I find this Gospel distressing. Most of the time when I read the Gospel I find myself challenged by the calls for deeper humanity. Sometimes I find myself confused. This is one of the weeks when I am simply distressed. Maybe Jesus really was crazy, and I’ve devoted my life to following a crazy man.

I keep thinking about Simone Weil, a French agnostic-Jewish-mystic woman who was strongly attracted to the stories of Jesus. She was brilliant and profound, her writings at one and the same time make more sense than anything ever AND make no sense at all. She died during WWII in the United States, at the age of 34, because she refused to eat more food than the rations given in occupied France, and she had tuberculous and couldn’t survive on such little food. She might have been crazy, or she might have been one of the few people in all the world who wasn’t, and I can never quite tell.

Often, that seems to be a principle that apples to Jesus as well, but that’s not what I’m taking about in reference to this Gospel lesson. In this one, at least to begin with, Jesus appears to make no sense at all.

The Pharisees, who were not Jesus supporters, break away from their usual distain to let him know that the Roman appointed leader of Galilee (Herod) wants to kill him. They think he should leave. Jesus, you’ve probably heard of him, he’s the one known to say “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” and “let the children come to me”, you know, that guy … Jesus responds with an insult to Herod.

He tells them to go tell “that fox” (which is in NO POSSIBLE WAY anything but an insult) that he’ll go in three days when he darn well wants to. Furthermore, they’ll told to inform Herod that he can’t kill Jesus because Jesus can only be killed in Jerusalem. Then he talks about how much he loves Jerusalem. Then he makes an off the wall prediction, one that I can’t even summarize, so let’s hear it again, “I tell you, you certainly won’t see me again until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

He sounds like he is struggling with schizophrenia and grandiose delusions.

So, I decided to preach on it. Presumably because there is something wrong with me involving never taking the easy way out. Then, because I decided to preach on it, I had to do research on it, and it turns out there may be a few contextual things that make him seem a bit more sane.

First of all, according the Jesus Seminar, most of the really weird stuff is Luke putting words into Jesus’ mouth to support his own story, and not Jesus himself. They say, “There are…strong reasons for regarding the statements attributed to Jesus in this passage as the literary creations of Luke rather than the remembered sayings of Jesus: (1) The phrasing of v. 32 reflects Luke’s conception of his gospel: Jesus exorcises demons and cures people for two days, then on the third day he reaches his “end” in Jerusalem. This is the plan of Luke’s story. (2) The second saying, v. 33, is cast in Luke’s most characteristic theological formula: it states what ‘must’ (Greek: dei, ‘it is necessary’) take place, because it fulfills the divine plan (compare Luke 9:22, 24:44, Acts 1:16, 9:6, 16; 23:11, 27:24) (3) These sayings do not appear in Q nor in any other written gospel. They are attested to only in Luke.”¹ This however, only gets us so far as to ask if Luke is crazy instead of Jesus, if he put the words into Jesus’ mouth as a way of trying to attract people to the story of Jesus.

There is a second piece of context that helps even more. Several scholars pointed out that Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great, who was the tetarch of Galilee and Perea was likely not a fan of Jesus’ nor was Jesus a fan of his. It is entirely feasible that this interaction is laced with deep politics, whether it is the words of Jesus or Luke. A scholar points out that, “During his Galilean ministry, [Jesus] never entered two cities particularly associated with Antipas: Sepphoris, which was his first capital, and Tiberias, which Antipas build to replace Sepphoris.”²

So Herod Antipas was an agent of Rome, and therefore represented much of what Jesus and his kin-dom stood against. Jesus seems to avoid him. Jesus likely thought that having a Roman tetarch on the throne that should belong to a son of David was wrong. Herod Antipas, who was charged with keeping the peace, likely wasn’t happy with Jesus either as a follower of the rabble rousing John the Baptist (who he is said to have had killed) or as a rabble rouser himself. As we’ve mentioned, this encounter is unique to Luke, who is also the only Gospel writer to give Herod a role in the death of Jesus. So, there is some literary foreshadowing happening here as well.

Jesus is approached, in the beginning of this little story by the Pharisees. Another scholar notices this saying,

“What is peculiar about this ostensibly protective warning is that the Pharisees have, to this point in the Gospel story, not been Jesus’ friends. They have been among those most threatened by the topsy-turvy kingdom Jesus heralds, among those ‘first’ who may end up ‘last.” Why, suddenly, are these particular Pharisees concerned for his safety? More than likely they have ulterior motives. Possibly they are in league with Herod and hope to drive Jesus out of Herod’s jurisdiction, into the arms of Pilate and Pilate’s responsibility. Then, like a state governor in our day passing on responsibility to federal authorities, at least Herod cannot be blamed for the results of this troublemaker’s actions. Maybe Pilate can figure out a way to get rid of Jesus altogether.

It is admittedly speculative to guess at the motives of those who came to Jesus with Herod’s threat. What is clear is that Jesus, in any event, responds to the outwardly friendly warning as if it were an instance of political machination. ‘Go and tell that fox for me…’ he says, revealing that he knows these Pharisees are in cahoots with the conniving, calculating Herod (v. 32) To use the parlance of our day, Jesus ‘steps up’ to Herod’s oblique, veiled challenge. He lets the Pharisees and Herod know that he is not politically naive.”

Which, I have to say, takes almost all the sting out of the passage for me, and turns it around to being rather interesting. I haven’t heard it here, but within the Church at large I’ve been told to keep Jesus away from politics and visa versa. This has never made any sense to me, as it is pretty clear that politics mattered to Jesus, and got him killed. Furthermore, if the premise of government is that it is at work to create a just, safe, and orderly society for its citizens (I’m not SURE that is the premise, but I like to pretend it is), then the followers of Jesus have a profound responsibility to help it along. Jesus was about building the kin-dom of God, and the work of the followers of Jesus’ way is to continue building the kin-dom of God. The kin-dom of God is the place where all of God’s people (ah hem, all people – same thing) are able to live together in peace because everyone has what they need.  While we can’t expect to get there simply through government, we can’t get there without good government either.

The work of followers of Jesus is help the government pay attention to the ways that our society fails its people, and to help the government fix it. To follow Jesus requires a certain level of political activism. I’m not convinced the system (government) will work without being called out when it fails. Society can get confused about who matters, and assume it is the rich and powerful. It is the work of the people who listen for the voice of God to counter that claim and remind everyone that God’s value is universal, and ours needs to be as well.

So, maybe he wasn’t crazy, and maybe this isn’t the worst Gospel lesson ever. I’m cool with that. In fact, I rather like Jesus calling out Herod in Herod’s own game, and I like him being smarter than the political system. I like the reminder that not even Jesus got to be spiritual all the time and be “too good” for politics. (Which is a very time relevant reminder as the presidential campaign season tempt many of us to decry the system as broken beyond repair and thereby excuse ourselves from the process.) Life involves systems of power, many of which are corrupt, and you have to engage with them. Sometimes, when you are wise and wily like Jesus, you get to upset them and make them better.

There is one more interesting piece of the Gospel. Jesus claims that he can only be killed in Jerusalem. Likely this is Luke’s way of suggesting that the death of Jesus couldn’t happen outside of God’s decision to let it happen, and that fits Luke. But in the same breath that Jesus names his expectation of being killed in the city, he shares his love and yearning for the city. “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!” The text is reminiscence of parts of the Hebrew Bible, it is not particularly unique. Yet it is beautiful. Both God and Jesus are said to yearn to gather the people together and take care of them. The imagery of a hen gathering her chicks under her wings is powerfully comforting.

My friend the Rev. Dr. Barbara Thornington Green has very long arms, and many grandchildren. When faced with this passage she has spoken of it as deep truth. She YEARNS to have all of her children and grandchildren gathered all up, in her arms, where she can love them and keep them safe. She stretchers out her long arms to express the yearning and I can see all at once the hen with her chicks, my friend with her family, and God with us.

Jesus says this about the city that will kill him, while offering a political warning to another leader who would have him killed. The political was certainly personal with him! Yet, deadly as it was, it didn’t stop him from loving. Which might be crazy, but then again might be the only sane thing that could have been done.

May we learn from Jesus how to love so well, even if it makes us look a little crazy. Amen

1Robert W. Funk, Roy W Hoover, and The Jesus Seminar, The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus (HarperOneUSA, 1993), page 349.

2Leslie J. Hoppe“Exegetical Perspective of Luke 13:31-35” in Feasting on the Word Year C Volume 2 edited by Barbara Brown Taylor and David Bartlett (Westminster John Knox Press: Louisville Kentucky, 2009) page 69.

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Rev. Sara E. Baron
First United Methodist Church of Schenectady
603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305
http://fumcschenectady.org/
https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

February 21, 2016