Foxes and Chickens

The morning lesson occurs within a large section in the middle of Luke’s Gospel called the Travel Narrative. The section begins with the words “Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem” (9.51) and Luke uses this journey to organize how he tells the story of Jesus’ ministry. So this is a good text to read on the Second Sunday in Lent because Lent is our journey to Jerusalem, to Holy Week and Good Friday and Easter. Jesus went to Jerusalem and we go with him, to experience once more the horror of crucifixion and the good news of resurrection. We go with Jesus because his way is our way. Let’s read it in Luke 13.

At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “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.’”

We don’t really know why Luke tells us that some Pharisees warned Jesus that Herod wanted to kill him. Typically we think of Pharisees as the bad guys in the New Testament but more than the other Gospel writers, Luke portrays at least some Pharisees positively. So maybe they were friendly to Jesus and sincerely wanted to warn him of danger.

But the point of the text seems to be that Jesus was influenced by neither friend nor foe.[1] He wasn’t swayed by the threats of Herod. Nor was his journey altered by the people or frustration when the citizens of Jerusalem — representative of all God’s people — reject again and again the message of the kingdom. Jesus held steady to God’s way and if we are wise, we will follow that way too.

Bible scholars spend a great deal of time classifying the different kinds of expressions and sayings which we find in the biblical flora and fauna just like a botanist and a zoologist would classify the plants and animals of a given region. When Jesus lamented over Jerusalem, crying that God’s people had not responded to God’s messengers, our Lord was speaking what is called a wisdom saying. Wisdom was a common and popular way of speaking and thinking in those days. The motto of wisdom was, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” That doesn’t mean we should be afraid of God. It means we must reverence God and put God at the center of our lives. Then we will be wise. Then we will not be like little chicks running around unprotected.

But we lack wisdom. In some writings which were popular in Jesus’ day but which didn’t make it into the Bible, wisdom is described as a semi-divine person trying to find a home in human hearts. We read these words, for example, in a book known as 1 Enoch:

Wisdom finds no home in the human world and goes back to live among the angels. But Iniquity does find a home with humans who soak up iniquity like a thirsty and parched land welcomes the rain and dew.

When Jesus lamented over Jerusalem, the people would have heard his words as a wisdom saying, lamenting how we lack wisdom. We make iniquity feel at home in our lives but do not welcome wisdom.

So what does that mean for you and me today? Lacking wisdom means we don’t center our lives in God. That can take many forms but I want to talk about it today simply in terms of the importance of Sunday worship. We lack wisdom when we are not worshiping every Sunday. I know it’s silly to say this to you for obviously you are worshiping today. But I cannot overemphasize the importance of regular Sunday worship and how those who habitually do not worship are not being wise. For when we do not worship, we are not placing God in the center of your lives.

Now, am I saying that if you don’t worship, you cannot be saved? No. The grace of God saves. We don’t earn God’s mercy and love by worship. Am I saying that something magical happens here so that coming to church protects us from all suffering and misfortune? No. Obviously you and I and all God’s people suffer illness and disease and tragedy and violence and hurt just like everyone. Am I saying that people who don’t worship are just bad people? No. This isn’t a moralistic condemnation. I’m trying to describe how God wants us to be wise and that means worship is important.

Worship is important because if we don’t do it regularly and habitually, then the praise of God is not likely to be on our lips. And if God is God, is not praising God the highest thing humans can do? So where else can we sing the praise of God, or at least hear the words and music if we ourselves cannot sing? Oh, I know — we can do that at home or at the lake cabin or at the golf course or having coffee with friends. In all those places we can talk of God and perhaps even praise God. But let’s be real honest now. How many people who never come to church regularly speak God’s praise at home or anywhere else? It just doesn’t happen when we are not regularly in worship.

Where else do we confess to God with our own lips and say that we have messed up and need to be forgiven? I know that the words in the prayers of confession are general and don’t always or even frequently match the circumstances of our own lives. But at least when we pray that prayer we think the thoughts and say the words that we are sinners. And where else do we hear the assurance of pardon that our sins are forgiven in Jesus Christ? Where else do we pass the peace of Christ to other human beings?

We live in a wired and increasingly a wireless world. Cell phones, laptops, iPods, Blackberries keep us connected probably more than we want and definitely more than we need. In this hypermedia culture, where else do we give to kids a book that is thousands of years old and say to them what we also say to ourselves, “read it for this will tell you about life”? A book! And where else do we sit quietly and think for 15 or 20 minutes as someone opens this book and tries to bring out the power of these words of life? Where else do we find the things of God? Certainly all of this can happen outside of worship. But for the most part it doesn’t.

Let me tell you a story about how wise my father was. When I was in fifth grade, I belonged to our church’s Boy Scout Troop and also played Little League Baseball. I loved baseball. I wanted to be like my hero, Mickey Mantle, and play for the New York Yankees. But I couldn’t seem to do both scouting and baseball. I know kids do both but I just couldn’t manage it. It seemed like every time the troop would have an outing, my coach would have extra practices. Or I would have a baseball tournament and we would also have a big Scout project or campout the same weekend. I just couldn’t do both. So I decided to play baseball and drop out of Scouts.

I talked about this quite awhile with my mom and dad. They finally supported me but they made me really think about it. And I remember the time when the decision was finally made. We lived then on what was the remainder of a small farm. There was a large field on one side of our property and some woods out back. Campfires and sleep-outs and other scouting-like things were right in my own backyard and I did all of those things regularly. So I remember saying to my father, in some attempt to justify my decision, “You know, Dad, I’ve still got the Scout Handbook. I can still do all of those things and maybe even do the requirements for merit badges. I can still do all of that right here at home.”

Then my father, who was unwise in some things — he seldom went to church — spoke very wisely. He said, “Yes, Billy. You could do those things right here at home. But you won’t.”

My father knew that Scouting was the framework that allowed those experiences and learnings. Without the framework, the experience and learning would not happen.

So it is with worship. Without the framework of worship, the praise of God and the experience of God and the learning of God just do not happen. We lack wisdom when we don’t worship. We end up running around like a bunch of chicks who refuse to be gathered by the Lord under her protective wings. And chicks who will not be protected are vulnerable to foxes.

So I’ll conclude, then, thinking for a moment about Jesus and that fox Herod. The Herod in the text is Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great. It was Herod the Great who ruled when Jesus was born and had all the baby boys under two years of age slaughtered because he feared a rival to his throne. His son, Herod Antipas, governed Galilee during Jesus’ ministry. It was he who beheaded John the Baptizer and now seemed intent on doing the same to Jesus, perhaps because of a rumor that Jesus was John the Baptizer come back to life. So Jesus was warned of Herod Antipas’ murderous intentions.

Jesus replied, “Go and tell that fox something for me.” Calling someone a fox was not a compliment. It meant someone who was devious and dangerous. “Tell that fox: ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work.’” In other words, Jesus is going to continue his ministry and nothing Herod can do will stop it. On the third day, Jesus will finish his work.

The way Luke expresses that is code. The third day is the resurrection, the day when the cross of Good Friday joins with the empty tomb of Easter Sunday to complete the will of God. On the third day Jesus will finish his work. Here is one place where the text’s original Greek language says far more than our English translations. For literally the words mean “on the third day I will be perfected, I will be completed.”[3] God brings to a perfect completion his saving mercy for us in the cross and empty tomb of Jesus Christ — on the third day.

Now notice how all this fits. On the one hand, Jesus had Herod and a lot of others wanting to control him. It’s easy to let others control our lives because we want to fit in, to make it, and to be right with the crowd.[4] On the other hand, Jesus would have had his own natural fear and anxiety of dying on the cross. It’s easy to be controlled by our own needs and fears. But Jesus was divinely wise and gave in neither to the demands of others nor to the needs of himself. He said, “I must be completed in the will of God.”

If abiding in the will of God was important for Jesus, how much more so for you and me? All manner of foxes are all around to distract or hinder or hurt us. Our Lord wept over Jerusalem long ago because many refused to be gathered in. May we be like little chicks who are wise enough to seek the protective wings of our mother hen, even Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

[1] Fred B. Craddock, John H. Hayes, Carl R. Holladay, and Gene M. Tucker, Preaching the New Common Lectionary, Year C Lent, Holy Week, Easter (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1985) 40.

[2] 1 Enoch 42.1-3. James H. Charlesworth, ed., The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 1 (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1983) 33. See also Sirach 24.6-12 and Wisdom 7.27-28. Sirach or Ecclesiasticus is early second century bce. 1 Enoch is the oldest of the three pseudepigrapha attributed to Enoch, the seventh descendant of Adam and Eve. Enoch “walked with God” which led to massive speculation about his coming back to see and declare the mysteries of the universe. These writings can be attributed to late second century bce and to early first century ce. The Wisdom of Solomon is probably from last half of first century bce.

[3] Luke 13.32c: “ … kai« au¡rion kai« thØv tri÷thØ teleiouvmai.”

[4] Bruce Larson, Luke, The Communicator’s Commentary (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1983) 216-217.