Danger Ahead
- Some of the Pharisees inform Jesus that Herod the tetrarch is plotting to kill him. This is the same Herod of 3:1; 8:3; and 9:7-8. He's starting to get a bit pesky.
- Anyway, it's really better for Jesus's safety that he leave Herod's jurisdiction, which is Galilee.
- Jesus urges them to "go and tell that fox" (13:32) that he'll be on his merry way doing his job, exorcizing and healing. He ain't scared of no tetrarch.
- After a few days, he's continuing on to Jerusalem.
- Wait, what?
- It's not that he's scared of Herod's threats. It's just that it's his destiny to die where all the prophets die.
- All this talk of Jerusalem provokes Jesus to lament the fate of this city.
- She kills the prophets and stones other God-send people. But Jesus just wants to give her a big hug, like a hen gathers her brood under her wings.
- But Jerusalem won't have any of it.
- The odd thing is that when Jesus does arrive in Jerusalem, she will praise him as the blessed one coming in the name of the Lord. You can thank Psalm 118:26 for inspiring those words.