O, Jerusalem!

 Luke 13:28-13:35

Last week we looked at the verses of Luke 13 immediately before verse 28, and it ended with Jesus’ image of a door to a house or courtyard as a picture of what is required for salvation. We talked about how the door was the only way in, how it was insufficient just to know about the door – you had to actually enter in, how the door was narrow, how once you have entered the door you are in once for all, and how the door will shut, and once it is shut, it will not be open again. Kristin mentioned a good point to me after the service – that a narrow door is one in which you have to go single file. You certainly can’t get in your fancy car, roll up the tinted windows, and have your driver drive you through the door! You alone have to do it. And as we talked about last week, the way we enter the door is through faith in Jesus Christ.


One further thought I had about the door is that the imagery of Jesus as the door has powerful symbolism when combined with the imagery involving a door in the Old Testament. The saving Messiah, Jesus, is described symbolically in both Testaments as a lamb. Recall how John the Baptist calls Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. In Exodus, what was required of the Israelites if they wanted to avoid the worst curse on Egypt of all, the death of the firstborn son of each family? In other words, what was required for their salvation? Each family had to take a year-old lamb, one in the prime of life, one without any kind of defect or blemish, and observe it for several days. After watching it to see that it truly was without defect, on a specified day each family was to slaughter the lamb and then take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of what? The doorframe of their house! To combine these two pictures, that of the Lamb – Jesus the Son of God who takes away the sins of the world – and that of the door – faith in Jesus Christ, you could say that what holds the door in place, what makes the door truly a working door, is the blood of the Lamb of God on the doorframe.

After telling His listeners that the door will one day be shut, and that people who knock and plead will be told to go away because the Master of the house never knew them, Jesus says this:

"There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last." – Luke 13:28-30

What a sobering thought! What a sobering image! Perhaps you have some regrets in this life. Many people have some regrets, but at the same time tend to not dwell on them. But some people have huge regrets. The person who decided to drive a car while drunk and gets into an accident and kills someone close to them has regrets for the rest of their life. The person who is in the throes of an addiction has severe regrets that they ever started. The person who commits a crime and now sits for years in prison has giant regrets. Some people have had high-paying jobs but double charged an expense report for a little bit more money and are now in jail, their careers destroyed, their futures bleak. This person might have even more deep regret than the others, because what they did now seems so stupid.

But none of these regrets can possibly compare to someone who has been told about Jesus, who has heard the gospel, but has chosen to reject the message and now has died and has learned that they face an eternity separated from the love of God. Jesus once again warns His Jewish listeners that unless they enter the door while it is open, they will never enter. And of course the same is true for us. From the perspective of the Jewish listeners, we are those strange people from east and west and north and south (foreigners, Gentiles – well maybe not me, but you get the idea), those who were viewed as unclean and not chosen of God – and yet, by faith, here we are.

At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to Him, "Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you." He replied, "Go tell that fox, 'I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.' In any case, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem! – Luke 13:31-33

How was Herod like a fox? Well, Herod was deadly like a fox in a henhouse. He was the same Herod who had John the Baptist put to death. He was also sly like a fox. According to historical documents of that era, when Herod built a new capital called Tiberias, the Jews refused to live there because it was built on top of an old graveyard. In response, Herod began to fill his city with foreigners, forced migrants, freed slaves, and poor people. Eventually the Jews became jealous that they weren’t enjoying this fine new city, which included a Jewish sanctuary for prayer, and so they moved in and it eventually became a center of rabbinic learning. Herod was also sly like a fox in the way that he played politics. He portrayed himself as the Jewish defender, for example, when Pontius Pilate offended the Jews by placing golden shields in the Temple in Jerusalem, violating tradition and coming close to defiling the Temple (there were no graven images on the shields, but it still aggravated the Jews) – he convinced Pilate to take the shields down, and in the process made himself the “good guy” and Pilate the “bad guy.”

Jesus’ response to those Pharisees who told Him about Herod was interesting – He said that He will continue to do what He is going to do, “and on the third day I will reach my goal.” I think that the “third day” reference must be referring to His resurrection. Jesus’ goal was to finish the work God the Father had set out for Him, including suffering and dying for our sins and then, on the third day, rising from the dead.

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'" – Luke 13:34-35

There is a small chapel on the Mount of Olives facing the Old City of Jerusalem called Dominus Flevit, which is Latin for “The Lord Wept.” Although built relatively recently, in the 1950s, it sits over an archaeological site that contains artifacts that go back even before Christ. It has a window that looks like stained glass, except that the panes are clear, and what you see is Jerusalem itself. Although I don’t take much stock in it, the tradition is that this is the site where Jesus looked out on Jerusalem and lamented over her as we see in this passage. In fact, right under the window is a podium on which is a seal showing a hen gathering her chicks. The Latin around the seal is the words of Luke 13:34 (from the parallel passage in Matthew).

There are many prophecies in the Old Testament about Jerusalem. One that strikes me is:

Hear this, you leaders of the house of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel, who despise justice and distort all that is right; who build Zion with bloodshed, and Jerusalem with wickedness. Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. Yet they lean upon the Lord and say, "Is not the Lord among us? No disaster will come upon us." Therefore because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets. – Micah 3:9-12

But Jesus this time does not direct His words to the corrupt leaders – He speaks to the whole city. He grieves over the people, because they are like helpless little chicks, chicks surrounded by one named fox, and certainly many more foxes that have not been named. Jesus, strikingly, describes Himself not as a lion, or some other powerful animal, but as a more or less defenseless hen.

And what is the hen doing? Fighting the fox? No. The hen is opening up its wings, making itself even more defenseless, offering itself to the chicks. What do you think a fox would do to a hen in this defenseless position? The hen knows this, and yet the hen chooses to die for the chicks.

Once again I am humbled and amazed by the imagery Jesus uses to teach us the reality – a hen with wings outstretched looks an awful lot like a man crucified on a cross. And I am sure that Jesus’ lament to Jerusalem is not just for Jerusalem; we are the wayward chicks that refused to come to Him. Do we really get this? Do we understand that when we push Him away, instead choosing the pleasures of this world, that He still weeps over us? That He says to you, O John, John! O Kristin, Kristin! O Micah, Micah! Do you not know that I love you so much that I allowed myself to be like a defenseless hen among foxes for you? Turn to Me. Remember Me. Put yourself once again under My wings!

Lord Jesus, let us now remember You. You went into Jerusalem, the land of foxes, as a hen to die for us. You sacrificed Your body, which we remember with the bread, for us. You sacrificed Your blood, which we remember with the cup, for us. We remember You today in this way because You told us to do this. And we want to do this! We cannot even begin to imagine the pain You went through – not just the pain of torture, of a slow, agonizing death on a cross, but the pain of becoming sin for us, for becoming the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, for enduring separation from the Father. As we remember you today with the bread and cup, all we can say is blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. You, Lord, are the greatest blessing the world has ever known or will ever know. We know that we could never deserve such a gift, nor could we ever even begin to repay it. We are in Your debt forever, and by Your grace, we will seek to be used by You as You intend to use us. We praise You in Jesus name, Amen.