St. Luke 13:31-35
Dearly beloved,
Our Scripture readings for today cleverly highlight a theme that seems
to run through the Old Testament, the Gospel and the Epistles. The theme is
a resistance by the people and the world. They resisted God's word of
promise. We see it in the case of Jeremiah in the Old Testament lection.
We see it from St. Paul's words to the Philippians, when he says, "For many,
of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as
enemies of the cross of Christ"(Philippians 3:18).
The words of Jesus in today's gospel set the stage for His crucifixion.
More to the point, Christ's words set the stage for betrayal. God's Old
Testament people will reject Jesus outright. Herod is ready to kill Jesus.
The Pharisees tell Jesus of Herod's intentions. Really, nothing is new.
Evil has sought the life of Jesus since He was incarnate in the flesh and
born. Jesus simply says, "Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons
and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course."
Jesus is dropping the hint of what is really at work. Jesus casting out
demons, performing cures, and raising the dead is simply the foretaste of
Christ's victory over sin and the grave. Then Jesus continues,
"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." Those
words sting. Jesus is saying that it has been the way of Jerusalem to
reject the prophets. Why should it be any different with Jesus?
It is even spoken of in the book of Hebrews: "[The prophets] were
stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword"(Hebrews
11:37). Urijah, Jeremiah, and Isaiah were martyred in the Old Testament
because of their prophecy. The Bible has a very colorful thread that runs
throughout. This thread is prophecy, or, God's revelation to people. In
the Old Testament there were prophets. They were appointed by God to go and
preach the way of salvation.
On the other side of Jesus' ministry lay the apostles who were sent out
to preach the way of salvation, as well. Right in the middle of that thread
is Jesus Christ. He is more than God's messenger. He is God. In each
case, whether it be God's sending of an Old Testament prophet or a New
Testament apostle, it was to be seen as a blessing. If God sent a
messenger, then the people were to see God's favor and His loving hand upon
them. Just the opposite of this was also true. If the people were so
hard-hearted and lying in unbelief, then there would be no prophets or
apostles. We are told in 1 Samuel 3:1 that, "Now the boy Samuel ministered
to the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was rare in those days;
there was no widespread revelation." There were no visions, no prophets.
This was the sign of a curse.
One can just imagine, then, what it must have been like to have not just
a prophet, but God Himself standing there in Jerusalem. God saw fit not to
send a prophet, but the King of Kings. Jesus comes not just to give a word
of hope, but to heal, to cleanse, to raise the dead and to defeat sin,
death, and the devil. Think about this for your life. Here we are 2000
years later in Lowell, Indiana. It is the season of Lent. So, we pull out
the purple, we take down extra banners, and get rid of flowers for the
Lenten season in order to focus more on what Jesus did.
You live out your daily life. You hope for good days. You hope for a
good week, but you have your struggles. Money is an issue. You worry about
meeting the bills. You worry about your health and those tests that you
just had done at the hospital. You worry about your family and your loved
ones. Certain situations just aren't the way they should be. Work may be
stressful. Maybe finding employment is difficult, at best. You have to go
back to it and try to manage a difficult situation.
That is what the world sends your way. Then, you still have your
weaknesses. Your sins from the past still want to get you down. You don't
want to think about those, however. That just gets to be a bummer. You try
to push away the negative, the sins and sinful urges, and look to the better
things. But no matter where you turn, things are just never quite the way
you would like them to be. 2000 years after Christ. So you find yourself
reflecting on all this world and life stuff, and then you ask yourself the
question, "What does all this history of Jesus mean for me today, February
28, 2010?"
"How do I connect Jesus' life, death, and resurrection to my life
today?" When you ask yourself that question, you know that you have come to
the heart and soul of the matter. When you face trouble in life, it is God
trying to prepare you to receive His grace. When you find hardship, it is
God opening up your eyes and making you ready to hear His word of blessing
and forgiveness. A prophet or apostle or, greater yet, Jesus Christ in your
midst is the Word of God brought to you pronouncing God's love upon sinners
who repent. We all need our hearts to be made ready to hear God's word.
Struggles and hardship are meant by God to open our eyes to see what is
really important.
What is important is just as Jesus says in St. Luke's gospel:
"Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day
following...." On the third day Jesus finishes His journey by raising
Himself from the dead. His resurrection ushers in an everlasting sermon.
This everlasting sermon is the gospel. It ushers in the apostolic ministry
which sends pastors to proclaim throughout the world that Jesus loves you.
Jesus will care for you. Hardships may continue, struggles in the world may
never cease, sinful urges constantly torment you, but Jesus is the victor
over all of it.
I am here as God's messenger, your pastor, to be the voice of the
gospel, a messenger of Jesus to proclaim to you that Jesus forgives you of
all of your sins. But that is not all. Jesus makes His abode right in your
midst. Jesus stoops down from heaven to enter your soul, to enter your
life, to help you on the journey. Just as Jesus journeyed on the roads of
Jerusalem in those days, He still comes into your life to journey with you.
Jesus does this in His holy word. Jesus does this by coming to you in the
sacraments. Jesus does just as St. Paul tells the Colossians, "For you have
died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God"(Colossians 3:3).
Those who belong to Jesus have all good things to come. But the promise
to the church is firm: "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the
age." The Christian church, through Christ's death and resurrection, has
become the spiritual Jerusalem, God's "holy land." You are God's holy land
and what the prophets speak they speak concerning you. Isaiah, before his
martyrdom, uttered this for God's people: "like birds hovering, so the Lord
of hosts will protect Jerusalem; He will protect and deliver it; He will
spare and rescue it"(Isaiah 31:5).
This is the gospel which speaks of you. Even now, in 2010 in Lowell,
Indiana, there is a people of God who are protected, delivered, spared, and
rescued by our Lord and Savior, Who is like a bird who hovers overhead
nurturing, protecting, and guiding, with His blessed presence. Amen.
--
Rev. Chad Kendall
Trinity Lutheran Church
Lowell, Indiana
www.trinitylowell.org
