Luke 13:31-35 (NRSV)
Read Luke 13:31-35 on biblegateway.com
Verse 31At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, "Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you." Verse 32He 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. Verse 33Yet 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.' Verse 34Jerusalem, 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! Verse 35See, 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.'"
Devotion
Yesterday, we noted how the somberness of Luke’s story almost painfully reminds us of Jesus’ inexorable journey on the way to Jerusalem. Today we focus on another message, so mysteriously tucked away in the story that it is almost easy to miss it. Jesus says, “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.” (13:33) The three-day reference surely points us to the sorrow and suffering of the cross. But when Jesus immediately follows with the assertion, “I must be on my way,” his words point us to the mystery of the intentional ways of God’s love and mercy. The cross is not an accident. It is part of the necessity of God’s love that is to be revealed in the cross and resurrection of Jesus. Here we are being invited on this journey to be recipients of such great love and to its transforming power to move our hearts from fear to faith as we follow Jesus on his way to Jerusalem.
Prayer
O God of mystery, teach us to see, imagine, and give thanks for the mystery of so great a love that would send your Son to travel this necessary journey to the cross for the sake of us, your beloved children. Amen.
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