolster our religion, and
religion to bolster our politics. Herod
and the Pharisees are alive and well in each of us.
Like Jerusalem,
we would not. We would not be saved,
were it left to our own devices. We
would not be children of God, but Christ has gathered us, against our wills,
kicking and screaming at times. We also are,
in many ways, the brood that refuses to repent, the little chicks that reject
the shelter and protection of the loving hen’s mighty wings.
God makes us His chosen people, gives us eternal
life, and we say, “Ho, hum. What have
you done for me that I can use today?
How about something that will help be a better spouse, raise perfect
children, or live a victorious life, here and now?” He comes to us today in His Word and
Sacraments, and we want something more exciting? Something more relevant? Do we understand how deserving we are of the
fury of a lover scorned?
For their rejection of the Messiah, Jerusalem will ultimately itself be
rejected. The beloved city, the City of Peace that kills God’s
prophets, will be destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. The Lord will take His honor and glory now to
wherever Christ’s people gather around Him in Word and Sacrament.
But even knowing this in advance, Jesus’ heart for
His people will still send Him to Jerusalem—for her and for us. Nothing anyone could do, not even Jerusalem’s own rejection
of her Savior, will prevent Him from coming to her one more time, the one more
time that also brings Him to us. On Palm
Sunday, Jesus will come to Jerusalem
and be acclaimed by these very words: “Blessed is He who comes in the name of
the Lord” (Luke 13:35). Then He will be
rejected and crucified. He’ll suffer the
God-forsakenness of hell.
But this is precisely why He will come. This has been Jerusalem’s paradoxical purpose
throughout her favored history: the city that kills God’s Prophet will be the
City of Peace—the place where God and man will be reconciled when Christ
faithfully finishes His course all the way to the cross.
That’s Jesus’ love for Jerusalem. That’s Jesus’ love for His
Church. That’s Jesus’ love for you. To extend His crucified arms
over you. To shelter you under the protection of His grace. To hide
you in His mercy. He goes to Jerusalem to die for
all. Even for those who hate Him and want Him dead. For those who
have rejected His Word and insisted upon living their own way. People like you and me. All that you might repent and believe this
Good News: For Jesus’ sake, you are forgiven for all of your sins.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit. Amen.
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