Luke
13:31-35
Last
week we looked at the Testing of Jesus. This week’s reading, from his journey
to Jerusalem, shows him behaving with integrity, commitment and complete
reliance on his Father God; exactly as the Testing had suggested he would.
1. The Pharisees warn him to run
away from Herod Antipas (either genuinely concerned for J or colluding with HA)
but he refuses to be distracted. Jesus is determined to complete the work he
has come to do and will not be frightened off course by Herod or anyone else.
2. It is not just getting there (to the fate
which awaits Jesus in Jerusalem) that matters to him, but HOW he gets there –
what he does on the way, i.e. healing
people and freeing them from the grip of evil. This work is not just an
incidental aspect of Jesus’s life, it flows naturally and irresistably from the
core of his being.
3. Jesus’ knowledge of what will
happen to him makes him sad, not for himself but for Jerusalem. The city which
will reject and kill him. The house of God (Temple) has become “your house” and
is left desolate, empty. God is not now present in the building but in the
PERSON of Jesus.
4. The presence of God IN JESUS (cf
2 Corinthians 5:19) is the best way, I think, to make sense of J saying that he
has often tried to embrace his people
but they have repeatedly rejected his love. God’s people have lost sight of him
and they will not see him again until they recognize God in Jesus and worship
him, saying Blessed is he who comes in
the name of the Lord!
Application
1. What distracts or frightens us
off course in our Christian walk of discipleship and mission? How can the
example and resources of Jesus help us stay the course?
We are not living in a part of the world where being known as a
follower of Jesus will lead to threats or put us in physical danger. That’s
very rare here (thank God).
A more realistic fear for us is to worry about being disliked or
misunderstood. This might not sound too bad, but it can seem so bad that it
paralyses us into inaction. Perhaps like the Jewish leaders who admired Jesus
but were afraid of the Pharisees, we often love the approval of men (who we see
every day) more than the approval of God (John 12.43) who is out of sight, out
of mind?
This is a real threat to our discipleship and one we are unlikely to be
able to deal with alone. It is one of the reasons we need church (its not an
option). We need each other and we need to know and rely on each other more
deeply. Building real relationships with each other (and of course with God).
This is best done in smaller groups.
2. Like Jesus, as people who are on the way it is not just where we hope
to end up that matters but how we get
there, what we do on the way. For the
NT writers, especially Luke/Acts, the work of the disciple is the same as the
work of the master – healing people and freeing them from the grip of evil. How
does this relate this to our everday tasks and opportunities?
We may not often find ourselves in such dramatic confrontations with
evil and sickness as Jesus and the disciples did, but, if we are looking for
them, there are opportunities every day. For example we might offer practical
help to somebody who is going through a trauma or who is trapped in difficult
circumstances. It might not seem like much, but practical help can have more spiritual
value than we realise. God is ever present and emotional support can bring
healing.
3. What about Jesus’s sorrow –
God’s ongoing sorrow – at his rejection by Jerusalem, by the people who, more
than anyone, should have recognised and treasured him? I say “him” but we have
here the most beautiful feminine
image of God as a hen who longs to cover and protect her chicks – although they
reject her.
As we have already noticed, it is remarkable that Jesus’ sadness is
for the ones who are doing the rejecting, not for himself. And this is
challenging, because when you or I feel rejected, our sympathy is only usually
with ourselves. What’s the answer? It would be easy for me to say ‘we just need
to increase our passion for God and our love for others.’ Easy, but not very
helpful.
More helpfully I would encourage you to admit to God “I actually can’t
stand the sight of this person. God, I need a lot of help if I’m going to see
this person as you see them, as a wayward child in need of love and healing.”
That might be a hard prayer to pray, but maybe something in us needs to change
first, before we are able to confront what is wrong in the other person.
I love the way that Jesus’s confrontation of his opponents is
assertive and direct, yet at the same time full of compassion (v34). Our
approach needs to be the same if we are to stand a chance of opening another
person up to God.
4. Which leads us to the final
challenge. How can we turn people towards Jesus, to help them believe that
“Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord”? Again the answer has to
start with ourselves, inside us. We are so accustomed, even in the church, to
making judgements about other people and seeing ourselves in a separate group
or category.
Be honest, when you enter a room with people in it don’t you make
assumptions about them (examples…)? Jesus could do this too and accurately because he could see inside a
person’s heart. The difference being that Jesus doesn’t divide people up into
the ones who deserve his attention and mercy and those who don’t. He has the
same compassion for all people, he reaches out equally to all people, he
opens the door of his kingdom to all people and he never gives up on anyone.
Final
thoughts
As we
continue to reflect on the hard road that Jesus followed to his destiny in
Jerusalem, may we learn from the connections with our own faith journey. Church
will not be optional because it is here that we help each other learn the
teaching and values which will sustain us when the going is tough. Here we can
receive and give support to help us on the way. And may we look for God
in others and respond to God in others, so that all may be one, in the name of
Jesus Christ.
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