Göttinger Predigten
Göttinger Predigten im Internet hg. von U. Nembach
Second Sunday of Lent, 02/21/2016
Sermon on Luke 13:31-35, by Carl A. Voges
The Passage
“At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him (Jesus), ‘Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.’ And he said to them, ‘Go and tell that fox, “Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’” [English Standard Version]
“Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” [Philippians 3.20]
In the Name of Christ + Jesus our Lord
It is both energizing and unsettling as Lord’s people push into another Lenten season. It energizes because these Forty Days draw us back to the basics of our Life in the Holy Trinity, a Life that was initiated at our Baptisms, a Life that will run on into eternity. It unsettles because the Days remind us (yet again) of the attractiveness and sorriness of this world’s life, a life that began with our births, a life that shuts down at death.
The Forty Days of Lent intensify the jarring of these two lives within our own, but the Lord God intends that jarring to deepen our participation in his Life, strengthening his relationship with us as well as with the other baptized in his parish communities.
To be honest with you, the collision of these two lives can distract us from this Lenten push. Have you noticed the realities out there clamoring for our attention? The most notable include a seriously divided country, a virus whose vaccine will take eighteen months to appear, slippery promises from those who would lead us, an economy once thought to be steady, the ferocity of people who hate us and others!
Struggling to live, then, between the initiation and completion of our lives in the Lord God, these distractions from the world can make us hesitant to honestly push into another Lenten season. One could point out that the realities of the world’s life appear to be much more critical, that we should first concentrate on dealing with them.
Today’s Gospel would jar that kind of thinking and point out that we cannot be deterred by such distractions. After all, the Life we are privileged to have in the Holy Trinity is the most important reality available to this world and its trapped people. The world thinks it can come up with the ways to get out of such traps, but the world is deluding itself!
Last Sunday we saw Satan trying directly to get Jesus to turn away from what took place in his Baptism at the Jordan River. Today we see Satan working through other people to accomplish exactly the same thing. These people are attempting to distract our Lord from his journey to Jerusalem.
In the earlier chapters of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus has been carrying out his Baptism-driven ministry. He has been calling people to repentance, healing those who are crippled, telling parables that show the mysterious growth of his Life and pointing to the realities at the End-of-Time.
Just in front of today’s reading, Jesus has been going through one town and village after another, teaching as he makes his way to Jerusalem. In response to a question about salvation, Jesus has stated that the number will be few and the way into it will be narrow.
He points out that those who think they are the Lord’s people will be totally crushed when they find out they are not!
This conversation has just concluded when some Pharisees come up and warn Jesus to leave the Galilee area. They state that Herod, who is the governor of that region, is wanting to kill Jesus. This is a strange warning, don’t you think? The Pharisees, of all people, are warning Jesus of a threat to his Life? Are these the same Pharisees who are stinging from Jesus’ severe criticisms back in chapter 11? Why are they warning Jesus? Are they really concerned?
No, they want Jesus out of picture, but they prefer someone else to do the work. The mention of Herod hints at their future triggerman – Pilate, who governs the region south of Galilee. Jesus sees their threat as a cunning one – that is probably why he calls Herod a fox. But he responds strongly to their comments. He gives a powerful message to Pharisees and to Herod.
He is not going to be distracted from the mission given him at Baptism by his Father. He is going to drive out demons and heal and push on until he reaches the conclusion of his ministry. Jesus also ominously informs them that he will press on because it is not right for a prophet to die outside of Jerusalem (remember that the biblical definition of prophet is a “speaker for God”).
Jesus then shifts his tone, lamenting over a city that kills prophets and stones those who are sent to it (the residents there have fallen into the trap of thinking they know everything about the Lord God and his relationship with them). Jesus badly wants to wrap his Life around theirs, but they refuse to let him do it. But even that refusal is not going to distract him. He notes that those people will be responsible for their refusal. He also notes that they will see him when he enters Jerusalem on Passion (or Palm) Sunday to the great cheers of crowds gathered there from around the world for the Passover observance. Thus, he is going to press on until he gets there, finishing the work given him by Father at his Baptism.
How about us? Are we pressing on in the Life given us at Baptism? Earlier we noted that we live between its initiation and completion in our lives. Are we pressing on in it or are we letting distractions of this world’s life block and detour us? These distractions do not emerge for unexplained reasons, they flow from the workings of the unholy trio of sin, Satan and death. These workings have been described by the Church’s tradition and teaching as the seven deadly sins – pride, envy, anger, laziness, greed, gluttony, lust.
These distractions are intended by Satan to separate us from the Life given us by the Lord God, a separation that surfaces when we no longer remember our Baptisms, let alone live in them, when we no longer listen to or read or study the Lord’s holy Writings, when we no longer receive and pass on his Forgiveness, when we no longer eat our Lord’s Body and drink his Blood!
Satan holds these seven-plus sins in front of us, suggesting that if we participate in them our lives will have greater satisfaction, deeper meaning and stronger security! My friends, Satan is lying – totally and completely! Only life he knows is the one that is destructive and deadly. Although the power of his life was broken in our Lord’s crucifixion and resurrection that does not prevent him from still trying to destroy us.
Knowing that we have been baptized into the Lord God and struggling to remain faithful to our Lord only encourages Satan to keep hitting us with his destructive suggestions.
Are we going to let his suggestions block and detour us from the Life pouring into our own through the Lord’s four holy places of Baptism and the Scriptures, Forgiveness and the Eucharist? No, we are not!
If, then, we are going to turn our backs on Satan’s suggestions, what do we do? Remember that Lent’s Forty Days are drawing us back to the basics of our Life in the Holy Trinity. One of those basics is the sacrament of Confession and Forgiveness. The seven deadly sins are fed by the first one – pride. That instinctive focus on self needs to be broken so we can be restored to the Life given us by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Thus, we step into the sacrament more often, confessing our participation in those sins, recognizing how helpless we are in their grip and pleading that Lord break their grip. Jesus carried those sins to the Cross, that’s why he is so determined and will not be distracted as he makes his way to Jerusalem.
Because those sins have been carried to the Cross and we have been rescued, we, too, as the Lord’s baptized people, are determined to not let our lives get distracted and separated from him. We know we cannot live our lives in him perfectly, but we do know we can live in him as his rescued and restored people. Thus when Satan comes distracting, may we be powered to wave his lying and dying suggestions off, and be turned back to the Lord who steadily promises to complete the Life he initiated at our Baptisms!
Now may the peace of the Lord God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus our Lord.