NOTES for Luk 13:31-35
The Savior's words about a prophet who does not die outside Jerusalem seem somewhat mysterious at first sight. What does He mean? To state the fairly familiar fact that the lives of all prophets without exception were connected with Jerusalem in one way or another? The traditional rejection of prophetic preaching characteristic of every age? Probably these things too. But there is something else: the spiritual meaning of prophetic and messianic ministry. Ultimately, Jerusalem is a place chosen not by people but by God Himself. Every servant of God—at least before the Messiah came into the world—had to arrive there sooner or later.
Not only because pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the holy city of Yahwism, was the dream of every believing Yahwist, but also because the spiritual meaning of prophetic or messianic ministry could not be separated from the place of God's presence. Every witness of God sooner or later had to stand beside His altar. Then one of two things had to happen: he would either be received, precisely as God's witness and servant, or be killed.
There is nothing surprising in this: the activity of any true servant and witness of God, on reaching its spiritual peak, ultimately confronted not only the witness himself but also—perhaps above all—God's people with a final choice. The witness and his testimony had either to be accepted, or he had to be got rid of. The journey to Jerusalem, the spiritual center of the Yahwist community, also became a time given to the people to reflect on what was happening. Preaching in Jerusalem was the moment of the last and final choice, when the decision could no longer be postponed.
Apparently, the decision always went against the witness. It is no surprise that the Messiah sent by God follows the same path: the witness to the Kingdom, too, had to be heard precisely in Jerusalem, once again confronting the people with a choice. Yet there is an essential difference: formerly, the rejection of any given witness was merely a stage, albeit a tragic one, on the spiritual journey now drawing to its close. This time, then, “yes” or “no” became final, determining Israel's destiny until the Day of Judgment, that moment of the last choice after which there would be nothing left to choose.