2025-03-16 Lent 2

Scripture Readings

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen!

One of my strategies for retirement is to start manufacturing T-Shirts with witty slogans that will sell like hotcakes, making me a fast millionaire! I’ve got a whole line of liturgically-hip clothing all lined up and ready to go. For example, I’ve got a bunch of purple ones that say “It’s Lent, Repent!” I can see all the mountains of cash from the advanced sales already! … Oh, you mean public repentance isn’t a popular T-shirt theme?! I should send back my warehouse worth of T-shirts to the printers?! It’s probably too late for that now. Better I should give everyone a 3-for-1 deal instead. Or maybe a 3-in-1 deal and sell some Holy Trinity shirts instead!

But it is Lent and, we should repent. That’s the over arching theme of this second Sunday in Lent. Both Jeremiah and Jesus are functioning as prophets, calling people on their sin. This is God’s Word of law, functioning as a mirror to show people their sins and in turn, to show them their need of a Saviour. Specifically, both Jeremiah and our Lord are speaking to Jerusalem. The holy city was the hub of God’s presence with His people. The temple was the precise place that God could be found on earth. Just like the tabernacle tent of old, people could go to that place and know that the Lord their God was there. It was God’s house, the place where His glory dwelt.

However, Jerusalem also had a reputation for not really liking my repentance themed T-shirts. We heard this in our Jeremiah reading: “And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, “You shall die!” (26:8). Nobody liked his sermon that day! The priests, the prophets and all the people, they all together wish him dead for the word of law he proclaims to them! Not very popular indeed. “This man deserves the sentence of death, because he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears!” (26:11).

But it wasn’t Jeremiah’s words. It was God’s word to His people in His city. “The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the words you have heard. 13 Now therefore mend your ways and your deeds, and obey the voice of the Lord your God, and the Lord will relent of the disaster that he has pronounced against you” (12-13). “It’s Lent, Repent!” If only they had my T-shirts, maybe they could have avoided the massive destruction that came upon them. Exile and Babylonian captivity was their path, for they refused to heed the prophet’s words of repentance.

So that’s the back story to our Lord Jesus being in Jerusalem. He’s also walking the prophet’s path. And likewise, He’s being met with similar resistance. The Pharisees come running up to Jesus and tell Him to get outta Dodge for “Herod wants to kill you!” The government is gunning for You, Jesus! Get out of town now! But Jesus won’t listen to their fear mongering. Instead He gives them a saucy line! “Go and tell that fox, ’Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course” (LK 13:32).

Herod, that fox. What does this mean? In English, we probably hear “he’s a sly or cunning person, crafty and wise” something along those lines. The old Disney classic “The Fox and the Hound” taught us that! But this is not what Jesus is getting at. In the culture of our Lord’s time of ministry, “fox” didn’t carry the same kind of vibe it does for us. Instead, it was more of a humorous jab. In Jewish writings, they would often contrast the fox with the lion. The lion was a symbol of power and nobility and strength. The fox was a lesser creature, sneaky and destructive, gobbling up your chickens and what not. The fox was a pretender, someone who claims to be significant but lacks any real authority or moral weight. Herod Antipas was precisely this. He wasn’t a full king like his pappy Herod the Great. He was a tetrach - a ruler of a quarter of the region and still under Roman oversight. He had a reputation for being ambitious and manipulative, but not exactly a heavyweight. Think of him as a political opportunist, not a grand figure.

So our Lord Jesus calling him a fox could be read in this way. “This guy’s no lion—he’s just a scheming little fox, scurrying around, trying to mess with things.” Herod is insignificant in the grand scheme of our Lord’s life and mission.“Tell that fox I’ve got work to do, and I’ll finish it on my terms” our Lord says, as He brushes off the Pharisees’ threat. He’s a nuisance, not a King. He’s a small-time schemer, even executing John the Baptist to do his wife’s bidding (MK 6:17-29). Herod is just a ‘little potato,’ soon to be long gone in the sands of time.

“Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’ O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!” (LK 13:33-34). And here we see the heart of Jesus our Lord for His people. Despite great suffering and shame that is coming for Him on His cross, He continues on His way. Today, tomorrow and the day after. He will willingly walk the prophetic path of sorrows for His people. A people that would not receive Him. A people who would cry out “crucify!” to Pontius Pilate. Our Lord will go down the similar path to the other prophets sent to Jerusalem.

Who else met this same fate here in the so called ‘city of peace’? Zechariah, son of Jehoiada (2 Chronicles 24:20-22), a priest and prophet, rebuked the people for abandoning God. King Joash, angered by this, ordered him stoned to death in the courtyard of the Temple in Jerusalem. As he died, Zechariah cried out, “May the Lord see and avenge!” (22). Some confuse him with Zechariah the prophet (author of the Book of Zechariah), but that’s a later Zechariah. Or how about Uriah, son of Shemaiah (Jeremiah 26:20-23). He prophesied against Jerusalem and Judah, echoing Jeremiah’s warnings. When King Jehoiakim sought to kill him, Uriah fled to Egypt, but the king’s men dragged him back and executed him. And, most likely Jeremiah too. The Bible doesn’t record Jeremiah’s death, but Jewish tradition holds that he was killed in the service to the Lord. The apocryphal text “Lives of the Prophets” (first century AD) claims he was stoned by the people in Jerusalem for his unrelenting critiques. This fits our Lord Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem.

Oh that the Lord’s people would embrace humility and repentance! Oh that they would “return to the Lord their God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” our Lord Jesus proclaims. Just like a mother hen who would protect her brood at the expense of her own life, our Lord will do this and more for His beloved people on the cross. But it was exactly as Isaiah the prophet said: “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not” (53:3).

This is our take away point on the Second Sunday in Lent. By the grace of Christ our Lord, we are not citizens of ‘Jerusalem’ but rather we are citizens of heaven. Never lose sight of this promise from God in your Baptism. Never lose site of this heavenly reality as you eat and drink at our Lord’s Table. Pray the words of Psalm 57:1 “Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge.” Buy my T-Shirt while supplies last! “It’s Lent, Repent!” Journey to the cross and say “‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’” Amen!