Second Sunday in Lent 2/27/13 Text: Luke 13:31-35 Title: The Path to the Cross The gospel reading for this morning is hard to understand unless you know what has been happening before it. Jesus was the hero of the oppressed and helpless. Jesus, according to who the people thought he was, in all honesty would have fit right in, for the most part with the prosperity preachers of today. He was healing, he was feeding, he was attacking the Jewish faith, for all of its rules. He was, at the least the people thought he was, promising heaven on earth. What could be better than that? Then all of a sudden it happened. A few chapters before our reading this morning, around chapter nine he turned his face toward the cross. I do not mean that he had changed direction, for his life was one of always walking to the cross, sometimes it appears, running to the cross. Anyway after chapter nine he is falling out of favor with the religious people of his day because now he is talking of dying and rising. Dying is not what the people want to hear; his dying and certainly not their dying, as he was saying that they had to die to the things of the world. That is understandable, for who of us wants to be told that our dying is part of our living, especially the dying concerning the things of the world that we trust so much. Nope, dying did not work then and it does not work very well now. It just does not fit in with who we think God should be, for their God, our God, rewards those who do good with good stuff. That is self-evident by how rich the righteous, at least to those looking they were righteous were getting richer and how the poor and miserable sinners are getting poorer and more miserable. Prosperity preaching was alive and well in Jesus’ time just as it is now in our time. Jesus was on the way out. His popularity was declining. He was causing all sorts of problems with this suffering and dying and rising talk, so those who were preaching prosperity, although they would not call it that any more than prosperity preachers call it prosperity preaching today, although it is the same were trying to figure out what to do with him. Do good stuff for God and he will give you good stuff and life will be good they preached. Jesus tells them and thus us that is not so, for the first, those who they thought were first for after all they were righteous Jews, would be last and that those they thought should be last, that is non-righteous Jews and others, that is sinners, are going to be first, because his salvation is not based on what they, that is we do, but on what God does. Jesus’ teaching kills their version of prosperity gospel, just as it does today, so they, just like the prosperity preachers of today, must move Jesus on to another place, for he is crimping their style, so we read in our gospel reading today, “At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, "Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you." They are acting as if they have Jesus’ best interest at heart and maybe some due, but probably not for we hear Jesus say, "Go and tell that fox, 'Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. 33 Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.” Jesus is simply telling them. Thanks, but no thanks for warning me, for I am in control and no one; not even Herod with all his power will take my life unless I give him permission to do so. He then continues telling them that he has work to do and part of that work is to die at Jerusalem. That is important, for at Jerusalem which is not only their religious city where the temple is, but is also the identity of the Jewish nation. The Jewish people had for hundreds, if not thousands of years had rejected the prophets, that is the preachers God sent to them. Oh they would repent for a time, but when the allure of the nations that surrounded them had become to much to resist they had fallen away. They, just like so many people today did not want their pastor to tell them they are sinners even if God’s Word clearly said it was a sin. God, according to our way of thinking should have left them to die in sin, but he was not going to, as we hear in in the last two verses of our Gospel reading for this morning. (Luke 13:34-35) "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 35 Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” As I read the words, “Behold, your house is forsaken." the word forsaken jumped out at me from the text. It sounds rather cold and callous. That is what the people back in Jesus thought, for I am sure that they, just like us heard in those words, “O Jerusalem! Consider yourself forsaken! You'll get yours, you wait and see. Have a nice eternity without me you fools. The truth is that Jerusalem is forsaken only because they've earned it; because they've brought it upon themselves. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!" Sadly, the only thing that people often hear is the last phrase, "Behold, your house is forsaken." Forsaken? That sure does not sound like the loving God that I know! We know from the whole of Scripture that God is a loving God who desires that all would believe in Him and come to saving in faith in Christ Jesus. But make no mistakes; God is also a just God. He doesn't play favorites or bend the rules for some while taking a hardline approach for others. He's fair across the board. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The wage of sin; whether you're a man, a woman, or even a baby is death because all are sinners However, all are equally redeemed in Christ Jesus. Jesus didn't just go to the cross for a particular age group or ethnicity or tax bracket. He died for the entire world; even for those who resent him, hate him, and despise his precious gifts of life, forgiveness, and salvation. You see, this is where that Greek word that we translate as forsaken comes into play. That word, as it is used here in today's lesson, is a pretty good rendering, especially considering the immediate context it was spoken in. But the word we translate as forsaken carries with it the meaning of "letting go, releasing, or loosing." It is the same word that is used in some of the miraculous healing accounts, such as when Jesus "loosed" the tongue of the deaf man with a severe speech impediment or when he "loosed" stiff and palsied limbs, enabling people to walk and leap for joy. What's even more interesting and important is the fact that this same word that is we translated as forsaken in this text is used to speak of the act of forgiving sins. To forgive sins is to "loose or release" the guilt and punishment. To forgive is to pardon and release one from the due wage of sin; to forsake the justly deserved death sentence. So the people of Jerusalem are not forsaken because Jesus is the only one to ever be truly forsaken and forgotten by God. He standing in their place and our place willingly laid down His life on a bloody cross for all mankind. He willingly was forsaken by God the Father for all mankind; in our place, precisely so that no one would ever have to be separated from God's love and grace and mercy. I know we've all had those days when we think God has forsaken us, yet he never has because of Jesus. He has always been right there, holding out his loving arms to receive us when we turn back away from our rebellious sin and turn back to him in faithful, repentant trust. May God's story become, if it is not already, your story, so that the Good News of Jesus will take root in your heart enabling you to bear abundant, faithful fruit in all that you say, think, and do. Amen.