Luke 13:31 - 35
31 At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” 32 And he said to them, “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.’ 34 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!’”
Questions:
ReplyDelete1. Why do the Pharisees care?
2. Is Jesus' response concerning the next three days, or what He is going to do on the cross? How?
3. How is it that God willed Jerusalem's gathering, but they were unwilling?
4. Was Palm Sunday the complete fulfillment of Jesus prophesy about them not seeing Him again? Partial? Or is it all future?
https://hartmangroupdevotions.blogspot.com/2016/05/matthew-2313-39-13-woe-to-you-teachers.html says:
ReplyDeleteThe crowds greeted Him with great fanfare, proclaiming and embracing Him as their Messiah. They believed He was coming to establish the kingdom of God in Israel RIGHT THEN. To them, this meant freedom from the Romans, and a return to Israel’s former glory.
You have to realize that at this point in time, there was NO expectation or concept of a Savior who would die for the sin of the world. To the Jews, the Messiah was a Jewish Messiah. He would set up God’s kingdom in the temple, and from there restore Israel to the glory of days past. THAT was it. Few of these people had a frame of reference for anything more.
Notice that just a short time later, after He entered into Jerusalem, that Jesus pronounced judgment upon Jerusalem, indeed, upon all of Israel. In fact, when He entered the temple, He overturned their tables – a significant and highly symbolic acts. He says that their house is left to them desolate. In other words, there was NOTHING left for God to salvage or work with. They had drifted that far away, in their hearts, from God. And then He makes this statement: "You shall not see Me henceforth until you shall say, ‘Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord."
Had not the people just SAID that very thing? Yep. The celebration of His entry into Jerusalem had barely died out, and the echoes of those very words were still in the air. But Jesus acts as if none of it had happened. He acts as if those people had not said, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord." Instead, He pronounces judgment. And He says they will not see Him again UNTIL they utter those very words – words that they had just proclaimed with great celebration. What is going on here?
Sometimes when Christian people proclaim, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord," – or whatever we say in our hearts that equals that – we don’t actually realize what we are asking. Are we prepared for TRUTH? For the will of God? No matter what? No matter the cost? What if we invite Christ to come into our lives in that way and He must turn over all of our tables? Often that is the case.
I don’t think the most Christian people are prepared for Truth. I sometimes wonder how many really want it at all.
https://hartmangroupdevotions.blogspot.com/2016/05/matthew-2313-39-13-woe-to-you-teachers.html continued:
ReplyDeleteBut you see, ALL OF THAT is something that hinges on whether we will lose ourselves into His hands. If we won’t, we will NOT experience Him in that way, indeed, we won’t even KNOW or have a frame of reference for what we are missing. You can do little more than merely TALK about resurrection if you haven’t actually died. You can memorize the above verse about needed to lose your life all you want. But the question is, when God brings the opportunity, will we lose it? We cannot FIND the Truth, and His LIFE, any other way.
When Jesus rode into Jerusalem that day, those people thought He was coming to give them what they wanted – yes, God’s kingdom – but THEIR way, according to THEIR understanding. Thus, when Jesus died in order to bring God’s kingdom GOD’S way, most of them would not accept it. They were not willing to LOSE themselves to God.
Today Christians are being taught to welcome Jesus into their lives as Lord – but on THEIR TERMS, and not according to the Truth.
Thus, Peter, when we was trying to get Jesus to avoid the Cross, and bring in the kingdom ANOTHER way, was actually being used of Satan at that point to try to tempt Jesus. Peter, in his ignorance of the Truth, was being a mouthpiece for another gospel – that of Satan himself.
After rebuking Peter by saying, "Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for you savor not the things that be of God, but those that be of men," which partly defines the gospel of Satan – it savors the things of man, rather than of God – Jesus cuts right to the point. He says, "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it."
Here was have the TWO gospels. The gospel of Satan states that we should possess our lives for ourselves. Not necessarily in a sinful, rebellious, or immoral way. But maybe even in a GOOD and religious way.
The true gospel of Jesus Christ, which Jesus stated to Peter that day was that we must LOSE our lives in order to FIND HIS. The gospel of Satan suggests that we must save our lives in order to FIND HIS – and that it is the will of God to help us do so. Of course, the reason why people fall for this deception is that it seems frightening to lose your life. But if we only realized it, what we are losing is worthless. What we will find is priceless. But we will never see this unless we believe it.
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/luke/13-31.htm says:
ReplyDeleteHerod will kill thee.—This is the only intimation of such a purpose, and it is, of course, a question whether the Pharisees reported what they actually knew, out of feelings more or less friendly to our Lord, or invented a false tale in order that they might get rid of His presence among them, or were sent by Herod to announce his purpose as a threat that he might be rid of it.
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Jesus was eminently popular, and Herod might not dare openly to put him to death; yet he desired his removal, and for this purpose he sent these people, as if in a friendly way, to advise him to retire. This was probably the reason why Jesus called him a fox.
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Even a lamb might be suspicious if wolves were to show themselves tenderly careful of its safety. Pharisees taking Christ’s life under their protection were enough to suggest a trick. These men came to Christ desirous of posing as counterworking Herod’s intention to slay Him. Our Lord’s answer, bidding them go and tell Herod what He immediately communicates to them, shows that He regarded them as in a plot with that crafty, capricious kinglet. And evidently there was an understanding between them. The Pharisees, on the other hand, desired to draw Him to Jerusalem, where they would have Him in their power more completely than in the northern district. So Christ answers the hidden schemes, and not the apparent solicitude, in the words that I have taken for my text. They unmask the plot, they calmly put aside the threats of danger. They declare that His course was influenced by far other considerations. They show that He clearly saw what it was towards which He was journeying. And then, with sad irony, they declare that it, as it were, contrary to prophetic decorum and established usage that a prophet should be slain anywhere but in the streets of the bloody and sacred city.
I. First, then, note Christ’s clear vision of His death.
II. Then again, secondly, let me ask you to note here our Lord’s own estimate of the place which His death holds in relation to His whole work.
Notice that remarkable variation in the expression in our text. ‘The third day I shall be perfected. . . . It cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.’
III. And so, lastly, notice our Lord’s resolved surrender to the discerned Cross.
Note then, I was going to say, the superb heroism of His calm indifference to threats and dangers. He will go hence, and relieve the tyrant’s dominions of His presence; but He is careful to make it plain that His going has no connection with the futile threatenings by which they have sought to terrify Him. ‘Nevertheless’-although I do not care at all for them or for him-’nevertheless I must journey to-day and tomorrow! But that is not because I fear death, but because I am going to My death; for the prophet must die in Jerusalem.’
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-13-commentary says:
ReplyDeleteAnd He said to them - Notice what He does NOT say to them - He does not say "Thank you for alerting me to the danger!" While the Jewish Pharisees were clearly opposed to the Roman's titular ruler Herod, when it came to the "Usurper" Jesus (to their spiritually blind eyes), these two enemies became "friends."
Some may wonder whether Jesus’ comment was a violation of the Mosaic law, which forbids speaking evil of a ruler (Ex. 22:28; Eccl. 10:20; cf. Acts 23:5). While that was normally the case, there were exceptions. God often directly rebuked Israel’s rulers through the prophets.
MacArthur - Rabbinical writings often used "the fox" to signify someone who was both crafty and worthless. The Pharisees, who trembled at Herod's power, must have been astonished at Christ's boldness.
I reach My goal - What is Jesus goal? Ultimately His goal was to die for the sins of the world, and the resurrection on the third day after His crucifixion would attest to the fact that He had conquered sin and death.
Allison Trites agrees with the thought that the third day was an allusion to the resurrection writing "The mention of the “third day” here is a strong pointer to Jesus’ coming resurrection. “Luke’s readers undoubtedly would call to mind the Lord’s resurrection. This meaning is confirmed by the following word, ‘finish’
When man sets out to do the will of God he will hear from the Pharisees and the "foxes," to use our Lord's word for Herod, who intends to divert and destroy it. But this passage is just another way of saying that when we are in God's work and will we are immortal until our work is done.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-13-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteRod Mattoon describes the destruction of Jerusalem (See Wikipedia article) - The siege of Jerusalem was a blood bath of destruction and desolation. The Jews were celebrating Passover. The Romans surrounded the city so that no one could get out at all. This army under the command of General Titus attacked Jerusalem.
The defenses of the city and the Temple were phenomenal. The walls were five stories high and very thick. General Titus believed Rome could not conquer Jerusalem unless God delivered the city into his hands. The Jewish historian Josephus revealed that the people defending Jerusalem had access to unlimited water supplies and abundant grain reserves within the city. Yet, these advantages did not spare the Jews or the Temple from God's hand of chastisement and the fulfillment of Jesus' words.
The siege of Jerusalem was a catastrophe and beyond imagination. In the five-month siege, 1.2 million Jews died. Six hundred thousand people starved to death in the streets. Bodies were thrown over the walls at a rate of 4000 per day. The sickening stench of death and hoards of annoying flies were unbearable. The Jewish historian Josephus records cannibalism among the starving and panicky. The three million people who were crammed within the walls had quickly depleted food reserves.
It is interesting to note that Titus ordered the Temple to NOT be destroyed. The Jewish defenders, however, would not surrender and a battle ensued. The Roman soldiers were so angry they threw torches into the Temple, setting it ablaze. Josephus saw General Titus beating back his soldiers with his sword in front of the Holy Place in an attempt to save the Holy of Holies, but his efforts were in vain. When Titus saw that the flames had reached the inner sanctuary, he fell to his knees and cried out, "As God is my witness, this was not done by my order."
These Roman soldiers and General Titus were being used of God to fulfill two key prophecies in Scripture. Six hundred years earlier the prophet Daniel prophesied the Temple's destruction.
The fire caused the overlaid gold in the Temple's construction to melt and seep between the cracks of the stones. Roman soldiers took the Temple apart stone by stone with crowbars and wedges in their search for this gold. Not one stone was left standing and the words of Jesus were fulfilled exactly to the "T".
The Jews were broken and crushed. The Romans wasted no time in punishing them. According to Josephus, so many Jews were crucified during the siege of Jerusalem that there was not enough room for crosses, nor wood enough to crucify those people that Titus condemned to death. Even the olive trees on the Mount of Olives were used for crosses. The nation was left in desolation.
Questions and findings:
ReplyDelete1. Why do the Pharisees care?
This was most likely a plot to chase Jesus away. It's also possible that Herod did send the Pharisees to give Jesus a "message". I kind of imagine Herod as a mob boss sending his goons. "It would really be a shame if something happened to youse".
2. Is Jesus' response concerning the next three days, or what He is going to do on the cross? How?
I think Jesus was referring to what He was going to do on the cross, while describing His intentions for the final days of His ministry. The key phrase is "finishing His course" on the third day. What Jesus did on the cross is so very significant in the Spiritual world. All of the evil forces in the spiritual world were handed a crushing defeat.
3. How is it that God willed Jerusalem's gathering, but they were unwilling?
I haven't done an analysis of Calvinism vs. Arminianism vs. something else yet, but I can try to represent two different ways to view this verse. Arminianists would use this verse to argue against the Calvinist view that God's will is what determines who will be saved. I think a Calvinist would argue two things: a. God did elect the nation of Israel, even though only a remnant would be saved (individuals face God's election, or not, individually). b. There's a difference between "God’s permissive will" and "God’s efficient will". The first is that God desires something to happen, but doesn't make it happen. The second is that God makes it happen.
4. Was Palm Sunday the complete fulfillment of Jesus prophesy about them not seeing Him again? Partial? Or is it all future?
In Matthew, Jesus says this after the Triumphal Entry event. So, even though Jesus' entry into Jerusalem was a fulfillment of the prophesy, the full fulfillment is future, when Jesus comes back the final time and finishes His redemption of the world.