"Distracting Foxes"
Andrea Hodges
Monday, February 22, 2010
Luke 13:31-35
At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” 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. 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. 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! 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.’”
Distracting Foxes
I saw a fox the other day. It was a gorgeous, sleek red one with a gallant bushy tail, not mangy and thin as others I've chanced upon. In response to my approaching car, it slunk out of a drainage ditch, bounded into the open sun, paused, and ducked behind a tree.
Jesus called Herod a fox. Wow, He labeled Herod as someone who seemed momentarily gallant, but was ultimately a drainage-dweller. How politically incorrect! Further, He flatly stated that Herod's earthly powers had no sway over His absolute authority. Jesus was completely in control of the work until it was finished. And we know, at this Lenten season, that Jesus’ work of salvation was finished on the third day, when He rose from the dead.
Yet, here's the hard part for me: After He rose from the dead, Jesus also charged us to continue His earthly work (Luke 24:47). And He assured us that He left us the power to do it through the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49-50.) But I so often forget to trust Jesus’ Holy Spirit to be in complete control, and I focus instead on the doing that Jesus commanded.
Oh Lord, I struggle so hard to distinguish between the “doing” and the “resting/trusting.” Between what I might think is Your work, and what truly is Your work, and what is my part of it daily? After all, I don't go "proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins in his name to all nations" daily. And sometimes I think I'm on the right track, doing your work, when in fact I'm really trying to control your work, like the Pharisees did in this passage. Indeed I struggle Lord. Help me ferret out the foxes in my life that distract the work. Help me identify what pleases you, and what is merely my idea of pleasing you. Help me know when to rest from my striving and let you be in complete control. Ahhhhh-men!