2/28/21 Luke 13:31-35 “Laugh at the Enemy!”

26 Feb 2/28/21 Luke 13:31-35 “Laugh at the Enemy!”

2/28/21    Luke 13:31-35   “Laugh at the Enemy!”

God made us so that we have one day off every week.  I also think we need some extended time off once in a while.  This is called a vacation.  I think we all need this.  Some of you might do a bit of traveling.  Some will go visit some relatives and some may just find a quiet place for a week and read some books.  I think that this is a need that we all have.  If we just keep on plugging away at our occupation, we seem to find that we are being thwarted more and more.  Maybe this isn’t actually true but if we have been working hard on something for months and months it may just seem like things are falling apart.  We just need to step away from it, rest a bit and get a new perspective.  Today we have a piece of Scripture that tells of who we can go to when we get thwarted or frustrated.  It is important to know just what to do when we fail at something.  Who knows, sometimes when we think that we fail, we are not failing at all.

David Dykes tells a story that happened in Atlanta, Georgia back in the 1950’s.  It was a sad time when the Ku Klux Klan was very strong in the south and actually quite strong in many areas of this country.  If you remember your history, many of the things that they did were not very nice.  Anyway, they staged an annual march down Auburn Avenue in Atlanta which was the section of town where most of the African Americans lived.  The purpose of this march was to instill fear in the black community and for years it had worked.  In the past when the Klan had marched, the people had hidden or left town so that they wouldn’t have to be afraid or humiliated by this display of hatred based solely on the color of one’s skin.  What a terrible way to live!

Anyway, about year before the march a pastor in this area preached on “perfect love casts out all fear.”  He challenged his congregation to show that they were not afraid of these marchers.  He told them not to return the hatred of the marchers or be violent.  He told them to just show them that they were not afraid.  So that year instead of some ugly confrontation, the crowd decided to just watch the parade.  When the mighty Ku Klux Klan started marching in their robes and hoods, the black folks lined up on Auburn Avenue and started laughing at them.  Instead of being afraid, they were rolling on the sidewalks in laughter at the silly sight in front of them.  And that was the last year that the Klan marched down Auburn Avenue.  A lowly preacher had helped these people hear the message of God when things had been looking bleak.  God had helped turn rejection into a victory.

As we begin our reading today, we find a curious dialogue of the Pharisees telling Jesus that He shouldn’t go to Jerusalem because Herod wanted to kill him.  I read this and the first thing that I thought of before studying it further was that these were some of the Pharisees who were either for Jesus or they were sitting on the fence.  If you remember there were some Pharisees who believed in Jesus.  It would make sense to me that the friends of Jesus even though they were Pharisees, would want to warn Jesus away from Jerusalem.

Then I read a couple of commentaries and found that this was probably not what was meant here: so much for my scholarship.  Anyway, one of the things about the gospel of Luke is that he always portrayed the Pharisees in a negative light.  Therefore, these guys either wanted to get him off somewhere outside of Jerusalem where they could kill him or they knew that the goal of Jesus was to go to Jerusalem and they just wanted to thwart that goal.  You can choose which scenario that you think is best.

My 1^st interpretation of this scenario caused me to think a little more.  How often do we come across things in our own lives where things just are not what they seem?  Advertising is a great example here.  So many times, and I would almost sadly say most of the time, advertisements give us the wrong picture of the product.  They may give a partial picture but not all of it.  How many times have you met someone who seems to be such a nice person and they turn out to be not very nice at all?  This happens a lot.  Sometimes I will give some money or goods to needy people because that is just what I do.  I don’t expect repayment.  But I have on occasion loaned people larger amounts and sometimes I have never gotten a dime in repayment.  They seemed sincere and honest but they turn out to be anything but sincere and honest.  I’m sure that we can all add to this the things that you know are not what they appear to be.  This was just a thought I had while studying this first part.

So, Jesus tells these Pharisees, “Go tell that fox, ‘I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.”  Jesus is telling them and us in a not-so-subtle way that He is in charge.  The fox in this case is Herod.  We all know that a fox is a cunning and sneaky animal.  The fox in this case wants to get Jesus.  But Jesus will have none of any of this.  He has a timetable to reach Jerusalem.  He has things that he will do along the way.  He will not be deterred by anyone or anything.

If you remember our passion story, Jesus was in charge of his own execution.  He could have done many things and He wouldn’t have gone to the cross.  Even when they came to arrest him in the garden, Jesus had to tell them to stand up and arrest him as they had all fallen down to the ground in the presence of God in the form of Jesus.  It is an amazing story.  We need to keep in mind that Jesus is always in charge.  Herod was never in charge of anything in this chain of events.

This has to lead us to think of how many Herod’s do we have in our lives?  How many times is the fox trying to get us?  We know the answer when we know that the fox is none other than Satan himself.  As I just mentioned, Satan fools us at just about every corner.  Remember that he is the master of deception.  He is the master of all lies.  He cannot tell the truth.  If something is too good to be true then look for Satan because he is lurking in the background.  I always like to talk about the next part here because Satan has been defeated.  He is the loser.  He has lost the war and Jesus is in total command.  Notice that when they try to thwart Jesus by telling him not to go to Jerusalem, he just keeps on going because He is in charge.

Remember this as you go through life.  When things aren’t going well in your life, tell Satan to take a hike and let Jesus help you out of your problems.  It is just like laughing at the Klan and their silly costumes.  Laugh at Satan.  Please remember that we are not to laugh at other people or call them a fool, but you can tell Satan that he is a fool.  When you have marriage problems, laugh at Satan and go to Jesus.  When you hear that you are going to be laid off or that something is going to happen to your livelihood, tell that fox that you are on your way to Jerusalem and there is nothing that he can do to stop you.  When you get some bad health news, go to Jesus.  Tell Satan that he has lost the war and you will live eternally with Jesus Christ.

This silly looking creature called Satan is defeated and you need to remember this.  There is nothing that he can do to you when you invoke the name of Jesus Christ as your Lord.  Of course, this means that you need to be in a right relationship with Jesus.  There is no work involved in this either.  All you have to do is confess your sins to Him.  You can name your sins individually or you can just tell Jesus that you are a sinner and ask Him to forgive all your sins.  Tell Jesus that you know that He is God and you want Him to live in your heart forever.  If you have never done this, then do it today.  Because not only will you guarantee yourself eternal life with Jesus, but you will also have Him to help you beat back Satan in this life.  No matter how you look at this, it is a win-win situation.  With Jesus in your life, you cannot lose.

This is what He is telling us today.  Then he goes on to say that Jerusalem stones and kills her prophets.  Jerusalem was the place where many prophets had been killed.  They believe that the prophet Isaiah was put to death here by sawing him in two.  Jesus will die there.  Jerusalem has been a nasty place.  Jerusalem is a nasty place.  All of these things make me stop and wonder why do we insist on calling Jerusalem the Holy City?  Why do we call that whole area the Holy Land when there is very little that is Holy in the whole area?  Look at all the wars that have come from this place.  Look at all the persecution that has happened there.  This whole area is anything but holy.

And this is what Jesus is telling us as we read further.  Jesus considered this city to be holy and He wanted to protect them like a mother animal protects her young.  But the city keeps on rejecting Jesus.  There are very few Christians in our Holy Land today.  It is mostly Muslims and Jews who have both rejected Jesus.

There was a story about this that I read about a farmer who raised chickens.  It seems that he was unlucky one night and a fire swept through the chicken coop.  After they had put the fire out, the farmer was walking through the charred mess.  There was nothing left.  Then he saw some movement.  He went over to it and lifted the body of a dead hen.  Out came two chicks safe and sound.  The farmer could see where the hen had spread her wings out to protect these young chicks even to her own death.

I sometimes wish that we were as smart as a baby chick.  Jesus Christ wanted to spread his wings over Jerusalem to protect them and He was rejected.  He wants to spread his wings over us and protect us, and we keep on rejecting Him.  All that Jesus wants to do is to love you more than you ever deserve, protect you so that you can make it through this life, and live with you on through eternity.

However, our lives are lived in a maze that is controlled by Satan.  We have a tough time finding our way.  Tim Zingale likens this to a story of a very young boy.  This boy was not old enough for school yet his father took him to one of those mirrored maze exhibits you find at carnivals or fairs.  They are kind of like a fun house.  Anyway, this little boy slipped away from his father and got lost in the maze.  He started to cry because there was no way that he could figure out how to get out.  The father heard him and called out to him, “don’t cry.  Just put your hands out and reach all around until you find a door.  Then follow my voice and I will get you out.”  The voice of the father soothed the son and he calmed down and was able to find his way out.

When we get into the situations like I have just mentioned, Jesus is telling us to follow his voice.  He is in charge so we can settle down a little and do what He tells us to do.  Our world is one where Jesus is not a known force.  We live in a world that marches down the street in funny costumes trying to scare us.  We are constantly being told how dumb and stupid we are for following the one who made the world.  If you think about it, we are really not much different than those poor people in our opening story.

How many of us are scared to say that we were created by God and not by some evolutionary process?  How many of us are scared to say that God worked through Moses and did all of those miracles including the parting of the Red Sea?  How many of us are scared to say that Jesus walked on water, He fed 5000+ people with next to nothing and that He was killed on the cross was raised from the dead and then ascended into heaven?  We are afraid to stand behind the basic tenets of our faith because we have these clowns marching in the streets and scaring us.

As I have lived as a pastor, I have noticed that people do not challenge me as much as they used to.  This might just be out of respect and nothing more.  However, I do remember before I became a pastor and I was in your shoes, my beliefs were under constant attack.  I had one man who thought I was just plain stupid to believe and he told me so.  So, I know that this stuff is out there.  And it is hard to live our lives like that.

So today, I would like to pretend that I am a pastor from Atlanta.  I’m telling you that you have nothing to fear from these people who tell us we are all wrong.  I want you to take all of these things to Jesus in prayer.  I want you to listen so that you can do whatever He tells you to do.  And then act on that.  You may not end up laughing at Satan and his antics but you may be able to end up ignoring them.

The road of Jesus is a good road.  Some of you know my story.  I have lived my life on both sides.  The first 40 years I spent working for Satan and the last 30 have been working for Jesus.  When I say that I was working for Satan, I mean that I was not working for Jesus.  And if I, or you, are not for Jesus, then we are against Him and working for Satan.  There is no middle ground.  You cannot be kind of a Christian.  You are either for Him or against Him.  I know from experience and I would never be against Him again.

I am a human just like all of you and I have found that even though I follow Jesus and love Him, I still disappoint Him through my sin.  This is the unfortunate situation of all of us.  However, I have found that Jesus has never disappointed me.  Never have I gone wrong when I have been obeying Jesus.  So even though sometimes the Scriptures seem hard or even out dated, trust in Jesus and follow.  I don’t know what I would ever do without Jesus.  Trust in Him and praise the Lord.  And thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.