Author’s Note: This column was first preached as a sermon at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit, Vashon Island on the Second Sunday in Lent, March 16, 2025. The readings for that day are Genesis 15:1-12,17-18; Philippians 3:17-4:1; Luke 13:31-35; and Psalm 27. I hope you enjoy my sermon also and find it helpful.
MAY THESE WORDS of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.
As New Testament Professor Thomas K. Dailey at Virginia Beach Theological Seminary has noted, the Gospel of Luke, at this point in its trajectory, shows a picture of Jesus driven towards Jerusalem, the heart of Judaism, by then under Roman rule:
Starting from the northern regions of Israel, Jesus had to “go to Jerusalem” (9:51), “toward Jerusalem” (9:53), and was “teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem” (13:22). In the light of a threat from Herod (Antipas), Jesus speaks enigmatically, “it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem” (13:33). His encounter with the lepers happened “on the way to Jerusalem” (17:11). His third passion prediction begins with “see, we are going up to Jerusalem” (18:31). Then, the final leg of the journey is geographically catalogued highlighting different waypoints along the path: “he drew near to Jericho” (18:35), “he entered Jericho and was passing through” (19:1), “he was near to Jerusalem” (19:11), “he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem” (19:28), “he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany at the mount that is called Olivet” (19:29), “as he was drawing near — already on the way down the Mount of Olives” (19:37), and “he drew near the city” (19:41).
As you can see from all those references to Scripture, Jesus has a mission. Now as a deacon, I might be tempted to say Jesus had enough to do. As he does throughout much of the Gospel of Luke, he continues to heal folks while he’s on his way, but as today’s reading shows, Jesus is quite aware of what he is doing and why he is doing it. Herod thinks he has this secret plan to wait for Jesus to get to Jerusalem and to kill him.
But Jesus is on to him, and sends back a message by asking the sympathetic Pharisees who sent the warning to go back to Herod. He’s being snarky by calling Herod “a fox.” Everyone in the literate classical period would have known of the fox as cunning, even sneaky, not to be trusted. By naming Herod as a fox, Jesus is basically calling him out; Jesus is dishing Herod. He not only tells Herod that Jesus is in on the plan, he’s even giving him further details, the entire itinerary: for three days, Jesus says, I am traveling to Jerusalem, and “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.”
That’s not exactly true: as a quick search on the Internet confirmed, Jeremiah, for instance, was killed in Egypt, but we also know that “Jerusalem has a reputation for killing prophets and stoning messengers from God.” Even AI knows that!
Jesus wanted to use that authority, to challenge power at the very center of its source.
What Jesus was saying is “Do your worst, Herod,” a declaration that could be extended from the Jewish political situation but also to the Roman occupation. Herod is a symbol of Jewish rule, but also signals the start of a confrontation with Rome itself, the folks who put Herod in power. From Herod’s point of view, Jesus can’t win. He either has to go into hiding, thus removing himself from the playing board as some kind of would-be Messiah, or he comes to Jerusalem, is killed, and thus no longer a problem.
But Herod’s missing a fact; he’s not in on the plan: that Jesus’ work wouldn’t be cut off by a murder in Jerusalem but the exact opposite: his death (and his subsequent resurrection) would culminate his work, being a sign of hope and of the Reign of God’s arrival that works both for the first century and for our own twenty first century.
So, here we are today. We know the outcome: death, resurrection, an empty tomb, ascension, and all of the mighty works we read about in the various letters and in the Book of Acts, the second half of the Gospel of Luke.
Now it’s true that Jesus’ work on the way to Jerusalem was important work. To me, as a deacon in the Episcopal Church, it matters that people were healed, it matters that people were fed as in other Gospel accounts; all that’s a sign of Jesus’ place and work as prophet, but he also needed to be the Messiah, the Savior of Israel, of Rome, and of us.
We need that salvific work, that trip to Jerusalem, his death and resurrection. Jesus laments for 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.’”
He loves Jerusalem and its people just as Jesus loves us. He laments for us, too, when “we like sheep go astray.” This is his promise to us as his people:
“The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom then shall I fear?
the Lord is the strength of my life;
of whom then shall I be afraid?”
That’s God’s promise to us, and to the world.
When I go out and join others to feed people who are hungry, when we listen to their stories, when we give them clothing and clean works for safe drug use, we are doing servants’ work, diaconal work.
Yes, we’re helping them, but also signifying the coming of the Reign of God itself.
Let’s all join together in that work as we head towards our own Jerusalems and our own resurrections.
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Issues of Faith is a rotating column by religious leaders on the North Olympic Peninsula. The Rev. Dr. Keith Dorwick is a deacon resident in the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia.
