Be On Your Way
Psalm 27 and Luke 13:31-35
Second Sunday of Lent
Have you ever had that wonderful idea, and you are so excited about it, and you just can’t wait to share it with someone, and as soon as you do, it is immediately rejected by a negative reaction. Or perhaps you are trying to help someone, and no matter what you do, it just never seems to work out because they can’t seem to understand or comprehend the help you are offering?
This is pretty much where Jesus finds himself with the people of Jerusalem. I mean you just can’t understand when you place the obvious before someone, and they fight you on every corner, or ignore the good in what they are seeing happen. They can’t see the good for being so determined on denying what they are actually seeing because of their hatred or disregard for someone.
When the Pharisees warn Jesus about Herod wanting to kill him, it’s as if Jesus is tired of all this ranting from the Pharisees. It’s as if Jesus is saying, “I know, I know, already!”
And I love that Jesus refers to Herod as “that fox,” because you know, it really shows us the human side of Jesus.
When we consider foxes, they are animals that are omnivores, meaning they eat both plant and animals. Amazingly, their diet is made up primarily of invertebrates such as insects and small vertebrates like reptiles and birds. My point being, they tend to like spineless animals.
While hunting, foxes tend to use a particular pouncing technique, such that they crouch down to camouflage themselves in the terrain and then use their hind legs to leap up with great force and land on top of their chosen prey. In other words, they are sneaky and cunning.
Jesus lets the Pharisees know that he does not have time to be bothered by their news because he is busy doing God’s work. Jesus is neither spineless nor caught off guard by the news of Herod wanting to kill him.
Jesus then reports to the Pharisees as if he is reporting to DOGE the five things he has done this week.
I am casting out demons. I am performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will finish my work.
Then the most important phrase in the scripture in my mind comes next, “yet today, tomorrow and the next day, I MUST BE ON MY WAY.”
Jesus hears what the Pharisees are saying, but he responds with a similar phrase that he said as a boy in the temple when he is talking with his parents when they had been searching for him, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?”
Jesus, from a very young age, has kept the same focus, and that is to do what he was sent to do, and that is care for the people of God, at least all who are willing to hear it and receive it.
Jesus is all too aware of the closed hearts and minds of the Israelites, and their refusal to accept the Word of God that has been spoken to them over and over, first by God in the wilderness through Moses, and now, through the Son of Man.
Jesus says, I want to help you, but you are left to your own doings. You are left without knowing the presence of God, the healing of God, and the peace of God.
As we journey through the wilderness in our daily lives, we can reflect on the following questions. Are we receiving Jesus in our hearts and hearing the Word of God, or are we stubbornly relying on our own doings?
Sometimes it is easy to get lost in the wilderness of life, and trying to discern what is the right thing or the wrong thing to do doesn’t always come rapidly with bells and whistles to let us know what the right decision is in the moment.
Sometimes we get angry or impatient in the waiting, and rather than waiting, we take matters into our own hands, and when we do, Jesus is there to pick up the pieces to mend our hearts, and God’s grace and mercy fills us to begin anew.
The words of Psalm 27 are some of the most comforting in the Bible. The first verse alone gives us courage to continue and be on our way. “’The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?’”
Then, verse two. The verse Jesus was surely thinking when he responded to the Pharisees. “’When evildoers assail me to devour my flesh—my adversaries and foes—they shall stumble and fall.’”
It is in these words we can find confidence, as did Jesus, to not fear our enemies. It was not in fear of being killed that Jesus found strength, but in the Lord of light and salvation.
Jesus knew he could continue his work because he was doing what he was sent to do by God, and he had trust and faith in God’s protection that he could fulfill what he had been sent to do at this time. And Jesus was not going to let any fox deter him from the important work of his Abba Father.
When we have been given a direction by God, we too must not let our adversaries deter us, however; we also must trust that God will cause the adversary to stumble and fall, not us.
In other words, if we keep our eye on the prize, which is the light of God, and the direction that we are being sent, we can be on our way, and God will take care of all that gets in our way. Our job is to wait on the Lord, and I will confess, and I’m sure my husband would confirm, I’m not the most patient person when it comes to getting things done. I tend to see a problem, and will do what I need to do to get it resolved as soon as possible.
The problem is in the “as soon as possible,” may not be the same timeframe that God is expecting. In the waiting, God is able to direct and lead to the outcome best intended for the result God desires.
There is a balance we can consider as we walk in the wilderness between what our Psalmist tells us, “I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” and the writing in the Gospel of Luke spoken by Jesus, “So you will not see me until the time comes and you say, “‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
The choice is ours. We can believe in the land of the living. The living being the light of our Lord, our salvation, and our stronghold for life. Or, we can close our hearts and minds and attempt to live life on our own without Jesus, without the truth.
Our Lenten devotional yesterday from the book by Brueggemann, “A Way Other Than Our Own,” describes the vision of God. The mystery of God is strange to us, and cannot be easily explained. Nor does our Holy God come with clarity.
In the Isaiah scripture that is provided with the daily reading, it provides a vision that redefines Israel, a word that jeopardizes and reprimands. It is a word of heaven given to judge the earth.
In this scripture of Isaiah 6, the Holy God summons Israel, and us, to look and listen and hear and turn.
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne,
high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs (or angels)
were in attendance above him….And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his grace.” —Isaiah 6:1-2a, 3
We have a choice to live in the land of the living in the full light of our Lord right now as we journey every day in the wilderness on this earth filled with grace.
Like Good Friday, God’s holiness often puts us in danger, but, oh, the Easter we will have, when we know we are under the protection of our Holy God, and we can be on our way about our Father’s business!