- Sermon - Mickey Anders

Text: Luke 13:31-35

Today's passage almost has the feel of Aesop's fables with barnyard animals playing a starring role. In the short space of five verses, we find pictures of both a fox and a hen. Herod is called a fox. Jesus says he feels like a mother hen. And the people in Jerusalem are all the little chicks running around in great danger.

There is an old proverb that warns, "The fox is in charge of the hen house." We might use that expression when we put the oil companies in charge of making sure we don't have price gouging during an oil crisis. There's a fox in charge of the hen house.

There are several major elements which demand our attention in this passage. The first mentioned are the Pharisees. Verse 31 says, "At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, 'Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.'"

We are surprised to find Pharisees warning Jesus of danger. What do you make of that? Weren't the Pharisees the enemies of Jesus? Weren't they the bad guys? When their name appears, we almost expect the audience to start booing like they would in a melodrama.

It is true that the Gospels often depict the Pharisees in conflict with Jesus, trying to trap him into saying the wrong thing. There is even that passage in Matthew where Jesus proclaims “woes” on the Pharisees. So it is easy for us to conclude that the Pharisees were the natural born enemies of Jesus.

And there is the possibility that the Pharisees were merely trying to get Jesus out of their territory. They may have been using the strategy of "good cop/bad cop." The Pharisees pretend to offer protection from Herod. "Listen, Jesus, we have had our differences with you, but that Herod is out to kill you. You need to leave this area for good!"

But I suspect that we are prejudiced against the Pharisees. We have made the mistake of lumping all of them together and assuming we know all about them. That really is prejudice.

In fact, the Gospel of Luke has a rather sympathetic portrayal of the Pharisees. On three occasions in Luke, Jesus is invited to dinner at the home of a Pharisee.

Luke 7:36 says, "One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table."

Luke 11:37 says, "While he was speaking, a Pharisee invited him to dine with him; so he went in and took his place at the table."

Luke 14:1 says, "On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the Sabbath…"

Obviously, not all the Pharisees were his enemies. And in John 3, we find the story of Nichodemus, the Pharisee who came to Jesus by night saying, "We know you are a rabbi come from God." And after the crucifixion, it was a Pharisee, Joseph of Arimathea, who took the body of Jesus and laid it in an unused tomb.

The historians would tell us that Jesus was much closer theologically to the Pharisees than any other of the prominent religious groups of the day. The Sadducees, the Essenes and the Zealots were far removed from Jesus attitudes and theology.

I am afraid we have not given the Pharisees a fair shake. Some of them were friends of Jesus, and I believe it was those who warned him about Herod.

The second major character in our story is Herod, the man Jesus calls a fox. This is Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great. When Herod the Great died in 4 B.C., Herod Antipas became ruler over a large area of Galilee. He was a builder, like his father before him, and was most known for building the city of Tiberas.

Perhaps he is most famous for divorcing his first wife and marrying Herodias, the wife of his half-brother. John the Baptist condemned this marriage, which infuriated Herodias. Herod seemed to be interested in what John the Baptist had to say and often called him out of prison to talk to him late at night.

When Herodias' daughter danced at a wild feast before Herod, he recklessly promised her anything she wanted to half the kingdom. On the advice of her mother, she asked for the head of John the Baptist. Herod seemed to waver a moment, but in the end he caved in and killed a good man.

In Luke 9:7-9, Herod says, "John I beheaded; but who is this about whom I hear such things?" And Herod will appear again in the final chapter of Jesus' life when Pilate sends him to Jesus to be interrogated.

Jesus describes Herod as a "fox," a fascinating choice. I am sure that Herod would have preferred a nobler mascot. A fox is an animal noted for cunning, craftiness and slyness. A fox will prey on the young of others. And Herod could be just that ruthless, as we see in the fate of John the Baptist. Herod is a symbol for raw, political power.

But the point of the passage is that Herod's threats did not end the mission of Jesus. Jesus in effect is saying that his timetable is not determined by Herod’s schemes, but by divine purpose.

The third character in our passage is not a person at all. It is the city of Jerusalem. Herod seeks to kill Jesus. But, as the story will unfold, the real threat to Jesus is not Herod, but Jerusalem.

Verses 33 & 34 say, "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!"

The name, Jerusalem, means "foundation of peace." According to the prophets, Jerusalem is the seat of goodness in this world. It is the place where God dwells. Jerusalem is sometimes a metaphor for the world. If things go well in Jerusalem, all is well. If they don’t, the world is shaking on its foundations.

The reference to Jerusalem as the place where prophets die is a disturbing commentary on the history of the mistreatment of past prophets by the people of Jerusalem.

A prime example is, of course, Jeremiah who was condemned and barely escaped death in Jerusalem. Another prophet named Zechariah was killed in Jerusalem. The irony is that the very city which was the site of the temple, the house of God, and therefore destined to represent sacred space, becomes the scene of persecution and murder of prophets.

At the end of the Seder meal at Passover, Jewish people every say, "Next year in Jerusalem." The Old Testament prophets dreamed of a time when the people of Israel would be gathered from all over the world. Jerusalem would be the fitting place for such a gathering with its Temple, its religious heritage, and its religious leaders.

How strange that the City of Peace held so much contempt for God's messengers! Instead of a sanctuary for prophets, Jerusalem had become a killing ground, and it still is. Today Jerusalem is a symbol of the conflict between races and religions.

The last character is the hen - Jesus. In verse 34, he says, "How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!"

This verse speaks of the protective nurturing traits of God, which are likened to the care given by a bird.

Deuteronomy 32:11-12 says, "As an eagle stirs up its nest, and hovers over its young; as it spreads its wings, takes them up, and bears them aloft on its pinions, the LORD alone guided him…"

Michael Joncas wrote the song with the chorus that says:

And He will raise you up on eagle's wings,

Bear you on the breath of dawn,

Make you to shine like the sun,

And hold you in the palm of His Hand.

And one of the most remarkable aspects of Jesus' allusion is the fact that he picks a feminine image - a hen. Many of us normally think of God in masculine terms, but of course, God has no gender. Even though the Bible was written in the times of a patriarchal society, there are references like this one to the feminine side of God. Wisdom in the Old Testament is always given feminine imagery. Some even claim that the Holy Spirit is the feminine side of God. Here Jesus clearly claims for himself without hesitation this feminine imagery.

But why a hen? Why not a lion, King of the jungle? Why not an eagle? Why not a mighty warrior on a white horse from Revelation? We want to hear about the one with eyes like a flame of fire and with the armies of heaven following him. We want to hear about the sword that comes from his mouth and strikes the nations. I prefer to tell you a story of victory and conquest. I even want to say that the hen is victorious over the fox. In the end it is true, but first he has to die.

The well-known preacher Barbara Brown Taylor says, "Jesus won’t be king of the jungle in this or any other story. What he will be is a mother hen, who stands between the chicks and those who mean to do them harm. She has no fangs, no claws, no rippling muscles. All she has is her willingness to shield her babies with her own body. If the fox wants them, he will have to kill her first." Jesus came to be a suffering servant and live a life of self-sacrifice. And he calls us to that life as well.

What an uncomfortable image! But this is Lent, a foreboding journey. It is the season of the year that we are invited to walk with Jesus toward Jerusalem, toward Good Friday. Three times in Luke Jesus predicts his death there. "The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders , chief priests, and scribes and be killed, and on the third day be raised" (Lk 9:22).

This is not the message we want to hear! This is Jesus the peacemaker, not Jesus the warrior. This Jesus says in Matthew 5:39-45, "You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven…"

There is one last element in this passage. Can you pick it out from verse 34? "How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!"

Yes, the final element to consider is the brood of chicks. It's a barnyard picture with a fox in the henhouse, with dangers at every turn, and vulnerable little chicks scurrying about everywhere. Some of the chicks have gone over the fox. Some of the chicks are trying to find their way out of henhouse. What will happen to the poor chicks?

The point of the story is that we are the chicks! Jesus wants to take us under his protecting wings. And, of course, we know what is supposed to happen to chicks. They grow up to be hens as well. Jesus says in Luke 9:29, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it." We are called to that same kind of self-sacrificing life.

Verse 34 ends with the message of judgment on Jerusalem, "And you were not willing." That is the question that confronts all of us. Are we willing?

Are we willing to be sheltered under the wings of God? Are we will to resist the temptation to prejudice? Are we willing to resist the temptation of raw, political power? Are we willing to resist the temptation to racial and religious division. Are we willing to follow the hen and then to become the hen?