"The Fox and the Hen"

Sermon by Pastor David Layman

Sunday March 4, 2007

Our passage from Luke speaks of a hen that was no chicken! Luke 13:31-35

Our reading from Luke 13:31-35 is a very interesting passage, for it teaches us much. For one thing, we read that it was some Pharisees that came and warned Jesus about Herod. Herod, the king of Galilee, where Jesus grew up and where he performed much of his ministry, wanted to kill Jesus. In America, we don't live in fear of our political leaders issuing and carrying out death threats. Of course, we're still early in the 2008 presidential campaign! But Jesus didn't conduct his ministry in America, and King Herod had already beheaded John the Baptist. Rulers in that day didn't simply try to discredit what they perceived as their opposition--they sought to eliminate them. We know that many Pharisees opposed Jesus' ministry, and were among the leading forces that eventually sent him to the cross. But here we see that there were "good Pharisees" as well as "bad" Pharisees. Some Pharisees were in sympathy with Jesus and his ministry. It's a good lesson for us, not to paint others with too broad a brush. We don't know everything there is to know about another person when we've labeled them! And most often, when we label someone, we think we've said it all!

Not only do we learn something about Pharisees from this passage. We learn something about Jesus. If Herod wanted to threaten or intimidate Jesus, it didn't work. Jesus responded on the spot to the Pharisees, "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.'" Instead of being frightened by Herod's threat, Jesus called Herod a fox! It takes a brave man to call the reigning king, known to have murdered others, a "fox". And Jesus didn't say to the Pharisees "You didn't hear this from me, but Herod's a fox." No, Jesus says "Go and tell Herod I say he's a fox." Foxes were destructive animals that
lived by cunning and resided in holes. Not a very complimentary thing to call a king. But Jesus could do it, because Jesus was brave. And Jesus knew he came into the world to give His life, but it would be in God's good time and place, not on a petty tyrant's schedule!

Jesus included in his words to Herod a hint to God's plan for his life: "I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work." Jesus' life, unlike Herod's, was to be a blessing, to cast out demons and perform cures. And on the third day, Jesus promised to "finish" his work. Does the phrase "the third day" ring a bell? On the third day, Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus wasn't operating on Herod's schedule, but on God's. On the third day, He would be raised from the dead and conclude His work!

Oh, to have the faith and confidence of Jesus! It doesn't require the death threat that Jesus received to lead us to anxiety and concern. Much less can unsettle us. Worry and stress may seem like constants in our lives. And we may have understandable reasons to be concerned about the future. In this time when our nation is involved in war, when global warming is becoming an "inconvenient truth", when plants that once employed thousands are closing their doors, and bad news seems to be just around the corner, or at our front door, or coming from the doctor's office, we tend to do what people have done for generations: we worry! I know I'm guilty of this!

When I was growing up, I had friends who became fans of "Mad Magazine". Our family got church publications and TIME magazine. My friends got "Mad Magazine" with Alfred E. Neuman on the cover, there with his silly smile and his motto "What, me worry?" Of course, Alfred E. Neuman may not have worried, but just remember: he was an idiot! Any intelligent person can look at what's going on in our world today, and find plenty of good reasons to worry!

But when a few good Pharisees came to Jesus with the news Herod was threatening to kill him, Jesus didn't wring his hands and say to the disciples "What shall we do?" Instead, Jesus said "For now I'm going to keep doing what God sets before me here, and then I'll go to Jerusalem to fulfill my purpose. No two bit king from Galilee is going to put me to death. I'll go to Jerusalem and give my life after a triumphant Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem, with people proclaiming "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord." And then on the third day, God is going to show his hand by raising me from the dead!"

None of us has to go to Jerusalem and die for the sins of the world. That task has already been accomplished by Jesus. We may be worried about significant challenges, be they unemployment, cancer, the loss of loved ones. But we can ask God for a measure of the confidence and purpose of Jesus. God has a purpose for our lives. We're not here by chance. The greatest challenge in life is to discover what that purpose is! God's ultimate purpose is to be a blessing to us, but his immediate purpose for us is to use us and the challenges and trials that come our way for the ultimate good of His kingdom. Nothing that happens to us can prevent His using us, in one way or another, for His purposes. When we come to realize this, and remind ourselves of this truth from day to day, then we can begin to relax, and live one day at a time. For him!

And let us remember, that while Jesus wasn't afraid to call a fox a fox, Jesus also did not hesitate to refer to himself as a hen who desired to gather his children together under his protective embrace, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings. Can you remember your children's earliest years? When they were frail and needy, how we loved to hold them close to our hearts? Can you remember the pleasure we found in holding a little hand as we walked beside them? One of the reasons God enables us to have children is to show us how much, as our Heavenly Father, He loves us.

This past Thursday, Pam and I had the chance to visit our daughter Andrea's classroom in the Chicago area, where she is a "Jump Start" teacher to 19 Hispanic 3 year olds. Andrea uses the Spanish she learned from Senor Schneider at RHS (in spite of what some imply, there are students who get an excellent education there), to teach these 3 year olds. Pam, Joshua and I got to spend time with these appealing young ones. Jesus' reference to himself as a mother hen came home to us in a real way in this classroom. God's love reaches out to nurture and shelter us like a mother hen. Tom Wright notes there are farmyard fires, where those cleaning up have discovered a dead hen, with live chicks sheltered under her wings.

It's been a long time since I've heard Aesop's Fables about the fox and the hen. But as I recall, the fox outwits the hen. Yet the fox and the hen in the Gospel of Luke tell a different story. The fox, petty tyrant Herod, winds up in the dust bin of history. The loving, protective hen, Jesus, accomplishes His purpose of sheltering those who come unto Him, and emerges triumphantly from the grave.

It is a vivid image of what God desires to do for us, if we but heed the pleading call of Christ. "Come unto me", Christ says. "Let me give my life for you. Bring me your worries and trials. Let me work through them to bring about my ultimate purposes for you and others!"

Will we heed the call?

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