Luke 13:31-35--Lament over Jerusalem

Luke 13:31-35
English Standard Version
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Lament over Jerusalem
31 At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” 32 And he said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. 33 Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’ 34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 35 Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”

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It is very strange that the Pharisees seem to be warning Jesus that Herod wants to kill Him.  It was the Sadducees, not the Pharisees that were most closely allied with Herod (the Sadducees were more secular Jews where the Pharisees were the religious sect, and the Sadducees allied themselves with the political powers that be of Herod and Rome to help them gain and maintain power, wealth and influence).  At some point soon, the Pharisees will get to the point of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," but right now, the Pharisees don't really like Herod or Rome for that matter.

Jesus tells the Pharisees to take a message back to Herod for Him.  Jesus seems to indicate that He knows His time is short now to complete the work He needs to do before His crucifixion.  He is literally just days away from that happening and says that He must remain in the area because it is necessary for Him to die there.  We have already talked about this as we have studied other biblical passages from Genesis, but even the very place where Jesus was to die to make substitutionary atonement was foreshadowed.  Jesus simply calls Himself a prophet here though and does not refer to Himself as "the King of the Jews," "the Prophet," "the Son of God," "the Son of Man" or any of the other titles that He could have claimed for Himself when speaking to Pilate.  I find this interesting, but also think this is part of Jesus controlling the timeline as He knows that it is destined for Him to die on Passover when the lambs are being slaughtered and not a moment sooner or later.

​The scene then shifts and Jesus morns for Jerusalem.  We know from other gospels these words were spoken by Jesus when He came into the city of Jerusalem riding on a donkey on what we call Palm Sunday.  He desires all of them to be gathered to Him as how a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but they are not willing.  Jesus then finishes by saying they will not see Him again for a long while until the time when they "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD" (they will say this on Palm Sunday, but many believe this is also prophetic about when Jesus is going to return for His second coming--that the hearts of the nation of Israel will have been changed and that they will welcome Him as their Messiah and King).

While Jesus is saying His death is just around the corner, there is much that Luke is going to write in this gospel between this point and the events of Passion Week that start in chapter 19.  Jesus has had His vision set on Jerusalem and the cross for some time now and we're going to see that focus intensifies as we go along, and Jesus is going to control the narrative and the timeline.  The Pharisees will no longer be satisfied with getting Jesus to leave town or arresting Him, but they will make an alliance with Rome to have Jesus killed.