Radical Disobedience
Luke 13:31-35
Luke 13:31-35
Jesus isn’t always talking about economics, but it’s rare for him not to. That’s especially the case for Luke’s Gospel, but this week’s passage is one of those few that don’t have much to say about economics. Jesus is warned that Herod wants to kill him, and after calling Herod a fox, Jesus gives a prediction of his death and resurrection. That is all theologically important, but the project here is to focus on what Jesus calls us to do, not what Jesus calls us to believe, so what can this passage lead us to do?
At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, ‘Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.’
For me the focus is on the first sentence. I looked over it a few times before it really hit. We know that Jesus dies, so it doesn’t seem that shocking for a Pharisee to tell Jesus that Herod wants to kill him, but imagine if you were in that room at that moment. In scriptures prior to this Jesus is just teaching to the people around him, then it seems this Pharisee busts in and tells him to skip town because Herod wants to kill him. That would be incredibly shocking. Jesus doesn’t seem shocked in the text, and the writer sees this as all part of the plan. While the text expects the eventual outcome will come, in the moment this must have been a huge revelation. Jesus had now done so much to disrupt the current order that the Head of State now wanted him dead. It’s important to not lose that fact.
Christianity has a strange relationship to societal structures of power. It emerged as a counter-cultural force, but since the days of Constantine it’s been aligned with people in power. The words in the gospels have remained the same, but they were now a supporter of state power from the Roman Empire to the anti-trans statehouse in Texas. This passage should remind us that we follow the teachings of a man who so enraged the people in power that they wanted not just to kill him, but to make an example of him by killing him on a cross.
Jesus made the people in power mad. Jesus saw that the system in place did not follow God’s call. He saw that they mistreated the poor, the orphans, and the widows. He saw that they enriched the few at the expense of the many, and he said so loudly. He knew that it would not end well for him, but he did it anyway. If we are called to follow Jesus, then we are called to make the people in power mad. They mistreat the poor, the orphans and the widows. They enrich the few at the expense of the many, and we must say so loudly.
I have a youth group that I meet with each week. Our motto is, “Keep Youth Group Subversive.” At the start of each year I get to remind them what that means. I tell them that to subvert means to “undermine the power and authority of an established system or institution.” At the heart of our faith is a man who was sent to undermine the power and authority of the established system of the day. We are called to do no less. This passage reminds us that he did so to such an extent that they killed him.
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King wrote in his letter from a Birmingham Jail, “So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent--and often even vocal--sanction of things as they are.” Don’t be silent. Raise your voice and raise a ruckus.
Here’s a good example. If only we could all be as fearless as this young man :-)