Under the Shadow of His Wings (Luke 13:31-35)
When I preached in West Virginia, several area congregations gathered each month for an elder and preacher breakfast. One morning, shortly after I began my work, one of our elders and I attended the breakfast together at the local Shoney’s. Gerald was in front of me in line to pay, and he turned around, took my check, and said, “I’ll get that for you, Justin.” I said, “Gerald, you don’t need to do that.” He said, “Okay,” and handed me my check back.
I learned a valuable lesson that day—never be unwilling to let someone else buy your breakfast.
How willing are you to be helped? Are you willing to listen to your doctor and follow his advice? Are you willing to take your prescribed medications? Ladies, are you willing to have your husband help around the house, or does he make a bigger mess than he’s trying to clean? Are you willing to ask a family member, a friend, or a member of this congregation when you need a ride to the doctor? Have you ever struggled financially but were unwilling to ask the church for help? People stand ready to help you, but you have to let them help you.
Jesus stands ready to help you. He himself has said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt 11:28). But you must be willing for him to help you. That’s what Jesus taught in Luke 13:31-35: “You must be willing for Jesus to help you.”
Scripture (Luke 13:31-35)
verse 31:
The Sanhedrin couldn’t execute anyone without gaining permission from Rome; however, Herod was a tetrarch, and he could execute anyone he chose. Remember, he has already executed John the Baptizer.
Pharisees didn’t believe in extrajudicial executions; in fact, they supported leniency. These Pharisees were trying to help Jesus avoid execution by urging him to leave Herod’s jurisdiction in Galilee.
verse 32:
Calling someone a fox in Jesus’s day meant someone was worthless, slanderous, treacherous, and cunning in an unprincipled way. Perhaps, more importantly in this context, a fox would wait and attack hens whenever he got the chance.
Herod was to be told about all the miracles Jesus was doing.
verse 33:
Jesus said he “must go on [his] way today and tomorrow and the day following.” “Today and tomorrow” means “day by day,” and when “the day following” was added, it became a Semitic idiom which meant a short and definite period. In other words, Jesus had to be going away from Galilee, for he would shortly be crucified.
Jesus needed to be going, for “it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.” Several Old Testament prophets were killed in Jerusalem, and Jewish tradition spoke of many other prophets being martyred in Jerusalem, but, of course, some prophets were killed outside Jerusalem. Jesus was using hyperbole here to say that he didn’t need to worry about Herod, for he would die in Jerusalem, not Galilee.
verse 34:
Jesus lamented over Jerusalem, “the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it.” He wanted to gather them as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but the city was not willing. In the Old Testament, God was often depicted as an eagle who protected Israel under his wings. An Israelite who converted a Gentile was said to bring “the Gentile under the wings of God’s protection.” Jesus here assumed that divine role. Yet, Jerusalem was not willing to have Jesus’s protection.
verse 35:
Jerusalem’s house was forsaken. This undoubtedly refers to the destruction of Jerusalem which was coming in AD 70.
They would not see him until they said, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” Honestly, it’s not clear if Jesus here referenced the Triumphal Entry or his Second Coming. Either way, one day Jerusalem would praise the Lord Jesus.
Application
“You must be willing for Jesus to help you.” Jesus was more than willing to protect and bless Jerusalem; in fact, he longed to protect and bless Jerusalem. The people of Jerusalem, however, were unwilling for Jesus to do so.
Jesus is more than willing to bless you. Look, he left heaven and came to this earth to be tempted, to suffer, and to die in order to bless you. However, he will not force himself into your life. Jesus told the church at Laodicea, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Rev 3:20). Jesus stands at the door and knocks—he won’t bust the door open. “You must be willing for Jesus to help you.”
What should you do because “You must be willing for Jesus to help you?”
One: Examine
You must Examine your heart to see how willing you are to have Jesus in your life. During the Babylonian Captivity, the prophet Jeremiah urged his fellow countrymen, “Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD!” (Lam 3:40). What solid counsel for you!
Examine your ways. Just how willing are you to have Jesus in your life?
Two: Embrace
You must Embrace the Lord’s commands. Jerusalem refused to Embrace the Lord’s teachings; in fact, the people of the city killed the prophets and stoned those the Lord had sent.
You must Embrace Jesus’s teachings. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt 7:21). “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock” (Matt 7:24). How wise are you? How much do you Embrace Jesus’s commandments?
Three: Enjoy
Once you embrace Jesus’s teachings, you Enjoy Jesus’s blessings. The people living in Jerusalem would have been blessed had they obeyed—the image of being gathered under the Lord’s wings is one of security.
You, too, can Enjoy the blessings of embracing Jesus’s teachings. “The one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing” (Js 1:25). What blessings do you Enjoy for your obedience? The blessing of forgiveness? The blessing of answered prayer? The blessing of peace which surpasses understanding? The blessing of a promised resurrection? What do you Enjoy?
Four: Extermination
Understand that if you are unwilling to examine your heart, embrace Jesus’s teachings, and enjoy his blessings, you will face Extermination. Jesus promised Extermination for Jerusalem: “Behold, your house is forsaken” (Lk 13:35). About 40 years after Jesus said that, Jerusalem faced destruction.
If you do not allow Jesus to help you, you will face Extermination in an eternal hell. Those who fail to embrace Jesus’s teachings “will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (2 Thess 1:9). John described the Extermination of those who fail to embrace Jesus’s teachings like this: “The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night” (Rev 14:11).
Are you willing this morning for Jesus to help you? Will you embrace his teachings, or will you face extermination?
This sermon was originally preached by Dr. Justin Imel, Sr., at Church of Christ Deer Park in Deer Park, Texas.