Scripture/Sermon of the Day. March 13, 2022

Luke 13:31-35

The Lament over Jerusalem

31 At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” 32 He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. 33 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.’ 34 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! 35 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.’”

Reflection:

I. I think I love Western movies so much because they remind me of the Gospels. Jesus is the outlaw-hero, like Jesse James. But instead of robbing trains and banks, Jesus heals people, illegally. Someone’s always after him, like people who want to be healed or the angry congregation who hate his sermon and try to push him off a cliff. Even the king is after him. Jesus is wanted.

II. But there’s a difference between the Gospel of Luke and the westerns. In a movie like Hostiles, the villain Joseph J. Blocker, is transformed, even becoming Chrtistlike. In the Gospels, it’s the people who encounter Jesus who are changed, for better or worse. Some, like Zacchaeus became like saints, but others, like the people of Nazareth and many of the Pharisees, got more violent.

III. Last night I saw a movie called “Old Henry”. If you haven’t seen it, you’ll never guess who “old Henry” turned out to be. He is played by the actor Tim Blake Nelson, who spent a year learning the part.
Nelson said HIS GREATEST CHALLENGE was “for Henry by the end of the movie to be vastly different from the character he was at the beginning of the movie, and for the audience to never be able to name a single moment where the transformation happens.”

IV. DOESN’T THIS DESCRIBE US, our walk with Jesus? WHEN DID WE CHANGE? Some people put a date and a time and a place on their conversion. Like it happens instantly. But I think OUR TRANSFORMATION INTO CHRIST happens over our lifetime. AND WE DON’T SEE IT happening. What gets me through many days is knowing that God is changing me in secret. I don’t see it happening. Even the people we live with don’t see it. God transforms us in secret. Like Zacchaeus and Mary Magdalene, we are changed, moment by moment. The prophet Jeremiah said our transformation into instruments of God’s grace even begins before we are born!
FAITH is the gift God gives us to know that we are changing into Christ when we might feel like the devil.

V. Some Pharisees (they weren’t all his enemies) told Jesus: “Run, hide — Herod is after you! He’s going to kill you!” Jesus said, “I’ve still got work to do, free people from their demons, cure their diseases — my work isn’t finished yet. My fate isn’t up to Herod.” NEITHER IS OURS. IT’S IN GOD’S HANDS.
Before we were born, God said through Jeremiah, God had plans for us. We are fulfilling those plans right now — even when it doesn’t feel like it.
THE MESSAGE OF LENT— is that we are not who we were and we are not who we will be YET.
We are not Christ yet — but we grow more like him. The apostle Paul said “we are being transformed into Christ from one degree of glory to another.” God is doing this right now, while we go about our daily lives, oblivious to the miracle that is happening this very moment.