Loving God, sometimes we find your love for us so very difficult to believe.  Yet, you come to us again and again, giving yourself to us and calling us to respond in love.  Empower us to live according to your will by your Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    At first glance, today’s gospel would seem to be all about Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, the conflict he would face there, and his desire to gather and to protect Jerusalem’s rebellious inhabitants.  To be sure, it is about these things, but today’s gospel is also about us.  There are at least three life lessons that can be found there – three things that speak to what we need to know as we journey together in faith.

    The first of these three things you have probably heard before: Don’t believe everything you hear!  You see, today’s gospel begins with some Pharisees coming to Jesus to pass on a warning.  “You’d better run away and hide,” they say.  “Herod wants to kill you” (Lk. 13:31).  What would you do if you were Jesus?  Do you say, “Oh no.  What do I do now?”  Do you go and hide out for a while?  Or, do you simply ignore what they have to say and continue to do what you believe to be God’s will?

    The thing is that, in this case, what the Pharisees were saying isn’t even true.  It is true that Herod murdered John the Baptist (and possibly others), but when we read about Herod in other parts of the gospel of Luke, he merely wants to see Jesus.  He was hoping to see Jesus perform some great miracle or sign for him (Lk. 23:8), and when Herod finally does see Jesus, it is when Pilate sends Jesus over to him in Jerusalem.  Jesus, of course, does no such sign and does not answer Herod at all.  Herod finds Jesus to be innocent, and sends him back to Pilate (Lk. 23:14-15).  If Herod had really wanted to kill Jesus, wouldn’t this have been his big chance?

    Yet, how often do we believe dooms-dayers and nay-sayers?  There are many things that we hear that can easily lead us into worry and despair.  This or that or the other thing isn’t safe and shouldn’t be eaten or drunk or used any more.  The church is dying and going to hell in a handbasket.  We won’t be able to get anybody to come here.  We won’t have enough.  We’ve got to protect what we have and hang on to it.  Do we succumb to fear and worry and despair, or do we simply continue to do God’s will?

    Now, of course, that in itself can be a tricky thing to think about, and this brings us to our second “life lesson” from today’s gospel.  We could summarize it like this: Seek and do God’s will.  Now, I said that this can be tricky because it is entirely possible for somebody to say that something is God’s will when, in fact, it is not.  Remember: Don’t believe everything you hear!

    In our gospel, of course, it is Jesus who knows God’s will and who does it.  He is secure in his identity and his mission and his destination.  He needs to continue “casting out demons and performing cures” as he continues his journey towards the confrontation that awaits him in Jerusalem (Lk. 13:32-33).  Jesus knows that this is God’s will for him, and so that is what he does.  Yet, we look at this and say, Well of course Jesus is going to know what God’s will is, but how do we know?  How do we know what God’s will is for us?  For this, we turn to the Scriptures.

    As far as God’s will for how we are to live goes, that is to be found all through the Scriptures.  God’s will is known through the law (Rom. 2:18), which Jesus summarizes in this way: Love God with all that you have and all that you are, and love your neighbour as yourself.  This is doing God’s will.  We also discover in the Scriptures that God’s will is for all people to come to repentance and to receive the gift of salvation (2 Pet. 3:9).  God does not want even one little one to be lost (Mt. 18:14).

    We could add many other things that are God’s will for us: Use your gifts wisely.  Pray at all times.  “Give thanks in all circumstances” (2 Th. 5:18).  “Be still, and know that I am God!” (Ps. 46:10) Yet, for most of us the biggest challenge comes when we are making decisions and seek to know God’s will for us in a specific situation.  This is not always so clear.  However, once again the Scriptures give us some clues.

    There is an incident recorded in Acts (21:10-14) where Paul is on his way to Jerusalem and is warned by a prophet that danger awaits him there.  The other believers hear this and beg Paul not to go.  However, Paul believes that God wants him to go to Jerusalem.  When the other believers see that Paul will not be persuaded by them, they say, “The Lord’s will be done.”  They probably don’t know if this is really God’s will for Paul or not.  However, they submit themselves to God’s will, whatever it may be.

    Another instructive passage is found in the letter of James.  We read there:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.”  Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring.  What is your life?  For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that” (Jas. 4:13-15).

We are certainly to make plans, but are we open to learning God’s will for us as we do so?  You can be assured that, if God wants something to happen, it will happen.  Yet, if something is not God’s will for us, then you can bet that we will run into roadblocks every step of the way.

    However, at the same time, we are not forced to fit our lives into God’s will.  In today’s gospel, there is a real conflict of wills.  What God wants is to gather all of his people together in order to care for them and protect them.  However, the people want nothing of it.  We do not have to conform to God’s will.  We have been given wills of our own!  However, God’s will is always for our welfare and salvation.

    This brings us to the third “life lesson” from today’s gospel, and that is, Trust in the God who loves you!  The God who is revealed in this gospel has a simply amazing attitude toward us and toward all people.  Picture this: You have a rebellious child who has run away from home and is hiding out in a cabin in the woods.  Whenever you send a messenger to ask your child to come home, the child either kills or severely injures the messenger.  Despite this treatment, you send repeated messengers to try to get your child to come back to you.  One day, you finally see your child in person.  Are you going to greet that child with a lecture, or a hug?

    This may sound severe or maybe even ridiculous, but look at God’s response to Jerusalem.  Jesus – presumably speaking for both himself and for God the Father – laments over how Jerusalem has consistently killed the prophets and stoned the messengers.  Yet, he speaks, not a stern rebuke, but words of love.  I wanted to put my arms around you and give you a hug.  I wanted to gather you in just like a mother hen would gather her chicks under her wings, but you refused.

    Our God welcomes us home, not with a lecture, but with a hug.  Our God wills only our welfare and salvation.  Our God allowed Jesus to give his life for ours.  Jesus put himself in God’s hands and under God’s will as he journeyed to Jerusalem.  Although he struggled with God’s will – especially in the garden – his prayer was: “not my will but yours be done” (Lk. 22:42).  Jesus handed himself over to sinful human beings because of his trust in the God who loves us.  He knew that it would be terrible, but that in the end, it would be for good.

    And so – don’t believe everything you hear.  Seek and do God’s will.  Trust in the God who loves you.  It won’t always be easy, but all things will work together for good (Rom. 8:28).  Amen.

Lent 2(C)                                    Luke 13:31-35
February 28, 2010
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2010 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved