The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Luke.
Some Pharisees came and said to Jesus, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’ Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.'” (Luke 13:31-35)
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So not all Pharisees were bad!
Some warn Jesus that Herod is on the look out for him.
The king who killed John the Baptist wants to kill him, but Jesus just continues doing what he is doing. He is fulfilling what His Father has given him to do. His greater concern is that the Jews have rejected his message.
His own people rejected him and knew him not.
But he persists.
This perseverance that Jesus exhibits isn’t the blind blundering into the future of the stubborn idealist.
It isn’t the ruthless charging ahead that brooks nothing in its path.
I remember reading about a man on a journey in Mexico. He was traveling on his mule and in unfamiliar territory. As he journeyed on, the road became narrower. It finally was reduced to a simple path that skirted the edge of a mountain.
It became narrower still, but the mule was sure-footed and able to travel the path. The precipitous drop to one side was frightening, and yet the man and his mount carried on.
Until they came to a break in the path. Now the way was only inches wide. The mule stopped. There was no way the animal could go forward and no way it could turn around. The rider dismounted carefully, moving to the rear of the animal, and then pushed it off the path and into the void below.
Then continued on.
That wasn’t the way Jesus persevered. He didn’t foolishly go ahead when there was no way ahead.
He knew where he was going, and how he was going to get there.
He would go about the task that His Father had given Him, knowing that ultimately, it would lead to his death. But he did what he had been called to do, obediently, confidently, quietly, and with love and compassion for those he had been sent to save, even those who refused to listen.
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem. Killer of the prophets. Stoner of those who were sent to you. How often I wanted to gather together your children as a hen gathers her children under her wings – and you would not. “
As disappointed as he is, and we can hear the disappointment in those words, Jesus will continue reaching out – healing, casting out demons, preaching, and teaching his apostles. Preparing them to change the world.
Paul writes from prison to the church in Philippi. He reminds the congregation there to keep their eye on the goal. To travel through this world but not to become besotted with the things of the world.
There are some in Philippi who believe that since we are saved by the freely given grace of God, and since that grace is unlimited, then one can sin and sin, and always be forgiven. That since God loves to forgive a sinner, the more that one sins, the more God is pleased.
Some said that in Christianity all law is gone, so a Christian can do what she likes. They turned Christian liberty into Christian license.
But Paul says, “ Remember that you are citizens of Heaven.”
Citizens of Heaven!
This was something the people there could understand. Philippi was a Roman colony. These colonies were set down at strategic centers, and settled with retired Roman soldiers who had served their twenty-one years in the army and had been given their full Roman citizenship.
Paul is saying, “Just as the Roman colonists never forget that they belong to Rome, you must never forget that you are citizens of Heaven. Let your conduct match your citizenship.”
I guess when you are younger, life seems to stretch out so far ahead of you. It is easy to be drawn into being a part of the world – wanting what the world has to offer. Wanting what the ads and commercials say you ought to have; turning you into a full-blown citizen of this world, with all its so-called pleasures.
And it’s no use anyone telling you that the world’s pleasures always fall short of what they are touted to be. You have to find out for yourself.
But as we get older we realize how short life is. Your sight may be dim but your perspective is awfully clear.
We may have pushed a few donkeys off the path on our way through life, and now we come face to face with our mortality.
Did we make the right choices along the way? Did we follow the right example?
Did we follow the example of Jesus?
We heard last week how he resisted the temptation to take the world’s way. How he rejected earthly power, and the worship of Satan – which means worshipping the world’s pleasures – and now he is threatened with death by Herod – and still he continues steadily on the task he has been set.
Paul in his letter to the Philippians (3:17-4:1) says, “I want you to follow my example.” That sounds a bit self-righteous, doesn’t it? Preachers are more likely to say, ‘do as I say, not as I do.’ But Paul can say that because he strives to imitate Christ.
He is really saying, “Be like me in imitating Jesus, if you want to know how to live.”
Shake free of the world’s grasp, and live as you know you have to live. Working your way through life, with love and compassion. And purpose.
The world tempts us to be greedy doesn’t it?
A few years ago, Martha Stewart risked everything she had worked for – for what was it – an illegal $50.000? Over what for her was just peanuts, really. What a pity!
How do you explain managers of companies who are personally worth hundreds of millions of dollars, wanting more, and cheating and lying to get more?
One executive of a corporation that made the news some time ago, was charged with his sons on having looted their company. He was over seventy years old!!!
Was he worried that he wouldn’t have enough to last him until he died? Or that somehow the richer he was the longer he would live?
Really, what’s the point?
Paul tells us that when we die we will leave this old arthritic, worn out body behind and be given a new spiritual body.
Surgical scars, wrinkled skin, thin gray hair, weak wobbly legs, triple chins, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, bad memory, loose dentures, and constipation – the whole sorry lot – will be left behind and replaced by a lovely new streamlined, healthy, body – fitted – made to measure.
A new spiritual body.
Money can’t buy that. It will be freely given to those who have followed the Christ.
Jesus rejects money, power, influence, even worry about his own well-being as he goes about healing sick bodies and minds, and telling people how to get in touch with God – how to be one with God again.
He taught that God wasn’t so far away that he couldn’t be reached. He is only a prayer away. You can almost reach out and touch him.
Captain Scott of the Antarctic was a man who loved to journey. He had to go to the most difficult places. Like the South Pole. On his last fateful journey, he kept his diary as always. And he wrote letters that he hoped would be delivered sometime.
One such letter reached Dr. J. M. Barrie, of St. Andrews University, who in his rectorial address read those immortal words, written by Scott when the chill of death was already on his expedition, as Dr. Barclay reports:
“We are in a desperate strait – feet frozen etc. no fuel, and a long way from food, but it would do your heart good to be in our tent and to hear our songs and our cheery conversation.”
Barclay says. ‘The secret is this: that happiness depends not on things, or on places, but always on persons. If we are with the right person, nothing else matters; and if we are not with the right person nothing can make up for that absence.
‘The Christian is with the Lord, the greatest of all friends. Nothing can separate the Christian from his presence and so nothing can take away his joy.’
We can be, assured, and comforted, and safe on our journey. For he is traveling with us, all the way. Right to the end!
As threats and troubles beset us, we can press on, refusing to be drawn away from our task – which is to witness to his love – and to live joyously in that love.
Living a life which imitates Christ .
And persevering in it.