second Sunday of Lent

In this morning’s reading, we are one step closer to Jerusalem, one week closer to Good Friday and one week closer to Easter.  The Gospel reading points us to the beginning of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, he is moving out from his ministry on the margins of the empire in Galilee and consciously moving towards the centre of power, the place where the Temple is, the main centre for the Jewish leaders, the Pharisees, Sadducees, the Sanhedrin Council, the High Priests, and of course, Herod, the so called King of the Jews. And its also the centre of Roman authority in the region, the seat of the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, all those people who will figure in the last week of Jesus life.  Jerusalem, the place where Jesus will face his death on the Cross, but also the city that will bear witness to the Resurrection.

Jesus knew that he had to go to Jerusalem to face that final great struggle in order to accomplish his ministry on earth, and to bring the whole of humankind back into communion with God, all of which was foretold by the Old Testament Prophets, and by Jesus himself to his disciples, but they didn’t understand this at all, they thought he was going to claim the Kingdom of Israel for himself and become an earthly ruler. Jesus knew from the beginning when the rulers of the world are faced with the truth of God’s justice, mercy and grace, they often respond with violence, it has always been the same, when those in power are opposed by the truth, they respond by trying to eliminate the bearer of that truth. And Jesus has never shirked from attacking head on those who use power for their own ends against God’s law.

Time and again he has attacked the Jewish Religious leaders and their interpretation of God’s word, their stupid religious laws that have held the Jewish people enslaved, and he has done it knowing that his attacks would deeply offend and upset the Jewish leaders.  Jesus’ Good News will make the Jewish leaders want to kill him, to eradicate the problem he is causing them. The Pharisees, the Sadducees, the High Priests want Jesus out of the way because they don’t want any change to their way of life and the control they hold over the Jewish people. And yet it is some of these Pharisees who come to Jesus and warn, ‘Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.’  Clearly there were Pharisees who were sympathetic to Jesus and what he was proclaiming, like Joseph of Arimathea, who would ask Pilate for permission to bury Jesus when he was taken down from the cross, like Nicodemus who became a follower of Jesus but could only visit him at night for fear of the other Pharisees. They would have heard the other Pharisees getting very concerned about the activities of Jesus and what they wanted to do with him.  They saw for themselves that the centres of power where fearful of Jesus’ message, which sought to undermine their control over the Jewish people, and how they planned to deal with him when he got to Jerusalem. And then Herod could not allow this itinerant Rabbi to cause him trouble, or his own position would be in jeopardy.  He was king because the Roman Emperor had made him king to try and appease the Jewish people, but it never worked because they despised Herod, and knew he was a pupit of the Romans. And now if the Roman Governor sees the Jewish people rebelling against Herod and the temple authorities, the Roman occupiers will be brought into it and Herod would lose his throne and probably his head as well. So Herod’s henchmen would be waiting for Jesus when he arrived in Jerusalem, hence the warning from these Pharisees. But Jesus, instead of heading for the hills to hide, and most of us would do, sends along a crytic message to Herod, ‘Go and tell that fox for me. Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work’. But together with that defiant message is a message of lament, sadness and love for the people of Israel, for his accusers, for Herod even: ‘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’.

Here we see Jesus reaching out to his people with a parents tender love.  He reaches out to embrace them, to keep them from destruction and harm. He reaches out to them to bring them back into God’s Covenant.  He reaches out to change them from their old ways of selfishness and greed into a people who love God with all their hearts, with all their souls, with all their minds and with all their strength, and people who love their neighbours as themselves. Make no mistake, the truth is that when we seek to follow Jesus things are going to change in our lives.  The Jewish leaders knew this and wanted to stop it, we know it and should want to embrace it, but change is very costly for us personally, that’s why many people who hear the Good News turn away.  The Good News tells us to repent, to change direction, but human beings don’t like change, we like things to stay the same, we feel more comfortable like that.  The Church is just like that really, we don’t like change, we want things to stay the way they are, we don’t want taking out of our comfort zone, but if we are to grow as a church we must embrace change and work for it.

Those Jewish leaders must have felt very threatened, not only was there this Jesus telling them and the Jewish people that they were at odds with God’s teaching, but that he was the Son of God as well.  Better to get rid of him and prevent any more trouble.  Just another trouble maker to wipe off the page of history, kill him and his followers will all disappear and in a few weeks no body will even remember his name. But you cannot kill the truth, you cannot kill the Son of God, who is the very embodiment of that Truth. Through Jesus we see the very nature and love of God, but we also see that Jesus exposes the truth of religious and political power, which is so often contray to God’s love and truth.  Jesus’ Truth also exposes the truth about ourselves, and how we fall short of God’s love, but all is not lost for as we travel towards Jerusalem with Jesus during this period of Lent, we will see the depth’s of God’s love for us in the Cross and Resurrection and his desire to gather us under his wings like a mother hen.  And thank God, the truth is that, through Jesus, God is willing to enter into the depths of human suffering to bring new life to us all. Amen.