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Be Careful for What You Ask for…
You might just get it!
Luke 13:31-35

† In Jesus Name! †

May the grace of God our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ sustain you in the midst of life, drawing you under His wings, where you can find rest and restoration!

All things? Including a death threat?
God has made many promises in scripture.

One of the promises that is one of the hardest to believe, but also is one of the most amazing is found in Romans 8.  **

“And God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according His purpose for them.”

I don’t know about you, but that is a promise that I sometimes struggle with in my life.

From my point of view, looking at the brokenness in my own life, I sometimes wonder whether that promise was made to me.  Because I can’t always see how God can make some of the stuff I’ve done, and some of the things that happen to me work for good, at least my good.

But they do, even as we will see this morning, as we consider the desires of two men, desires that seem to be unlikely to be fulfilled, and one of which, cannot possibly be good, because it calls for someone to die.

But could it?

We shall see….and it is amazing!

Two Men, Two Desires
Herod’s (and Everyman’s desire)

Lets start with Herod first. **

His desire is that Jesus would die.**  The scriptures don’t declare why he wanted Jesus dead, simple that the Pharisees indicated that he did.  These normal adversaries of Jesus are so concerned that they warn Jesus of it.

It’s a case of “the enemy of my enemy must be my friend.” 

**It could be because he feared Jesus was going to haunt him, as John the Baptist did.  Some were even saying Jesus was John returned, a though that would have scared Herod.  After all, Herod was manipulated into killing John, chopping his head off at the request of his daughter and wife.

As the guilt added to his already massive amounts of guilt, the more he would want to get rid of any Godly influence in his life.

**You know that feeling, when you are dealing with guilt and shame, and instead of running to God, you want to run away?  Instead of seeking forgiveness, you try to bury the guilt and shame?  You try to find a way to avoid it, and what better way than killing the person who is God’s messenger?

So Herod’s desire is delayed, and for the moment He can’t get what he has asked for..

Jesus’ Desire

Which leads us to Jesus, who speaks of a desire, the purpose that He is working towards, that he relentlessly pursues. The goal of gathering the people of God together, to ensure their safety, to care for them.

But they won’t let Him.  Just like so many in the world today, including, at times, you and I.

Yet this is Jesus focus, to bring us all into a place where we are cared for, where our souls find peace and healing from the ravages of sin.  The sins of the world, and our own.  For the damage is great, the brokenness that steals away life. Yet that is the life we cling to for some reason.

While Jesus is trying to draw us into a life that is abundant, and free.

How He longed to do that to the people of Jerusalem then, how He longs to lift us up now!

They both got what they wanted

Only God could grant both there desires and work it out so that as they are fulfilled, every one who loves God, everyone called according to His purposes.

Jesus will die as Herod wants, and even as Jesus is lifted up, He will draw all to Himself!

Both desires met. Both would get exactly what they wanted, and more.

You can’t read these chapters in Luke, from the transfiguration to the cross and not know it is coming. Herod couldn’t see that, nor how his desire to be rid of the prophets who confronted his sins would provide the solution to the sin which so easily traps us. He knew the answer to his guilt and shame would be found in the shedding of Jesus’ blood.  But how it was solved, the solution that would cleanse anyone of sin, was beyond His thoughts!

Jesus knows that His death, his being raised from the dead will bring people in, that they will find the forgiveness they need, that they will be able to no longer fear God, but revel in His love.

That is why He is willing to die, to see us be drawn into His death, that we may share in His love. Hear again Paul’s words,

¹²  For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.
Colossians 2:12 (NLT2)

So God made both of these thing, turning the death of Christ, which Herod so wanted, into a blessing beyond imagination as He gathered people together in the cross of Christ.

As He will do with everything in your life, and mine, and as He reveals His love for us, as we explore its breadth and width, its height and depth, the more we will be assured of this.  Assured of it, we will rest, knowing His peace.

AMEN!