Jesus the Wounded Prophet
Jesus the Wounded Prophet
Jesus apparently expected his conflicts with established teachers and authorities to escalate in Jerusalem. While the Pharisees were centered there and they do appear in the context of Matt 23:29-31//Lk 11:47-48 (treated above), Jesus’ expectation of hostility in Jerusalem appears too broad to focus exclusively on them. The “Q” saying in Matt 23:37//Lk 13:34 displays Jesus’ love for his people and laments that, despite the Galilean crowds, Israel as a whole had not quickly embraced his (and John’s) vision of repentance. Whereas we noted earlier Jesus’ lament over the Galilean villages of Chorazin and Bethsaida, this new lament171 suggests that Jerusalem, the center of the Jewish world, was also the object of his concern. For a prophet, neglect might constitute rejection no less than persecution did, but Jesus apparently expects some persecution as well.
In Matt 23:37//Lk 13:34, Jesus again recalls the Jewish tradition that Jerusalem killed the prophets, at the same time noting Jerusalem’s unwillingness to heed him. This connection coheres with Jesus’ sense of his mission including martyrdom as in other evidence in the Gospels (a matter to which we turn in ch. 20). Although Matthew understandably locates the saying during the passion week in Jerusalem, Luke’s context would also recall Jesus’ physical vulnerabity to his enemies on Israel’s behalf (Lk 13:32).
In the same saying (Matt 23:37//Lk 13:34), Jesus wished to gather his people under his wings. This apparently unusual claim recalls the familiar Jewish image of God sheltering his people under his wings.172 (Jewish teachers also came to speak of one who converted a Gentile as bringing him or her under the wings of the Shekinah.)173 Perhaps recalling the experience of God in some other Jewish sources,174 Jesus’ love for Jerusalem here gives way to the brokenhearted pain of their rejection and/or their judgment.
For Luke, Jesus’ grief and his promise that they will see him later (Lk 13:34- 35) precedes, hence is fulfilled in, the triumphal entry (Lk 19:41); Matthew places it among the woes of coming judgment after that entry, but in so doing transforms this into a promise of future hope (cf. Matt 10:23).175 Although Luke’s context might be more original in this case, Matthew’s sense probably does fit the restoration prophet emphasis of Jesus’ ministry. Perhaps as in some early Jewish teaching,176 Israel’s repentance was the goal of history, and her salvation was contingent on her repentance.177