In these verses, Jesus is warned by a group of Pharisees (give some thought to that) that Herod is looking to kill him. Jesus does not like Herod and for good reason, he’s a predator. “Go tell that fox…” What Jesus says reminds them of the weight of the situation. “Because of Mount Zion which lies desolate, foxes prowl in it” says the author of Lamentations…a book whose Hebrew title is ‘Ekah’…”How…!?!?!” At the end of this section of scripture (13v34-35) the Son of God will answer that question for them.
I’ve got a baptism to be baptized with! ...We remember Jesus saying. He has a task to complete, He has been sent to do something about this mess, YHWY is decisively intervening in and through Jesus, He is returning to Zion and it will be nothing less than apocalyptic, the cross of Christ is nothing less than apocalyptic.
A brief aside on apocalyptic language such as Jesus uses…
“Apocalyptic is the language of revolution: not that YHWH will destroy the world, but that he will act dramatically within it to bring Israel’s long night of suffering to an end, to usher in the new day in which peace and justice will reign. “Apocalyptic” therefore is the natural context for a truly subversive “wisdom.” Wisdom and folly within this worldview are not abstract or timeless. They consist in recognizing (or failing to recognize) that the long-awaited moment is now arriving.” ***
Will they have it, will they receive Him?
Jesus sends these Pharisee’s back to Herod to tell him of his three day task, which brings us back in Luke's gospel to the child Jesus disappearing and being found on the third day...in the Temple and foreshadows his dying and rising again on the third day.
Jesus then laments over Jerusalem, who has a rep for killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to her. Then he has this strange saying about a hen gathering her brood under her wings...at first perhaps we don't understand and we tend not to keep with the apocalyptic nature of Jesus' teaching, that this is an indication of what Jesus is hoping to accomplish for her up at Jerusalem. Most of us, myself included, never lived on a farm in an age when fire was a very real threat to daily life, but that is the imagery Jesus is evoking here. Perhaps we just have this sweet little image in our mind of a hen cuddling with her cute little kiddos; that is not in Luke or Jesus’ line of thought here. There is a very real threat a clear and present danger.
It apparently wasn’t uncommon to have a fire break out on a farm, only to discover a hen afterwards, charred to death by the flames and then to discover in awful delight… her chicks still alive through the flaming disaster. Gathered in and protected through the turmoil by their mother’s loving sacrifice. This is exactly what God wants to do and has always been trying to do for his people, but they just wouldn’t have it… just running every which way except to the one that could protect them through it…even though they sang about it all the time. Ever do that?
Their 'house is desolate' (Ezekiel 10-11)...But now, He is here, incarnate, will they receive Him? The fact is that they will never ‘see’ Him, until they are willing to say, “‘BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!’” That is as true today as it was then. Will you receive Him? I mean really receive Him?
May our ‘house’ be a dwelling place for God and may we in time of tribulation be of those who do not scurry off in our own direction. May our love never grow cold, but may we seek refuge in the One who would protect us through it at all costs if we would but receive His Word.
***See the seminal discussion in G.B. Caird, The Language and Imagery of the Bible (London: Gerald Duckworth, 1980), 243-71, see further N.T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God, vol. 1 (Minneapolis: Fortress; London: SPCK, 1992), 280-338. The Historical Jesus and Christian Theology http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Historical_Jesus.htm#_edn6
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