Lk. 13:22 And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem.
Lk. 22:23 Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?” And He said to them,
Lk. 22:24 “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”
The Pharisees taught that all Israelites would have a share of the world to come (Olam haBah). The entrance gate into Heaven was wide, indeed. Yeshua taught exactly the opposite. Because one was an Israelite was no guarantee of making it in.
Lk. 22:25 “When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where are you from,?’”
Lk. 22:26 “Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’”
Lk. 22:27 “But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’”
Lk. 22:28 “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out.”
Lk. 22:29 “They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the Kingdom of God.”
Lk. 22:30 “And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last.”
Lk. 22:31 On that very day some Pharisees came, saying to Him, “Get out and depart from here, for Herod wants to kill You.”
This passage seems to demonstrate that there were at least some of the Pharisees who were genuinely concerned about Yeshua’s safety. But, since these Pharisees are probably the same ones who were constantly accusing Him and trying to trick Him, that seems unlikely. Another possible reason they wanted Him to leave here was to get Him back in the area under the jurisdiction of the Sanhedrin. Herod Antipas was the one who had Yochanan haMatbil put to death, and he very well could have been plotting Yeshua’s death also. Herod Antipas believed that Yeshua was Yochanan, whom he beheaded, raised from the dead, and he was prepared to kill him “again.” Yeshua knew that His life was in danger – a Heavenly voice never comes out of the clear blue – but He did not want to die in Galilee, where He had been preaching the Kingdom of Heaven. He would die in Jerusalem, refuted for “killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you.”
Lk. 22:32 And He said to them, “go, tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.”
Yochanan was beheaded by Herod Antipas, who Yeshua called “that fox.” In Yeshua’s day, if you were a good king, you were called a lion. If you were a weak, terrible king, you were called a fox. When Yeshua called him a fox, He was giving him a compliment.
Lk. 22:33 “Nevertheless, I must journey today, tomorrow, and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem.”
Lk. 22:34 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing.”
Lk. 22:35 “See! Your house is left to you desolate; and assuredly, I say to you, you shall not see me until the time co mes when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”
Yeshua lamented over Jerusalem for the first time when He began His last journey. Yeshua uttered His lament soon after having been warned by some Pharisees that Herod Antipas sought to kill Him. In Luke, Yeshua’s lament over Jerusalem is a good continuance of the preceding sentence. Matthew preserves the lament more or less identically with the Lukan parallel. Nevertheless, in Matthew the lament over Jerusalem is misplaced – not unintentionally. While Luke places the lament following the Pharisees’ warning, in Matthew the lament is presented – before the announcement of the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem – as a final conclusion of Yeshua’s invectives against the Pharisees. Matthew’s transposition of the setting implies that the Parisees themselves are those “who kill the prophets.” In Yeshua’s day it is certain that they neither killed nor persecuted the visionaries (23:29-31).
Source: Psalm 118:26; Matt. 23:29-31
