"The Prophet and the Promise"
- epumc1
- Mar 16
- 6 min read
Jesus was seen by some Israelites of his time as a prophet, and by others as a threat. In our text, he is on his way to Jerusalem, where he will proclaim the good news of God’s kingdom and challenge those who may oppose it. As he realizes, he will also encounter the opposition of the religious establishment and the police power of the Roman empire. He is not naive about what lies ahead. He shows us the need for courage to speak the truth to those in power.
Maybe you’ve heard a country-western song that begins, “Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys.” Well, today’s gospel reading makes me wonder if ancient Israelites had a song that began, “Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be prophets.” It is possible!
In the Bible, being a real prophet could be a dangerous business. Israel’s prophets saw the world and society in light of God’s will for them, and they spoke accordingly. Any prediction they made about future events — which is how people often think of a prophet’s task — was a matter of talking about what could happen if people did or didn’t live and act as God had called them to.
Everyone, rich or poor, strong or weak, does some good things and some bad. But bad deeds of the wealthy and powerful can be the most dangerous because they’re wealthy and powerful and can often get away with selfish and immoral behavior. They may exploit the poor and the weak. So those in positions of power often get a lot of criticism from prophets.
It’s been said that the task of prophets is “To comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.”1 Jesus’ words earlier in Luke’s gospel are an example: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. ... But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.”2 Politicians — or preachers — may say that poor people are lazy or want handouts. But you can get in trouble if you condemn greed or exploitation of the poor by those with power.
So a prophet must be courageous. They have to take chances and challenge powerful people. We read about such confrontations in which Elijah, Amos and other Hebrew prophets were involved. Some 600 years before Jesus’ time, Jerusalem was threatened by the army of the powerful Babylonian empire, but its people thought that the city was under divine protection. There was nothing to fear — they believed Zion to be invulnerable.
But the prophet Jeremiah stood up in the temple and told people that if they continued to ignore the laws God had given them and to act unjustly, the temple would be destroyed, and the city would become a curse. And to that, the crowd cried out, “You shall die!”3
Because he had a friend at court, Jeremiah wasn’t put to death. But we’re told that another prophet, Uriah, who “spoke in words exactly like those of Jeremiah,” wasn’t so lucky. The king “struck him down with the sword.”4 Being a prophet was a risky business. Jeremiah survived, but Jerusalem, its temple and the nation of Israel itself was destroyed.
Jesus the prophet
Israel was brought back from the dead when the Babylonian empire fell and Jewish exiles could return home and rebuild. However, in our reading from Luke a few centuries later, it’s under the control of the Roman Empire. We read there about another prophet, Jesus of Nazareth, who is on his way to Jerusalem for Passover. When he later enters the city, we’re told that the people in the crowd
welcoming him were saying, “this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”5
However, Jesus is on his way without any illusions. Twice he’s spoken to his disciples about what he expects at the end of the journey — “Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into human hands.”6 But they don’t get it. Jesus is at the height of his popularity among the people, and the disciples expect a victory tour.
At the beginning of our chapter of Luke, people tell Jesus about Jews “whose blood Pilate” — the Roman governor — “had mingled with their sacrifices.”7 That’s an ominous note because Pilate will be in Jerusalem at Passover time. He won’t be celebrating with the Jews, but making sure that order is maintained during a festival when there could be anti-Roman demonstrations and attacks.
Jesus and his followers are now passing through Galilee, which is ruled — though under Roman authority — by Herod Antipas, the son of the king when Jesus was born. Herod was rebuked by John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin, for taking his brother’s wife. As a result, Herod imprisoned John and then had him beheaded, a reminder to Jesus and his followers of the dangers of being a prophet.
In fact, we’re told that some Pharisees told Jesus, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” They may just have wanted Jesus to leave, but some Pharisees were friendly with Jesus and may really have been concerned for his safety. In any case, Jesus’ response to their warning must have surprised them. “Go and tell that fox for me” Jesus said, that he had work to do. In effect, “Tell Herod that if he wants to kill me, he’ll have to get in line.”
That’s courage, not tough-guy bravado. Jesus knows what to expect when he challenges the authorities in Jerusalem. His human nature recoils from the prospect of suffering and death, as we see later in his prayer in Gethsemane — “Father, ... remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.”8 Nevertheless, he continues toward that confrontation.
Tell Herod that Jesus is on his way. “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.” Prophets had been killed in other places. But Jerusalem is where, according to the law, sacrifices are to be offered. It’s the place for the final sacrifice that will end the need for sacrifice by defeating sin, death and all the powers that oppose God. Jerusalem is where God’s victory will be proclaimed “on the third day.”
Make no mistake — this will be God’s victory. Jesus goes on to lament over Jerusalem: “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” The image of a mother bird with her young is used in the Hebrew scriptures to refer to God. When Boaz meets the Moabite woman Ruth (ancestors of Jesus, by the way), he says, “May you have a full reward from the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge!”9
Jesus, a man of Israel, is going courageously to Jerusalem. God has become one of us and is on the way to the cross — to experience human life and death, and to bring new life.
During Lent, we’re called to disciplines of prayer, self-denial and study of scripture. I suggest being courageous as another discipline. That doesn’t mean being foolish, but it does mean doing what needs to be done or saying what needs to be said, even when it would be more convenient or comfortable to do nothing.
Think of Queen Esther, who is told by her cousin about a plot to murder all the Jews in the Persian Empire. He urges her to tell her husband, the king, but that may result in her death. “I will go to the king,” she tells him, “Though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.”10
The Letter to the Hebrews has a whole chapter about heroes of the faith. Then it continues: “Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.”11
2 Luke 6:20 & 24.
3 Jeremiah 26:8.
4 Jeremiah 26:20-23.
5 Matthew 21:11.
6 Luke 9:44.
7 Luke 13:1.
8 Luke 22:42.
9 Ruth 2:12.
10 Esther 4:16.
11 Hebrews 12:1-2.
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