Preaching Paths 16 March 2025 Lent 2 Yr C

Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary

Today’s text, Luke 13:31-35, presents preachers with interpretative challenges. Luke joins two short scenes, each of them surprising. First, sympathetic (?) Pharisees warn Jesus that Herod plans to kill him; Jesus responds. Luke follows this scene with Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem, which in Matthew occurs much later, a day before Jesus enters the city (Mt 23:37-39). It is surprising that Jesus speaks of a repeated desire to gather the people of Jerusalem; in Luke’s narrative, Jesus’ ministry has not taken him there at all. Also somewhat opaque is the repeated phrase, “today, tomorrow and the next day/the third day” (vv 32-33). The word “Jerusalem” links these two scenes, occurring three times. “Jerusalem” closes the first vignette (v 33b), and doubled, opens the second scene (v 34a).

Scholars debate about the Pharisees who warn Jesus about Herod’s murderous scheme: are they unexpected supporters of Jesus, or in league with Herod? We can’t tell; we only know that Jesus sends a reply through them back to Herod, calling him, “that fox” (considered a wily, opportunistic animal). Jesus declares that “today and tomorrow” he shall heal and cast out demons; on the third day (but not until that day!), he will complete his mission. Jesus makes clear that his itinerary is set by the purposes of God; he will not be intimidated or driven off course by a petty Roman official. The “third day” is an echo of Lk 9:22, Jesus’ first prediction of his passion, including his resurrection. Some interpreters suggest that “today, tomorrow and the next day,” is an idiom indicating a brief period of time. Time is short; Jesus must hasten to the confrontation in Jerusalem which shall precipitate his rejection and death. But that is not the end: there shall be a “third day.”

The second half of today’s reading is a close match to Mt 23:37-39. In this brief soliloquy, Jesus laments for the holy city, notorious for rebuffing and persecuting the prophets God has sent to it. Jesus, who identifies himself throughout Luke with the prophetic tradition, will suffer the same fate.

His lament is couched in past tense, as if that which shall yet be is a fait accompli. (Mary’s Magnificat does the same.) Why this heartfelt cry of grief over a city where he has not preached, taught, or healed? Luke, more than other gospel writer, emphasizes the role Jerusalem plays in Jesus’ life. Greeted in the Temple as an infant by Simeon and Anna, Jesus returns to it as a boy of 12. He seeks the company of Torah scholars, debating and reflecting as a peer. Luke indicates that Jesus’ family made the Passover journey annually (2:41). Satan takes him there—literally or figuratively—during his wilderness testing. For the prophets of old with whom Jesus identifies, Jerusalem was a lodestar. Thus, it makes sense that Jesus’ mission drives him to Jerusalem to speak truth to power, despite the deadly risk. Neither hubris nor a yen for martyrdom sends Jesus there. He goes out of love for those he longs to shelter, as a hen shelters her chicks under spread wings when predators circle above.

This text prods preachers to reflect in a sermon on their listeners’ own sense of mission, individual and corporate. To whom are we “sent”? What are the roots of our motivations? Whom do we love—not in a shallow way, but in a way that emboldens us to speak and act in the power of God’s relentless love for society’s most vulnerable? When the Herods of this world scoff or threaten, will we run for cover, or press forward toward our “Jerusalem”? Would we risk our lives? Jesus goes ahead of us, pointing to the horizon. Look ahead: light is already breaking. The third day dawns.