Ugly Bookends

Just after speaking these words to the crowd before Him, the Pharisees in the crowd jumped up and tried to get Jesus to leave by telling Him that Herod Antipas wanted to kill Him. Now, I’m confused. If the Pharisees were His enemy, why were they warning Him that people wanted to kill Him? Could it be that when Jesus was talking about the narrow door and how religious phonies were not going to heaven that the religious spies in the crowd panicked? If they openly attacked His words the crowd might have turned on them and recognized that they were being referenced by Jesus in His teachings.

Jesus responded by telling the Pharisees that they and Herod Antipas could pound salt in a rat hole! Imagine a fired up Jesus telling His adversaries that He wasn’t frightened by their threats. He went on to say that He wasn’t going to stop doing His job because of fear of the enemy. He was going to continue casting out demons and healing people and instead of running away, He was planning to go to the enemy in the city of Jerusalem.

False prophets acquire money, armies and subjects as long as they can. When the heat comes down, they run away and try to form a little kingdom somewhere all of the while hoping that their oppressors will forget about them. Jesus didn’t do any of that. He went to face the enemy and to establish His kingdom in Jerusalem. I live in a world that thirsts for a super hero and seems to be able to miss the intention and exploits of the greatest Hero that has ever lived.

Staying in the 14th chapter of Luke, verse 34 records the sorrow that Jesus felt towards His beloved city of Jerusalem and it’s people. This indifferent city and it’s inhabitants have a history of killing God’s prophets and messengers. Christ talks of how he wants to gather his children together but is rejected by them and He comments on how their house is empty and that they will never see Him again until they ask for His blessing.

We, in this country could very well qualify for the same fate as Jerusalem. We have steadily moved away from our founding Godly roots and foundations and have developed a society that murders its unborn citizens with the excuse that personal freedom trumps spiritual responsibility. A society that is systematically culling out the offspring of the poor and the uneducated using abortion as birth control and actually have the groups and races of people who are affected the deepest by these heinous acts, march and support their very existence.

On the other end of the spectrum we are allowing the old and infirmed to die “humane” deaths of starvation and dehydration because they, like the unborn, have no value in our society. With this type of bookend plan to eliminate those of us who are inconvenient aren’t you glad that your parents didn’t believe in abortion? And aren’t you a little afraid what is going to happen as society helps you “exit” when you are old and feeble?

I always say, be nice to everyone because you never know who will be the one that cares for you in the retirement home.