Jesus Moving (March 13, 2022) Luke 13.31-35

Imagine if you will a journey that you are taking. Suppose it is a long journey, a cross country trip that takes you to many places and is a fun trip designed to make memories that last a lifetime. Now, imagine that this trip is something that gets you into some trouble and now you have a certain people who want you to perhaps pay them a visit. Someone comes along and tells you about this and so you make the prudent decision to move along to your next destination. Your journey has taken you from the expected to the unexpected and more.

Jesus is moving on a journey. From Luke 9:51-19:27, quite a large section that is unique to Luke, Jesus is traveling from Galilee to Jerusalem to what we know, and what he seems to know, will be his death. But along the way he takes the time to teach, heal, and cast out demons. He is going about proclaiming the kingdom of God and even sending his disciples out in mission teams. In this journey are some of the best known of Jesus’ parables and stories. And pretty close to middle of this journey comes the text for today, of which I want to focus upon verses 31-33 at this time.

To understand this a little better, one must look back over the text that comes before this one. In verse 22 and following, we are told that he is moving toward Jerusalem teaching in towns and villages. The following verses let us know what Jesus is teaching at this time, the hard lessons of the narrow door and salvation.

And now we come to the text for today. It is here that we meet some Pharisees. Now, for the most part the Pharisees are usually looked upon with a negative light in the Gospels. They are constantly in dialogue and conflict with Jesus. But they are the closest to what Jesus is teaching morally and within the law.

Here we find them telling Jesus to get out of town, so to speak. Herod (not Herod the Great but rather his son, Herod Antipas) ruler of Galilee, is looking to kill him. This was the Herod that killed John the Baptist so we know that he has no compunction with killing someone who upsets him. But the question is this: are the Pharisees really looking out for Jesus? Or are they just trying to get rid of a trouble maker from among them? What is going on here?

The Pharisees are the opponents of Herod. They believed that he was not the true ruler of the area. Though he held the power it was only because Rome allowed him to have that power. And he was not really a king. He was a tetrarch, one who held power over part of the kingdom that his father had held. He was also known to break the Jewish law for his own sake and not heed what the Pharisees taught. And so, it seems that they are trying to help Jesus, a man who is spreading a message like that of John the Baptist, taking on the ones in power and making them uncomfortable.

Understanding that they are just letting him know which way the wind is blowing, Jesus tells them to tell Herod (whom he calls “that fox”) just what is going down. One way of looking at this today is someone saying to a reporter, “…And you can quote me on this!”

First, calling the ruler of the country a fox was a bold move. Foxes were seen as destructive pests, cunning yes, but pests who were able to live only on the margins of areas rather than use strength. N. T. Wright says that a contemporary way of putting this is: “Go tell that yapping little dog of a king…” In saying this about Herod, Jesus is giving him a reminder of who he is in the big picture: he is just a little fish in a very big pond, a little dog (you know the kind I’m talking about. The chihuahua that acts as if he could eat you alive) who acts and sounds fierce but can be silenced by a tug on the leash by his owner (aka Rome).

It is what Jesus tells the Pharisees to tell Herod, after calling him a fox, that should get the most attention and it is here that the journey of Jesus is more fully defined. He says that he going today and tomorrow casting out demons, curing the sick and on the third day he will finish his work. These are not to be taken as literal days because Jesus is still traveling toward Jerusalem. But what Jesus is saying is that Herod, for all his power and posturing, is not going to stop him in his calling. In the words of Elwood from the Blues Brothers movie, Jesus is “on a mission from God” and nothing, not Herod, not the Pharisees, not anyone, will stop him because he is following a divine calling. The reference of the third day points to a completion of Jesus mission, though it is clear that this will not be finished in three days because Jerusalem still beckons and Jesus will be there for at least a week. But the third day also reminds us of the cross and the empty tomb toward which Jesus is moving.

As Jesus continues, he lets those listening know that Herod wanting to kill him does not matter as his journey must take him Jerusalem. His statement of today, tomorrow and the next day is indicative of the continuing journey that must end in Jerusalem. Jesus is a prophet and in Jerusalem prophets in the past have met their end. It is here that the journey of Jesus must end and there is nothing on this earth that can stop him.

Now you may be thinking, “That is some interesting information, but what does that have to do with us today?” Well, we are also moving as Jesus did. Throughout Lent we state that we are on a journey, one to accompany Jesus as he makes his way to the final week, to the cross and finally to the empty tomb. But I propose that we are always moving with Jesus each and every day.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a person who was always moving with Jesus. He stood up to the authorities in Germany prior to World War II by helping found the Confessing Church which was wrote and adopted the Barmen Declaration of Faith which we find in our Book of Confessions. One of the declarations that Bonhoeffer and the others made was this: “As Jesus Christ is God’s assurance of the forgiveness of all our sins, so in the same way and with the same seriousness is he also God’s mighty claim upon our whole life. Through him befalls us a joyful deliverance from the godless fetters of this world for a free, grateful service to his creatures. 8.15 We reject the false doctrine, as though there were areas of our life in which we would not belong to Jesus Christ, but to other lords—areas in which we would not need justification and sanctification through him.”[1] It was this declaration and others that Got him into hot water with the state. Knowing that he was a watched man, Bonhoeffer was given a teaching post at Union Theological Seminary (the other Union, located in New York City) in 1939 shortly before the war began. It was here that he could pass the war in safety and comfort. But after six months he noted that he had made a mistake and to the puzzlement and dismay of many he traveled back to Germany where he believed that he was needed. Upon returning, he tirelessly worked against the regime throughout the war, eventually being arrested and executed for his work. Through all of this, nothing, not even the prospect of death, could or would stop him from seeing the journey of his calling from God through to the end.

Now, I am well aware that most of us do not face the kind of a journey Jesus or Bonhoeffer did. We do not have people who want to kill us because of our following God’s call in our lives. Our journeys tend to be somewhat safe and comfortable. We can go and come as we choose and no one will be giving us difficulties in the journey that we take with Christ. But we do face obstacles in our journeys. We face fear of how others will view us. We face the difficulties that can arise with following Jesus whether it be indifference or apathy. And in some places, there is indeed hostility toward those who are on the journey. One more thing, when we take a journey, more often than not we return the same person, more or less. But sometimes a journey can turn into a quest, an act of seeking. When we go one a journey with Jesus, we begin a quest, seeking for something that we do not have that only Jesus can provide.

So, what can we do to demonstrate that we are indeed moving with Jesus? There are many ways that we can do this. Jesus was not always confronting those in power. Remember in the verses preceding today’s text he was teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. Some of the teachings are very well known: The Greatest Commandment, the Good Samaritan, and letting Martha know that she was concerned about too much when only one thing was necessary are all in chapter 10. Further parables and stories follow today’s passage: The Prodigal Son, the Pharisee and the Tax Collector and Zacchaeus. And while we usually know what these texts tell us in loving our neighbors, showing humility in ourselves and loving God, we often forget how or what we can do on our moving with Jesus.

Along the way we can do so many things. There are ways we seldom even realize. It can be as easy as welcoming visitors to service, and, yes, sometimes just showing up for service.

Other ways require a little more effort. Volunteering to be an usher, being a part of a Habitat for Humanity work day, or helping with the church bazaar are all examples. It is easy to drop a can of food into a food drive cart, but it requires some extra effort to go help out at the food pantry. And, of course, there is always giving of tithes and offerings.

But there are times when our courage is tested and we have to remember that Jesus is with us in our journey. It is at these times that we must remember the words of Jesus and that we are about his work. We are, as Theresa of Avila said, the hands and feet of Jesus and that the journey we are on is with him. It takes courage and the knowledge that we are about the work of God when we stand up to injustice and to those who want us to be quiet or to “leave this area” and stop causing a ruckus. It takes the knowledge that we are moving with Christ and are doing his work to reach out to those who are different from us whether they be of a different sexuality, race, or even political party. And sometimes our journeys can take us in paths that separate us from those whom we care for the most and it takes the courage that Jesus had in his moving to help us continue.

In his moving closer to Jerusalem Jesus faced down powers that could have stopped him because he knew his mission was of a higher calling and that there was nothing Herod or anyone else could do to stop him. It was a quest seeking to save those who were lost. And we have been changed because of it. The apostle Paul writes in Romans 8:38-39 that there is nothing, nothing that can separate us from the love of God. It is clear that we can face whatever comes in the course of our journey and quest with Jesus because at the end is not death, but an empty tomb that tells us God is victorious and through him so are we. Thanks be to God. Amen.

[1]Book of Confessions, Pg. 283