Following Jesus To The Cross: Vulnerability
February 28, 2010
31At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” 32He 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. 33Yet 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.’ 34Jerusalem, 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! 35See, 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
“Where are you headed?” It seems like a simple enough question, and it’s one I heard this past Monday as I got ready to board my plane down at Hartsfield- Jackson Airport in Atlanta. Y’all know I was gone this past weekend and Monday, I was getting ready to fly back home on a flight scheduled to leave Atlanta at 12:17 p.m. My destination was Norfolk. That is where I was headed.
But no sooner had we gotten on the plane and they shut the door when the captain’s voice came over the loudspeaker and said, “We’ve got a technical problem.” Apparently, the flight data recorder, which most of us know as the “black box,” needed to be replaced. And so, for the next two and a half hours, my fellow passengers and I sat on the plane on the tarmac in Atlanta until the problem was fixed. What was supposed to be an hour and half flight wound up taking over four hours. Needless to say, when we finally got back to Norfolk, I wasn’t in the best of moods. Because I thought I knew where I was headed. And I did. I just didn’t know what I was getting myself into.
You see, there’s a big difference between knowing we’re headed and knowing how we’re going to get there. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus has a very specific travel itinerary. Luke 9:51 says that “when Jesus saw the days drawing near, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” So, it’s clear that Jesus knows where he is headed. Jesus is going to Jerusalem.
But along the way, he encounters a few interruptions. And that’s what our passage of Scripture is about today. As Jesus journeys towards Jerusalem, he is met by a group of Pharisees. And the Pharisees warn Jesus to leave, because they claim that Herod is plotting to kill him.
It’s an interesting episode for several reasons, the first of which is--why would the Pharisees warn Jesus? Up to now in the story, the Pharisees have been hostile and unreceptive to the message of Jesus. They certainly haven’t been on friendly terms. So, why would the Pharisees suddenly turn up and go out of their way to help Jesus? It seems very out of character.
Unless it’s a trap. In which case, it would be very much in character for the Pharisees. We have no way to know for sure, of course, but the scholars who study these texts believe that the Pharisees may have been conspiring with Herod. Because if they could get Jesus out of Galilee and into Jerusalem, then he would become Pilate’s problem.
Like I said, there’s no way for us to know for sure. But what we do know is that Jesus was just as skeptical about the Pharisees’ intentions as we are. Listen to Jesus’ response in verse 32. He says, “Go and tell that fox that I am casting out demons and performing cures, and I’m going to Jerusalem, because that’s where prophets go to die.”
First of all, I’d just like to point out that here in this exchange, Jesus gets a little saucy with the Pharisees. Some of you in here have claimed from time to time that I’m too sarcastic. And that may be true. But…even Jesus was not above using sarcasm. Because calling somebody a fox is not intended to be a compliment.
It’s true that foxes are very shrewd and cunning, but they are also dangerous. Foxes are known to conceal themselves and hide in the bushes until they can able to spring on their prey. In the Old Testament, foxes are mentioned as being pests who destroy vineyards and scavengers who come into ruined cities to eat the dead.
So, this is not some cutesy nickname that Jesus comes up with just for the heck of it. By calling Herod a fox, Jesus is intentionally insulting him. You know, sometimes, I think that you and I in the church today try to portray Jesus as this wide-eyed innocent who just kind of wandered through life walking on water and who never really got mixed up with the popular culture of his day. But this text says different. This text shows us that Jesus was politically astute. Jesus knew what was going on in the world around him. And just like most of us in here today, Jesus had strong opinions about the ruling politicians of his time.
Jesus would have been well acquainted with the history of Herod Antipas. But you and I may not be quite as familiar with that story, so let me fill you on a few key details this morning. Herod Antipas was the son of Herod the Great, and Herod the Great was the king we remember from the story of the wise men, who slaughtered all the infants in Bethlehem because he was paranoid that he would lose his power. Apparently, the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree, because after Herod the Great died, his son Herod Antipas spent the rest of his life trying to hold on to that power. Herod was constantly fighting with his older siblings for control of territory. And like any local ruler, Herod was only allowed to serve at the pleasure of the Roman Empire. Because of that close relationship with Rome, most of the Jewish people of his day would have regarded Herod Antipas as an enemy collaborator and a traitor. During his reign, Herod Antipas built the two new cities of Sepphoris and Tiberius, cities which Jesus is never mentioned to have visited in the Gospels, even though they were the biggest cities of Galilee during the years he was alive. And of course, Herod Antipas was also famous for divorcing his first wife to marry his brother’s widow, an act which John the Baptist condemned and which led to his execution.
So, it’s no wonder that Jesus called Herod the fox. This was a man who led a life of public immorality, a man interested in nothing except his own importance and in maintaining power through manipulation and political scheming. This was a man who had ruthlessly killed Jesus’ own cousin and friend, John the Baptist.
But I think there is more to this passage of Scripture than just political commentary. Because Jesus doesn’t just want to insult Herod; Jesus wants to draw a contrast between Herod and himself. And so, in this text, you and I are offered two competing images for how we might choose to live in this world.
The first image is that of Herod the fox. Herod’s focus is turned inward. He builds huge monuments to himself. He’s sneaky and he conspires with the Pharisees in secret. But perhaps most importantly for our purposes this morning, Herod sees power as an end unto itself. Herod is willing to do anything to survive. He is willing to prey off the weak and destroy his enemies through sheer force. Because that’s what a fox does.
But in verse 34 of this passage, Jesus offers us an alternative to the fox. Jesus says that he has often longed to gather the children of Jerusalem under his wings like a hen. Isn’t that a great image? Jesus as a fussy mother hen, clucking around the barnyard, looking after her brood. It’s probably not an image we’re used to associating with Jesus, and yet, here it is. And if we think about it for just a minute, I believe we will find that the image of a hen makes a lot of sense.
Unlike Herod the fox who thinks only of himself, Jesus the hen looks out for others, casting out demons and healing the sick. Unlike Herod the fox who plots behind the scenes, Jesus the hen squawks out and noisily confronts the political injustice of his day. And unlike Herod the fox who kills his enemies, Jesus the hen opens wide her wings and gathers them in. It is an image of compassion and love. And the word that most came to my mind as I thought about Jesus as a hen is the word vulnerability.
Vulnerability is not a trait we usually connect with Jesus. And that’s because you and I have been brainwashed by our world to associate power with force. We think the people who are the strongest are the ones who are always on top, the ones in control, the ones with the biggest palaces and the largest armies. In other words, we think like foxes. We don’t really understand people who willingly and intentionally put themselves in harm’s way, especially when it’s for the sake of their enemies.
But that’s the challenge within this passage of Scripture. Jesus isn’t stupid; Jesus knows that these warnings from the Pharisees aren’t idle threats. It’s clear from this text that Jesus knows he is going to die in Jerusalem, just like the prophets before him. And yet unlike Herod who is only interested in saving his own skin, Jesus has a higher calling. Jesus understands that in order to be truly powerful, a person must be willing to give up that power for the sake of others. We must be willing to go to our death. We must be vulnerable.
I don’t know about you, but that’s a hard pill for me to swallow. Because I’m a little too foxy, and I don’t mean that in a suggestive way at all. I mean that I like to be in control. And whenever I’ve got power, which ain’t a whole lot, I’m not too thrilled about voluntarily giving it up. I want to hold on to that power, however little it may be, for as long as I can. Because I want to feel like I’m in control. I don’t want to make myself vulnerable because that’s when you get hurt. I don’t want to be a hen. The hen is the one that gets eaten by the fox.
But maybe that’s the point of this passage. It’s the idea that when you and I surrender ourselves to God, when we make ourselves truly vulnerable—it is in that exact moment that we become capable of something much greater. It is the moment when you and I are willing to submit ourselves to God that we can be used the most for his glory.
You see, I don’t think that Jesus was on a suicide mission. Because if that was the case, he wouldn’t have offered the prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane—“Father, please let this cup pass from me.” So, we shouldn’t mistake Jesus’ insistence on going to Jerusalem as some kind of morbid death wish. I don’t think that Jesus was happy about going to his death.
But even though he knew what was coming, Jesus continued on to Jerusalem. Because he knew where he was headed. But he also knew how he was going to get there. Jesus wasn’t going to come into Jerusalem like a fox, ready to exert his power and destroy all his enemies. Instead, Jesus was going to come into Jerusalem like a hen, as a vulnerable Savior who longed to stretch out his arms and surround his children with wings of love.
On April 3, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. preached before a crowd at Bishop Charles Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee. And in his sermon that evening, Dr. King mentioned the time he was stabbed while signing books in New York City and how close the knife blade came to puncturing his aorta. He talked about the beatings he had endured, and the hoses, and the prison cells. And he confessed that he was aware of numerous death threats against him. Many of his followers and members of his own family expressed concern about continuing his ministry. But this is what Dr. King went on to say that day. He said, “I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter to me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not worried about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And he’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”
The next morning, April, 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed on his hotel balcony by a man named James Earl Ray. And looking back on that incident 42 years later, it’s easy for us to think that maybe Martin Luther King, Jr, had some screws loose. He certainly wasn't as worried as most of us would have been in staying safe. But Martin Luther King, Jr. understood that sometimes following God leads us down a path we wouldn’t necessarily choose for ourselves. And he understood that there is a greater danger in this world than merely losing our life. There is the danger that we will arrive at our destination safely, but without ever having made ourselves vulnerable enough for God to use us.
During this Lenten season here at Park View Baptist Church, you and I know where we’re going—we’re headed towards the cross. But how will we get there? How will we choose to travel? Will we choose the way of the fox or the way of the hen? AMEN