When you think of the character traits of Jesus, what word or words come to mind?
Two words describing Jesus’ character came to me as I read our Gospel lesson for today. See what words come to your mind as I read from Luke 13:31-35…
At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” He said to them, “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. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because 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! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
As I said, there are two character traits of Jesus that I think we can see in this passage. The first one is his courage.
In our passage for today, Jesus is most likely in Perea, a region to the southeast of Galilee on the eastern side of the Jordan River. This region was ruled by Herod Antipas, one of the sons of Herod the Great. It is hard to tell whether the Pharisees warned Jesus out of genuine concern for his welfare, or simply to get him out of their region. I tend to think the latter.
It is Jesus’ response to the Pharisees that shows his great courage. Jesus calls Herod a fox. William Barclay explains,
To the Jew the fox was a symbol of three things. First it was regarded as the slyest of animals. Second, it was regarded as the most destructive of animals. Third, it was the symbol of a worthless and insignificant man. It takes a brave man to call the reigning king a fox.
Jesus showed courage not only in the way he spoke about Herod but also in the way he resolutely set his face to go to Jerusalem, knowing what awaited him there. Jesus said to the Pharisees, “I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work.” This statement suggests that Jesus knew he was going to die and rise again on the third day. Jesus goes on to say, “Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.” This statement suggests that Jesus knew he was going to die in Jerusalem, yet he went there anyway.
Hugh Latimer was preaching once in Westminster Abbey when Henry the Eighth was present. In the pulpit Latimer paused to perform a soliloquy of sorts: “Latimer! Latimer! Latimer! Be careful what you say. The king of England is here!” Then he went on, “Latimer! Latimer! Latimer! Be careful what you say. The king of Kings is here.”
Latimer was later burned at the stake in Oxford along with two other Protestant martyrs, Thomas Cranmer and Nicholas Ridley. I have stood on the cross in Broad Street in Oxford where those men gave their life for their faith. Latimer is quoted as having said to Ridley on the day of their deaths, “Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.”
Jesus was not only a man of courage, but he has inspired courage in millions of others down through the ages, just like Hugh Latimer.
The second character trait of Jesus we see in this passage is his compassion.
Jesus lamented over Jerusalem,
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!
What an evocative word picture Jesus gives to us! Tom Wright explains,
Fire is as terrifying to trapped animals as to people, if not more so. When a farmyard catches fire, the animals try to escape; but, if they cannot, some species have developed ways of protecting their young. The picture here is of a hen, gathering her chicks under her wings to protect them. There are stories of exactly this: after a farmyard fire, those cleaning up have found a dead hen, scorched and blackened—with live chicks sheltering under her wings. She has quite literally given her life to save them. It is a vivid and violent image of what Jesus declared he longed to do for Jerusalem and, by implication, for all Israel.
The story is told of a family in the Midwest many years ago who saw a prairie fire approaching their farm. Thinking quickly, the father took a firebrand and burned a circle all around their farm and home. When the prairie fire reached the perimeter of their land it stopped because the ground had already been burned.
The cross of Jesus Christ stands on burnt ground. If we stand there with Jesus, we need never fear the fire of judgment or destruction because Jesus has already faced the fury of the flames for us. Out of his deep compassion, Jesus longs to gather us under his wings and protect us. But we have a choice about whether we will place ourselves under Jesus’ wings of compassion or not.
Since today is not only the Second Sunday of Lent, but also St. Patrick’s Day, I thought I would close with the story of another person who, like Jesus, showed great courage and compassion during his lifetime. Here is his story from History.com…
Early in the 5th century, an Irish ship beat against the waves along the western coast of Great Britain. On the far edge of the crumbling Roman Empire, a band of Irish marauders crept into a secluded cove and raided the village of Bannavem Taburniae.
Among the plunder captured by the band of warriors dispatched by Ireland’s King Niall of the Nine Hostages was a 16-year-old boy named Succat. Although brought to Ireland against his will, the teenager would go on to become Ireland’s patron saint. St. Patrick may have been a foreigner who arrived in Ireland in the hold of a pagan king’s slave ship, but he would become synonymous with the island itself.
Established facts about Patrick’s youth are few, and much of what is known comes from the saint himself in his short biography, the Confessio… Patrick was born into a well-to-do family around 386 A.D. and grew up along Great Britain’s western coast, likely in Wales, which was part of the Roman Empire at the time. His father was a Christian deacon and a minor Roman official, his grandfather a priest.
The raid that tore him away from his family was not all that unusual in the early 5th century…
As Roman power waned, forays by Irish raiders grew more common. On a regular basis, they plundered animals and clothes and snatched children from their sleep in the middle of the night. They abducted young men to herd sheep and cows and young women to serve them.
Ripped from his home, Patrick herded sheep for a local chieftain on the slopes of Mount Slemish in County Antrim in the north of Ireland. Deprived of food and clothes, Patrick lived in virtual isolation. His only companions were his flock and his newfound faith. Amid the desolation, Patrick’s Christianity blossomed. He prayed as many as 100 times during the day—and matched that total at night.
Patrick wrote in the Confessio that six years into his captivity, an angel appeared in a dream and told him, “You have fasted well. Very soon you will return to your native country.” The angel told him of a ship leaving Ireland, and the young slave walked across 200 miles of peat bogs and forests before arriving at a port, possibly Wexford, where he found a cargo ship bound for the European Continent…
After the captain refused him passage, Patrick began to pray. Before he could finish, though, a sailor from the ship came shouting, “Come quickly – those men are calling you!” After learning that the captain changed his mind, Patrick sailed away from Ireland, believing that God’s protection must have been responsible for his unlikely escape…
In St. Patrick’s telling in the Confessio, he almost died after his escape from slavery. After landing on the continent, the ship’s crew found itself wandering for weeks in a wilderness devoid of food and began to chastise Patrick for his piety. “What about this, Christian? You tell us that your God is great and all-powerful—why can’t you pray for us, since we’re in a bad state with hunger?” the starving sailors asked him.
“Turn in faith with all your hearts to the Lord my God, because nothing is impossible for him,” replied the young man who led them in a prayer that appeared to be immediately answered when a stampede of pigs crossed their path. Patrick had his first converts.
Patrick eventually returned to his family in Great Britain. His parents begged him to never leave them again, but the religious visions returned and presented Patrick with a different plan. He heard the voice of the Irish call out, “We beg you, holy boy, to come and walk again among us.” After a period of religious training, he was ordained a deacon around 418 A.D. and in 432 A.D. consecrated as a bishop and given the name Patricius.
Although many freed slaves would have dreaded a return to their place of captivity, Patrick asked for an assignment as a missionary to Ireland. When he returned to the pagan island, he tended to a different type of flock. Patrick’s knowledge of Ireland’s language and customs facilitated his work in converting and baptizing Druid priests, chieftains and aristocrats by the thousands before his death on March 17 in 461 A.D.
You and I live in far different circumstances than either St. Patrick or Jesus. But may our heavenly Father grant us the same courage and compassion in our daily lives.
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