Luke 13:31 (NKJV); On that very day some Pharisees came, saying to Him, Get out and depart from here, for Herod wants to kill You.

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1 Introduction In this chapter Jesus has answered a political question about justice, a legal question about the Sabbath, a theological question about salvation. And now a personal issue about rejection and danger. We have gone from a parable to a problem to something personal. Most normal people want to be recognized, loved and accepted. We sometimes go to extraordinary lengths to get people to recognize us, like us, accept us and not reject us. Cary Grant once told how he was walking along a street and met a fellow whose eyes locked onto him with excitement. The man said, "Wait a minute, you're... you're--i know who you are; don't tell me--uh, Rock Hud--No, you're..." Grant thought he'd help him, so he finished the man's sentence: "Cary Grant." And the fellow said, "No, that's not it! You're..." There was Cary Grant identifying himself with his own name, but the fellow had someone else in mind. John says of Jesus, "He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him" (John 1:10, NIV). And even when Jesus identified who he was--the Son of God--the response was not a welcome recognition, but rather the Crucifixion (Robert F. Simms, Boone, North Carolina. Leadership, Vol. 11, no. 4.) Opposition to Jesus can range from ignoring Him, pretending like He never existed, redefining His identity to suit personal perception or trying to stamp out His witness by revising history, ridiculing His followers, or abusing Christians and killing them. In spite of opposition and rejection, some people still labor under the false impression that in the end, most people will go to heaven, that rejection of Jesus in this life has no real consequences. But those people are mistaken. The Political Rejection of Jesus (vv.31-33) Luke 13:31 (NKJV); On that very day some Pharisees came, saying to Him, Get out and depart from here, for Herod wants to kill You. On that very day the very day Jesus had said; Strive to enter through the narrow gate (vv.24-30) Jesus was in the district known as Perea. Herod Antipas was the ruler of that region. Were the Pharisees warning Jesus because they loved Him, accepted His message and respected His person? I don t think so. Luke makes it clear the religious leaders do not like Jesus. I suspect they wanted Jesus out of Perea and into Judea so the religious leaders could watch Him and wait for the right moment to trap Him. There is the possibility that some of the Pharisees actually went against the popular sentiment of the religious leaders and stood up for Jesus! Yet they may have just been stooges trying to scare Jesus out of Herod s territory. I suspect the threat to kill Jesus was real and dangerous. We know a little bit about Herod Antipas from the Scriptures. Herod was confused by the ministry of Jesus and certainly afraid of John the Baptist whom he murdered back in Luke chapter 9:7-9. 1

2 Later on Herod would even attempt to meet with Jesus (Luke 23:8) and try to coax Jesus into performing a miracle! You will recall that Jesus has nothing more to say to Herod. As far as I know, Herod is the only person in the New Testament that Jesus treats with out right contempt. Leon Morris made the comment, When Jesus has nothing to say to a man that man s position is hopeless (quoted from R.Kent Hughes Commentary on Luke Vol. 2; p.104). Herod was politically damaged by the murder of John the Baptist. It may be Herod was using the Pharisees to send a message to Jesus, Leave this place, get our of here. Jesus was in Herod s territory. Thousands of eager people were following Jesus. Herod sees Jesus as a threat to his authority and leadership. The whole place was energized by the rumors that Jesus might be Israel s Messiah. Herod certainly had spies to keep track of this fledgling Jesus movement. Herod feared righteousness. Political leaders then as well as now fall sway to whims of people or the winds of political correctness. We don t want to offend anyone. Political leaders fear that a citizens first loyalty may be to something other than government. Our first loyalty is to the Lord God, we serve Jesus Christ. We are first and foremost citizens of heaven. Our loyalty to God and Christ does not diminish our loyalty to our country, but rather defines it, and strengthens it, and guarantees that Christians should be the best citizens in any country. For some reason earthly politicians do not get that Christ s kingdom is not of this earth and that God demands obedience to the state. Politicians sometimes fear the teaching of Christ. Our own Parade of Lights has decided to not allow a church with an openly Christian message to march in a Christmas parade. It is no longer a Christmas parade. It is a holiday parade. A caller on my radio program made the comment, What is the message they fear? Is it peace on earth or goodwill toward men? I believe politicians fear righteousness and justice and love. Tragically these virtues run contrary to what government leaders really want. Warren Wiersbe writes; Our Lord was not afraid of danger. He followed a divine timetable and nothing could harm Him. He was doing the will of God according to the Father s schedule...it had been decreed from eternity that the Son of God would be crucified in Jerusalem a the Passover (1 Peter 1:20; Rev.13:8), and even Herod Antipas could not hinder the purposes of God. Quite the contrary, our Lord s enemies only helped fulfill the will of God (emphasis in the original; TBEC; Vol. 1; p.227). Luke 13:32 (NKJV); And He said to them, Go, tell that fox, Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. Jesus rejected intimidation. Jesus calls a Herod that fox. This is not a compliment. In that culture and society a fox was cunning and crafty and devious. It was not uncommon for a fox to prey upon hens given the opportunity. Jesus uses the female form of the word we might even translate this you vixen. 2

3 Jesus responds I cast out demons and perform cures. The idea is Jesus had a task to do, he would continue to liberate people from demonic oppression and physical disability. People are in bondage. Jesus has come to set them free. He will continue his mission today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. Jesus will fulfill His mission. He will go to Jerusalem. Nothing will stop him. Not even hell. Would you walk in a particular direction if you knew it was the place you must die? We see a tiny glimpse of the bravery of our Savior. Jesus is determined to go to Jerusalem and die; even if some are determined with equal resolve to reject Him. What is Jesus saying? Does he literally have only three days to live? No. The idea is Jesus will accomplish His mission, he will fulfill his goal. The expression is a Semitic idiom, a figure of speech, used by people in the Middle East to express a short time, an indefinite period of time followed by an imminent and certain event. The expression and the third day I shall be perfected the word perfected is the Greek word telos. The idea behind the term is his death and resurrection which was God s perfect will, and the vindication of His message and mission (see C. Marvin Pate; Moody Gospel Commentary Luke p.290). Luke 13:33 (NKJV); Nevertheless I must journey today, tomorrow, and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem. The journey of Jesus is a divine mission, ordered and ordained by God. Jesus says, I must journey the word must dei means necessary, being necessary by the very nature of the case. The mission and work of Jesus was overseen and ordained of God, and could not be stopped. The walk and witness of Jesus were directed by God. Jesus is the lamb who must be sacrificed in Jerusalem. Your walk and witness must be directed by God. Jesus makes it clear that His death must take place in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the nations capital, the religious, political and social center. It was the symbolic center of the hopes and dreams of Israel. In Jerusalem was the Temple, in Jerusalem was the Sanhedren who governed and judged the nation. If a prophet were to die, the decision for death must be made in Jerusalem. Jerusalem had a monopoly on killing prophets, and on this most important occasion, the city would not be deprived. When the people kill Jesus, he must be killed in the place that symbolized all the hopes and activities of man (government and religion). Why? Because Jesus dies for everyone, for all men, everywhere. Jesus dies for all their corruptions in government and religion and for all their injustices in both. The political leaders certainly did not understand that, the religious leaders did not understand that yet. 1 Peter 3:18 (NKJV); For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, The Religious Rejection of Jesus (v.34) 3

4 Luke 13:34 (NKJV); O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing! The heart of Jesus is revealed. Like Jeremiah of old, crying out, Jesus carries the intense burden of sympathy for Jerusalem. Jesus loves the people who reject Him and the sorrow wells up inside of Him because Jesus knows when you reject grace you accept judgment. I suspect He wept. Remember Jerusalem is the seat and symbol of all the formal religion of the nation. The city represents all the formal religious leaders who formally reject His Word and His witness. Matthew 23:37-39 (NKJV); O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! 38 See! Your house is left to you desolate; 39 for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! A hen gathers her chicks under her wings when the chicks are in danger. The Pharisees had told Jesus watch out you are in danger when the real danger was coming upon Jerusalem not just the city but all the inhabitants of the city. In this lament there is a warning to the religious leaders and to the whole nation. The people had been given repeated warnings and opportunities to repent of their sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as Israel s messiah. We must remember that Jerusalem had long history of repeated abuse towards God s prophets. Later in his famous speech, Stepehen the church s first martyr in the book of Acts 7:51-53; You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it. God cares about His messengers. God holds them close to His heart and is very protective of them. God s messengers are often held up to ridicule, abuse, persecution and even death. To ridicule, abuse, persecute and kill his messengers is a very serious offense. Jerusalem and the people of Jerusalem were guilty of some very serious sins, but it was this sin, that Jesus points out as the most condemning. Do you remember in the wilderness the children of Israel stumbled and complained, they rejected the promise of God and refused to exercise faith and go into the promised land, which resulted in the death of generation. What is the most grievous sin? To reject God s salvation in the person of Jesus Christ. We fail to appreciate the great patience, kindness and love of God. After repeated messages, despite multiple appeals, the people rejected the witness of God, and then killed the prophets and murdered the Son of God. 4

5 Jesus reveals the heart of God, How often I would have gathered you I would save you, reach out to you, time and time again, yet they refused. The expression under her wings reminds me of the song of Moses when he celebrated God s care for Jacob; In a desert land he found him; in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye, like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions (Deut.32:10-11). Under His wings there is warmth, security, safety, sustenance, this is not just a sentimental image this is a divine metaphor repeated by Jesus revealing the heart of God. Luke 19:10 (NKJV); for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. John 3:17 (NKJV); For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. Please note: but you were not willing. He would save them. But they would not be saved. The people had every privilege and opportunity imaginable. They heard Christ and learned directly from His mouth, and yet they rejected Him. They were responsible for their lonely circumstance and ultimate lost condition. Their rejection was a deliberate decision. John 1:11 (NKJV); He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. John 12:48 (NKJV); He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. The World s Rejection of Jesus (v.35) Luke 13:35 (NKJV); See! Your house is left to you desolate; and assuredly, I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! The expression Your house probably refers to the family of Jacob ( the house of Israel) and to the physical Temple ( the house of God); both of which would be left to you desolate within a generation. The combined armies of the tenth and twelth legions of Rome, with Vespasian and his son Titus would invade the city and kill hundreds of thousands of Jews, destroy the Temple and terminate Temple sacrifices. Those who survived would scatter to Babylon and make their ways around the mouth of Mediterranium Sea. We all know of the holocaust in WWII. But few people know about the utter devastation of Jerusalem by the Roman armies. Josephus records the events. The city was starved into submission before its desolation. Josephus describes roofs filled with people, famished women with babies in their arms, and the alleys filled with corpses of the elderly. Children and young people roamed the inside of the city their faces gaunt and their bellies swollen from starvation and Josephus writes roamed like phantoms through the market-places and collapsed wherever doom overtook them. Their was a hush a solemn silence no lamenting or wailing, famine had strangled their 5

6 emotions. Jerusalem could not bury all the bodies so they flung the stiff corpses over the wall. The silence was broken only by the laughter of robbers stripping the bodies (see R.Kent Hughes ibid; Vol. 2p.107). I believe God has unfinished business with Israel and the Jewish people. I believe the emergence of Israel as a political nation and as an ethnic remnant is not some fluke or accident. When Jesus says, and assuredly, I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord has a dual meaning in a few weeks the people in Jerusalem will cry, Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord but the they will cry Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord when Jesus returns to earth as judge and King to sit on the throne of David. Israel s house is desolate. The nation has no king, no priest, no temple or sacrifice. The nation still has God s promise that she has not been left utterly forsaken. Romans 11:1 (NKJV);I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. Whether house of Israel, Temple of God, a religious body, a denomination, a religious movement, a church, a small fellowship of so called believers, or individuals, if they reject Christ, time after time, reject the privileges they have, God will leave them alone. They will be deserted, left without the presence of God. And a place without the presence of God is a like wilderness or a desert. Matthew 8:12 (NKJV); But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Who are the sons of the kingdom? These are the people the chosen people the privileged people, those with believing parents, those raised in a Christian home, those who have the enormous privilege of growing up in a godly home, and in spite of all those privileges reject Jesus. Conclusion I talk to your wives and your husbands and your children. I talk to your friends. I talk to the people who speak to you and pray for you. I talk to the people who invite you over and over to receive Christ. They are grieved at your rejection. They view your rejection of Christ as a rejection of them. They think that if they could say just the right words in just the right way, you would repent, you would receive Christ, and avoid the awful and inevitable judgment that accompanies the rejection of God s only solution to sin. They seldom realize that your rejection of Christ goes much deeper. The problem is not I have questions that need answers. The problem is not; I am not sure the claims of Christ are true. The problem is you love being in control of your life, you love being the king of your own heart, you fear that Christ will come in and change you and you do not want to abandon your sin, walk away from your pleasure. You are not willing. 6

7 You see the threat of hell as a quant antiquated religious ruse to try to get you to come to Christ. You have rejected the love of Jesus and the sacrifice of Jesus. It is no big deal for you to reject the threat of Jesus. What are the parting words Jesus has for you? You will see me again. Billy Graham tells the story of a time when Albert Einstein was going on a train to an out-of-town engagement. The conductor stopped by to punch his ticket. The great scientist, preoccupied with his work, with great embarrassment rummaged through his coat pockets and briefcase to no avail. He could not find his ticket. The conductor said, We all know who you are, Dr. Einstein. I m sure you bought a ticket. Don t worry about it. Everything is okay. The conductor walked on down the aisle punching other tickets. Before he moved to the next car, he looked back and saw Dr. Einstein down on his hands and knees looking under his seat trying to find his ticket. He came back and gently said, Dr. Einstein, please don t worry about it. I know who you are. Einstein looked up and said, I too know who I am. What I don t know is where I m going! 7