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Today’s passage from Luke records Jesus’ famous words, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem!  …. How often have I desired to gather you as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.”  But Jesus is not yet in Jerusalem.  He’s traveling and teaching for several chapters, but he’s always “passing through” and “on his way to Jerusalem.”  In fact, he “set his face to go to Jerusalem” in chapter 9, and won’t arrive in Jerusalem until chapter 19.

So from the time Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem, he knew.  And he lets us see that in today’s passage.  He knew what Jerusalem would mean.  It meant, for him, obedience to God’s call.  Not because it was good for him. But because he was 100% determined to follow God’s calling for his life.  Even the phrase he “set his face,” suggests flint.  Rock hard determination.

Jesus has been traveling and preaching, the crowds continue to grow, and he is preaching and teaching about two things in this chapter:  repentance and growth.  

He gives us the parable of the Narrow Door—that not everyone makes it through, repentance and obedience matter.  And then the growth parables, the parable of the Mustard Seed—and the branches that birds can nest in.  

He gives us the parable of the leaven that when worked in leavens three measures of flour—parables of growth and investment.  Jesus also tells us about the fig tree that bears no fruit—the one that the master says to cut down, but the gardener says, let me dig around it and fertilize it and see if it can make fruit.  

Jesus is moving forward and showing us our path as well.  The path of obedience.  The path of investment.  And the path of Growth.

Listen for the Word of the Lord from Luke 13:31-35 as Jesus is actively teaching these parables in Herod’s back yard:  

At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to [Jesus], "Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you." 32 He said to them, "Go and tell that fox for me, 'Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. 33 Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.' 34 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 35 See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.'"

Friends, this is the Word of the Lord; thanks be to God.

Jesus is marching towards the crisis point.  Into the fray.  And then the lament—a lament for stiff-necked Jerusalem, a lament crying out for repentance that will not happen, but Jesus moves forward regardless.  

It’s hard to imagine Jesus feeling powerless to change something.  But that’s what I hear in this passage.  I can’t make Jerusalem be gathered under God’s wings.  All I can do is choose my path.  

But isn’t this our entry point?  If Jesus does feel powerless to change something, that’s the place where our lives intersect with this story and we can put ourselves in it.  

We look at the news and feel powerless.  Complicated medical problems for those we love, and we feel powerless.  Teachers in the face of a rising mental health crisis in our young people—and we feel powerless. Rising mental health issues among our friends, for that matter. Those we care about being threatened with out of the blue job losses—and we feel powerless. The stock market loses value when we’re retired or nearly retired—and we feel powerless.

And it’s strange, but it does help to see that even Jesus feels somewhat powerless.  He is aching to gather the holy city into one big happy family, but unable to do it.  Jesus knows the only way to change this is to challenge it.  To challenge it with his own path forward.  And knowing what that will cost him. 

Even Jesus knows that feeling. We can’t always change what will happen or what others will choose, but we can always choose what we will do regardless.  We can choose what we will do. Even if the road is long. Even if the outcomes are unclear. Crisis times tell us who we are.

For Jesus, the crisis of his life becomes his crowning glory.  Because of the path he chooses, he is given “the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend….and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Times of crisis are the crucible in which our metal is formed.  Crisis times can either defeat you or define you.  And those are our choices to make. And the power of the Holy Spirit helps us carry those out. Even if we still don’t know what the outcomes will be.

There’s a great story that Steve Hartman shares. Steve Hartman, does Good News stories with his children for CBS news, and they’re usually centered on a character trait. Wonderful stories.

This story is about a man named Carl Allenbee who grew up very poor in East Cleveland. His family was on welfare, so his childhood memories were of drinking powdered milk and only ever having commodity cheese. Carl’s childhood wish was to become a doctor. But when he got through high school, he realized really had to take a look around and make a more realistic plan. 

So Carl started training himself to become a car mechanic. He didn’t have a job, and he didn’t have a shop, so he just hung out in the parking lot of the local parts store and offered to help people with their cars. And in his area, there were a lot of folks who needed help and couldn’t afford to take their car to the repair shop, so it was an arrangement that worked out pretty well for Carl.

Eventually, Carl got his own shop. Things were going well. After about 15 years of doing all he could to be the best mechanic he could be, he decided to go to the local college to get a business degree to help him run the business side of his shop. Which he did in 2006. 

And as we know, a college degree of any kind comes with, shall we say, unrelated class requirements. English teachers have math courses. Nursing students have literature classes. And evidently, even business majors have biology classes. But this requirement kind of wrankled. Why do I need Biology? Carl put that Biology class off till the very last semester. But finally, the course checksheet had to be completed, so Carl signed up for Biology.

In the very first hour of that class, as the professor laid out the overview of the course, all those feelings from childhood came rushing back. And Carl knew what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. He wanted to be a doctor. Nevermind that he had just accomplished the goal of the business degree. Now he had another goal.

To make a long story short, years later, Carl the car doctor graduated from Northeast Ohio Medical University and now works as an Emergency Medical Resident at Cleveland Clinic, Akron General. His supervisors say that all those years making sure the customer service side of the business was right, actually makes him a really good doctor. Whether he’s changing the oil or diagnosing a ruptured appendix.

But to be sure, people along the way did ask, “Carl, don’t you know it’s gonna take 9 years to be a doctor?” Don’t you know that mountain is high? Don’t you know the road will be rough? Carl’s response: “Nine years is gonna pass anyway. So I’d rather be someplace I wanna be than some place that I could’ve been.” So Carl just kept walking forward.

And Jesus just kept walking forward, walking to Jerusalem.  God’s call was his laser focus.  And that serves as a model for us, to keep walking. Keep walking. Whatever our crisis may be, and however that crisis will come, we march forward keeping our eyes on God who will lead us.  And we’ll be taking care of each other as we go.  

Now to him who by the power at work within us, is able to do far more than all we could ask or imagine, to God be the glory in the Church, and in Christ Jesus, both now and forevermore.  Amen.

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