Lesson 47L Luke 13:31- 35 Jesus Faces the Future In Confidence

Herod Flexes His Muscled Threats 13:31- 35

English Standard Version (Chapter 13)

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. 33 Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’ 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! 35 Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”

This is a very ominous paragraph to the listening ears of this paragraph. It means something very sobering to the Pharisees, the people who are close but not mentioned, plus the people of Jerusalem, the disciples, and even us, the readers. The cross hangs heavy in the air to us reading it right now. It’s all we can think about, but at the same time we know for certain that the death tomb of Jesus is empty. But to them who are there, Jesus promises they will not get at him and see Him die until He returns to Jerusalem.

What a testimony Jerusalem has developed! “For it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem! “ Then He says plainly “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!” Lastly He says they were not willing to be sheltered together as children, thus, “Your house is forsaken.” The final pronouncement is akin to saying “Ichabod” is placed over the door of the house. They are “God forsaken.” This definitely is a message and a house of despair. Yes, not all of them are forsaken but collectively Israel needs spiritual help that has been largely rejected by the spiritual and political leadership. Jesus said He came to bring division and this is the culmination of that truth.

At the very hour of the message of the parables and the open door of the previous verses, He begins to mourn over Jerusalem. It is the location of His Temple. The history of the city is ripe with ancient blessings of righteousness. But it is also the scene of wholesale abandonment of the Lord God. All He wanted was for them to love Him supremely. They learned to love their rules and religion more than anything else. Jesus and the others hear from the Pharisees that Herod Antipas (son of Herod the Great) wants to kill Jesus. Yes, it is a blood thirsty Jewish family. Power has corrupted their very being. Yes, some Pharisees were either trying to help Jesus or they were baiting the Son of God so that He would take the hint that He was not wanted.

But Jesus said, “I am coming back!” There is no fear in the proclamation that He is going to cast out more demons. He is going to heal people and you will see them cured yet today, tomorrow, and the day following! This is the truth that Jesus is going to finish His course. The listeners do not sense the magnitude of the moment but this is not the last time He will say this. In Jerusalem, on Golgotha, hanging from the cross he will put an exclamation point on that statement when Jesus proclaims “It is finished.”

The indictment against the city is grievous and must have insulted and inflamed many of the people in attendance. Then on the other hand, there had to be some who agreed in principle with Him. I’m thinking there are those who had very little inkling what is going on. Then, think of the disciples who are considering Jesus’s words to be challenging because they are going to walk down this unpopular path with Him. The path is smoking. But Jerusalem will not see His face until He rides triumphantly into the city on the back of a donkey. Boom. The Messiah is getting ready to hit the streets of that mournful city as He travels in victory, all the way to a glorious resurrection from the dead.

Jesus is quoting Psalm 118:26 in verse 35. The real action in Psalm 118 starts earlier, but we shall enter at verse 22:

English Standard Version (Psalm 118)

22  The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. 23 This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.

24 This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. 25 Save us, we pray, O LORD! O LORD, we pray, give us success!

26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!

We bless you from the house of the LORD. 27 The LORD is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar!

We know that Jesus was including verse 22 in His assessment of Jerusalem: “Rejected.” But if we as believers stand back and look at jesus through this, it becomes a powerful meaning filled moment in time for the ages. It is truly marvelous. “The day that the Lord has made,” is not talking about any day in general like it is mostly used today. In particular, it is talking about the day He came to die on the cross. We say it with a solemn reverence but with great expectation. The Savior made good on His Word and on this prophetic passage. The sacrifice was bound to a wooden altar not covered with gold but with body of the Savior and nails in His hands and feet of Jesus Christ our Lord. (Psalm. 118:27 for comparison.)

Jesus Continues to Draw a Line in the Sand Luke 14: 1- 6

English Standard Version (Chapter 14)

 One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. 2 And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. 3 And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” 4 But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. 5 And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” 6 And they could not reply to these things.

The 13th chapter ends with Jesus promising healings before He comes to Jerusalem and the 14th starts out with just that. In fact, it is another Sabbath healing. This type has drawn the ire of the Pharisees already. You would think the Pharisees would get their act together over the period of time it has drawn their ire and say something intelligent in rebuttal. The rebuttal could have been passed from region to region. Truth is, they have nothing that can refute what the Savior is doing, other than they just don’t like it.

To make matters worse for the religious folk, Jesus performs the healing in the house of a Pharisee. Jesus asks the question to which he knows the answer and He how they will respond. They returned His question with silence. This is answering incorrectly by default. So, Jesus healed a man of dropsy, or edema. 50 or 60 years ago, people had heart trouble and dropsy together. If they saw a chair, they dropped in it and then they did not have the heart to get up. This dropsy or swelling is from fluid build up, and is easily noticeable around the feet and ankles. In Jesus day, without world class medications, it was probably a pre-cursor to stroke ad heart attack.

We have seen this argument before and it is not an argument you are going to win against Jesus. If you can pull an animal out of a well on the Sabbath, why not heal a real person on the Sabbath? It’s a great question to which the scholars could not refute. They could not even reply- speechless. The irrefutable argument leaves most people speechless, just as it has done here. Jesus is not only right but he has confounded the wise men of the day. The power of the spoken word is as mighty and timely today as it was in the first century. Jesus brings everything to the table, and sends no one away without without having received a full plate, or a complete healing. The Pharisees got a complete lesson in integrity and honesty