Openly

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

OPENLY

Luke 13:31-35

31 At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, "Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you." 32 He replied, "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.' 33 In any case, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day — for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem! 34 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! 35 Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'" 

NIV

This appears to be strictly about Jesus from a historical as well as a prophetic sense, but there is also a lesson for us here. Herod was in charge of the area of Galilee and he was the one who was living in incest with his sister-in-law, had John beheaded, and most likely was the one who instigated the Jews into killing Jesus. At least that is the opinion of some scholars. Jesus also spoke of final days here, on his way to Jerusalem and that he would be crucified there in three days. As most scholars agree, Luke does not use a chronological order in his Gospel, so we do not know for sure if this is at the moment of three days to go, or that it just means his time is short. But the point is that Jesus spoke about how the Jews simply wanted to be the way they were and killed all the prophets, those who spoke for God against their lifestyle. Before we deal with that we should take a look why Jesus calls Herod a fox which implies a cunning animal who would hide his intentions. He was hardly that as he lived his wicked life publicly, so perhaps Jesus was talking about his desire to kill him, but he was doing it like a fox would. Perhaps we could take a lesson from that concept. We should not be like the fox. We should not live hiding our true intentions. Jesus lived open and did all that he did without pretense, but Herod lived as a fox, hiding what he truly desired to do. Do we live openly or do we hide our intentions? Do we claim to be one thing, but secretly we are something else? Do we openly declare we are believers, but secretly desire all the things of this world? Do we live as a fox in the sense we do not live openly as a Christian, hiding our true identity from those in the world we come in contact with? Perhaps we might think we could gain their trust first than spring the gospel on them, but that is why many think Christians are hypocrites. We need to live our faith open and out loud as Jesus did. The second lesson lies in the prophetic words of Jesus. He speaks of Jerusalem not only killing those God has sent to them but how their house is left desolate. Jesus yearned for their salvation but they would kill him instead because they desired their own path rather than the path God desires for them. Those who are lost will never see Jesus until the day they stand before him and hear all those same words that were shouted on his entering Jerusalem. But our lesson here is to make sure we are not like Jerusalem in the sense that we would rather walk our own path then the one God desires for us. Jesus says they are not willing, so we need to be willing. Do we make our plans without God? Do we set goals without him? Do we want certain ways without considering the way he would have us to go? This can be applied but in the physical and spiritual realms. Do we live where God wants us to live or where we desire to live based on our own desires in life? Do we believe a certain doctrinal way because God has revealed the truth to us, or because we read what we want to believe in the scriptures? Although the Jews were religious speaking of God, they only wanted what they wanted. We need to make sure we want what God wants rather than what we want.