Douglas Hickey
Brothers and sisters,
In today’s reading from Luke, a group of Pharisees warns Jesus that Herod wants to kill him. Our Lord is unphased: “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. Nevertheless I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following.”
Here is stirring stuff! Herod threatens Jesus’ person, and Jesus responds fearlessly. He speaks truth to power. “Go and tell that fox,” he says!
Get ‘em, Jesus!
Following Christ never felt so good…
…and it generally doesn’t. I suspect what’s happening here is something subtler and less immediately gratifying than a call to political resistance or to stand up bravely against one’s oppressors.
“Do not resist an evil person,” Jesus commands us in Matthew.
“Obey the rulers who have authority over you,” Paul tells us in Romans.
When we take a closer look at what exactly Jesus promises to do today and tomorrow and the day after that, it’s frustratingly orthogonal to Herod’s power, his authority, or his earthly agenda.
More than that, it is disappointingly orthogonal to our earthly agendas.
Jesus will continue to walk among the downtrodden and the despised instead of leading them to storm the halls of power. He will heal the sick that he meets along the way, but not all the sick everywhere at once. He will cast out evil spirits from some, but allow evil to remain in the world a while longer yet.
When the King of Kings goes up to Jerusalem, to the seat of political power and religious authority, it’s not to overthrow Herod. Jesus is going to submit. He’s going to stand trial. He’s going to die an ugly, painful, humiliating death. And in dying be born to eternal life.
Christ’s self-emptying forever thwarts our expectations. Instead of a King, he comes to us a peasant. Instead of a reformer, a neighbor. It seems nothing like a kingdom. This is the Kingdom. May God grant us the humility to follow Jesus even in this and the modesty to grow the good in unhistoric acts, living faithfully in hidden lives until we finish our course and rest in Him.
Peace,
—Douglas