Luke 13:31-33 is one of the strangest passages in the Gospel of Luke. It begins with a time note that sounds emphatic “At that very hour.” Then, we are told of Pharisees bringing a message that Herod wants to kill Jesus! In His answer, Jesus speaks of a three day journey and immediately repeats the reference to a three-day journey. The repetition in the immediately following verse is unusual enough, but the fact is Jesus is not going on a three-day journey. Speaking of that three-day journey that He is not actually going on, Jesus says that He will cast out demons and perform cures, but never mentions teaching — in spite of the fact that the bulk of what Jesus will do in the rest of the Gospel of Luke during his more-than-three-day journey is teaching.
Finally, and most peculiar of all the odd things about this short section, is the fact that here Jesus publicly insults and degrades his enemy in extreme language. It is true that in a few places, Jesus disparages the Pharisees, referring to them as hypocrites and even as “a brood of vipers” (Matthew 12:34; 23:33), imitating the language of John the Baptizer (Matthew 3:7). But here in Luke 13:32, Jesus is speaking of a political leader and using language that is clearly intended as a public insult. We know that when John the Baptizer and Jesus called the Pharisees “hypocrites,” is was a call to repentance. But calling Herod a “vixen” does not seem to be so. What exactly is going on in this odd paragraph?
Let’s begin by identifying Herod. The family of Herod appears in the New Testament much more often than the name “Herod” is used, for Philip (Luke 3:1), Archelaus (Matthew 2:22), and Agrippa (Acts 25:13 ff.), for example, are all “Herods,” ie. from the family of Herod the Great. But for understanding the New Testament message, it is more important to note who is called “Herod” than it is to know the history of the family. Only three men are identified as “Herod” — the first of which is a paradigm setter. (I am assuming now the priority of the Gospel of Matthew, which James Jordan and Peter Leithart have written about and from whom I borrowed in my essay on dating the Gospel of Matthew.)1
The first Herod in the New Testament is the man known as Herod the Great, who ruled over a large territory from 37 to 4 BC. He is the Herod who intended to find Jesus and kill Him as a baby. When the wise men did not show him the way to Jesus, Herod killed all the boys younger than two. This obviously makes him a new Pharaoh/baby-killer who intends to prevent the seed of the woman from coming into the world. Following this, I believe that the name “Herod” in the New Testament is only used to refer to men who imitate the Pharaoh/Herod’s anti-Christ violence — Satanically inspired political authorities.
Consider the third Herod mentioned in the New Testament. Herod Agrippa I was the grandson of Herod the Great, whose political rule ended in AD 44 as the story in the book of Acts tells us (Acts 12:1-23). This Herod is famous for killing James the brother of John, who was the first martyr among the apostles. Herod intended to kill Peter also, but the book of Acts (12:6-17) shows us how God miraculously delivered Peter, as God had previously delivered Jesus Himself.
The second Herod mentioned in the New Testament, Herod Antipas, is the one Jesus publicly denounced as a “vixen.” What makes him especially despicable? The answer to this is clear: he is the Herod who killed John the Baptizer, the greatest prophet of the old covenant era, the man chosen to prepare the way for Jesus. This Herod appears frequently in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, though never in John (Matthew 14:1, 3, 6; Mark 6:14, 16–18, 20–22; 8:15; Luke 3:1, 19; 9:7, 9; 13:31; 23:7–8, 11–12, 15).
He differs from both his father and Herod the Great’s grandson, Agrippa I, in that after he arrested John the Baptizer, he feared and respected John. He listened to John with joy and heard the call to repentance over and over (Mark 6:17-20). Among the Herods, he is the one to whom was extended God’s gracious call to salvation. When the adulterous wife he had stolen from his brother Philip demanded the head of John the Baptizer, Herod faced the question: shall I kill he prophet of Yahweh or repent. We know his choice.
Jesus despised this man and denounced him because Herod rejected the way of life that John the Baptizer had offered him and chose rebellion and murder instead.
Here we must look at another aspect of our strange passage. Jesus tells the Pharisees to tell the vixen that He will cast out demons and perform cures. Why mention these things and not teaching, since, as I said above, the rest of the story in Luke is mostly about teaching?
The answer is found in Matthew 14:1-2. When Herod heard that Jesus was performing miracles, he concluded that they were signs that John the Baptizer had risen from the dead. When Herod heard of the miracles, he became afraid. So, Jesus’ reference to casting out demons and healing constitute something like a direct challenge: “Herod, the miracles you fear will continue!” It is not time for Jesus to fear Herod, but for Herod to fear Jesus.
We need to keep all of this in mind when we read about Jesus standing before Herod at the time of His trial (Luke 23:6-12). Though Jesus responds to Pilate, He absolutely refuses to say even a word to Herod. Why? Because Herod is the vixen who murdered John the Baptizer — the great prophet who had invited Antipas to repentance and life.
Now, we must consider another aspect of the riddle of Jesus’ response. Why does Jesus speak of a three day journey — twice! — when He is not at all going on a three day journey? What does a three day journey have to do with the fact that Jesus is a prophet? Why does He speak of a prophet dying in Jerusalem? Also, we must keep in mind that Jesus’ words are for the Pharisees as well as for the crowd around him, not just for the vixen.
As He often did, Jesus offered his hearers a riddle. We may doubt that any of them at the time, including His disciples, understood what He meant. But after His resurrection, the disciples, at least, would have come to know.
What is the answer to Jesus’ riddle? Unless I have missed something (entirely possible, alas!), in the entire Old Testament, there is only one three-day journey by a prophet that ends in death in Jerusalem. It is also a journey and death that specifically point to Jesus Himself, as the Gospels show.
What journey? The prophet, Abraham’s three day journey to Mount Moriah — the mountain in Jerusalem on which Solomon built the temple — to offer up Isaac, the type of Jesus (Genesis 22:1-4). Jesus said that He had to finish His course and go to Jerusalem because He was following the plan of God just as surely as Abraham and Isaac had. Jesus had been commanded to go to Moriah and offer up Himself to God. Nothing that Herod, Pilate or all the powers of Satan could muster could possibly prevent Jesus from fulfilling God’s calling.
Next we return to the beginning, for the first words of the section are “At that very hour.” In other words, Luke wants us to read this short story together with the previous paragraph. Why? Because the previous paragraph (Luke 13:22-30) records Jesus’ warning that the offer of repentance has an expiration date. Just as in Proverbs 1:20-33 Wisdom warns that there may come a time when people will call for help but it will be too late, so Jesus warned the Jews of His day that the time to enter the narrow gate was limited. AD 70 and the destruction of Jerusalem was coming soon — though Jesus does not refer to it so explicitly here.
“Enter the narrow gate” was the personal invitation — repeated, no doubt, with passion — given by the greatest of the old covenant prophets to Herod Antipas. His response was to murder the prophet. The Jewish crowds are warned, and the Pharisees who work with the Horodians (cf. Mark 3:6; 12:13) are warned, that the time of repentance and salvation is now.
Jesus journey to Jerusalem would fulfill all the Old Testament types and symbols of death and resurrection. No vixen could stop Him. He made the journey to Mount Moriah and died as Isaac did not. He rose from the dead, fulfilling the typology of Isaac.
When Jesus called Herod a vixen, He was also telling the Jews not to fear those who could only kill the body, but to fear the God of Israel before whom they would stand in the final day. He was, in effect, calling His audience to follow in the way of John the Baptizer. The message is obviously relevant for us, for the Christian church all over the world today — even in the United States — faces Pharaohs and Herods who hate Jesus and want to destroy the seed of the woman.
Ralph Smith is pastor of Mitaka Evangelical Church.