Today's gospel
lesson is packed full with symbolism, warnings, prophecy and a little bit of
sarcasm. First, we hear that some
Pharisees come to warn Jesus that Herod wants to kill him. Our minds go to the concept that – didn't the
Pharisees want to kill Jesus? Why would they warn him?
I'm reminded
that each of us have choices in our lives.
There were those Pharisees who at least nominally believed in Christ,
but because of having families or positions that they really couldn't leave,
they did what they could and were quiet in their support. Nicodemus and later Paul both came from the
Pharisees. So, maybe these Pharisees
were hedging their bets, just in case Jesus was truly the Messiah, while not
publicly changing their position.
There's a play
I've discussed in the past called "When the Moment Comes", which
discusses a group of women accused of apostasy, and they have a choice – when
the moment of choice comes, do they denounce their faith in order to live, save
their children and hopefully flee the country? Or do they hold fast to their faith, knowing
that they are going to die? We know that
this choice was often offered to martyrs in the early centuries of
Christianity. This particular play,
however, was written in the 1980s about a group of Baha'i men and women, 20 of
whom were eventually hung in 1983 – one of whom was 17, accused of teaching
Bahai'i children to read and write. The
play was written by one of those who chose to escape with her life, and she,
her husband and children escaped over the mountains to eventually seek asylum
in England. Her works documented the
lives of those she shared a prison with.
So perhaps
these Pharisees hadn't yet reached their "moment", but were at least
helping in the only way they could see at the time. Now Christ compares Herod to a fox, but makes
it clear that He believes He has nothing to fear from Herod. He basically says that he's busy the few
days, but he'll be heading to Jerusalem after that, since prophets aren't
killed outside of Jerusalem. The problem
with our reading of the text is that
we are attributing the modern meanings of "fox" to cunning, sly,
sneaky. In Jewish teachings, a fox is an
unclean animal in the Israelite holiness codes. And to make it further clear, the Greek word
for "fox" that Luke uses here is the feminine form. So, why insult Herod Antipas – here's where
we need a history lesson.
Though Herod
often tried to appear the pious Jewish leader, he had more than a few problems
maintaining the loyalty of his Jewish subjects. His first problem was his very
authority. He had been put in power by Caesar Augustus, the Roman Emperor, in 4
BCE. And then in 17 CE, to honor his
Roman overlords, he built a grand new capital city named Tiberius, after the
current emperor, only to discover that it was built on top of an old Jewish
cemetery. No pious Jew ever entered it, and it was inhabited almost exclusively
by Greeks and Romans.
Then he also
had serious women problems. He divorced his first wife, which had been a
political union, as she was the daughter of an Arab ruler, in order to marry
Herodias. Herodias had been the wife of his half-brother, also called Herod
just to make things more confusing, both sons of Herod the Great. It was not unheard of in those days to marry
the widow of one's brother, but Herod II still lived, and Herodias had divorced
him somehow – historians aren't clear on that point. We get into soap opera territory here,
because she was also the daughter of another half-brother, Aristobulus. Marriage to one's niece was also permitted,
but marriage to a woman who was both one's sister-in-law and one's niece was pushing some real boundaries, and for those who
remember your Bible stories, this was where John the Baptist got into trouble,
for opposing that marriage. Add to that,
that Herod Antipas allowed his stepdaughter (and also niece) to dance in public
– an absolute no-no in this society. And
finally, this particular Herod was in charge of Galilee and Perea, so Christ
was not yet in Jerusalem, and had no fear of Herod Antipas doing anything to
him.
There was an
interesting story in the news this week that had to do with a fox that got into
a henhouse in France. Now, they call it
a henhouse, because that's where the hens were housed, but there were 3,000 of
them. The fox didn't have a chance, and
was pecked to death. But I would figure
that when it was discovered that the fox had entered, the mothers had gathered
their chicks under their wings. Why that
story came up this week is uncertain, but leads us to the next statement Jesus
made, "How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen
gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!" In this instance, Christ compares himself to
a hen, where hens will protect their chicks under their wings from
predators. Here, we're talking about the
predators of Rome and the puppet ruler Herod Antipas, where Christ is offering
eternal life, and the Pharisees have only chosen to warn him, but not to fully believe
in him.
So, here it is
– when the moment comes: do you follow
the vows taken at your baptism or confirmation, or the renewals that we
generally take every year? Or do you do
the bare minimum? Offer lip
service. Give a warning, but don't
really get into it. "See, your
house is left to you." The choice
is yours.
The
consequence, however, can be more than you want to pay: "And I tell you, you will not see me
until you say, 'Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.'" Until you commit, even realizing that God is
patient, you haven't made your choice.
Can you honestly, fully and truthfully say, "Blessed is the one who
comes in the name of the Lord", and then be prepared to live that choice,
fully, completely? Because eventually,
time will be up, and the choice is made prior to that time. No hedging your bets, no playing it safe –
but truly going all in. When the moment
comes, what will your choice be?
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