Well, not Herod.
“Go away, leave this area because Herod wants to kill you.”
He replied, “Go and tell that fox,
‘Behold, I cast out demons and I perform healings today and tomorrow,
and on the third day I accomplish my purpose.
Jesus knows that nothing can separate him from the Father's love.
What will separate us from the love of Christ?
Jesus acts in spite of the threat of Herod because he is mission motivated. Jesus is able to shrug off that threat precisely because he trusts in the plan and the love which the Father has for him. We can be bold because of the love that Jesus and the Father have for us. Jesus ignores a threat from which he will be delivered (Herod) but marches straight toward a threat from which he knows he won't be.
Yet I must continue on my way today, tomorrow, and the following day,
for it is impossible that a prophet should die
outside of Jerusalem.
This is because of how important his mission is. It isn't arbitrary. It isn't ticking boxes on a to-do list. It isn't about a certain self-image. It is about love.
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you,
how many times I yearned to gather your children together
as a hen gathers her brood under her wings,
but you were unwilling!
But for most of us our love is not enough to fuel our mission, "For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die" (cf. Rom. 5:7). We will pursue the hens that are unwilling to be gathered until our own skin is on the line. When we rely on ourselves our love is too little, too late.
Jesus can do this precisely because he knows that his Father is for him and therefore no one can be against him. He knows that the Father's love is ferociously strong. He trusts the Father even unto death on the cross because he knows that the Father's love is stronger than anything which can be against it. And he is vindicated for his trust. He is raised on the third day. In Jesus we see what happens when we trust in God. In his life we see even more evidence of how great that love is. We see just how worthy of trust it is.
No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly
through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities,
nor present things, nor future things,
nor powers, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature will be able to separate us
from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Just as Jesus marches straight for Jerusalem, secure in his Father's love, we can conquer anything this world throws our way by trusting in the love the Triune God has for us. Whatever is against us, we are more than conquerors through him who loves us.
I will speak my thanks earnestly to the LORD,
and in the midst of the throng I will praise him,
For he stood at the right hand of the poor man,
to save him from those who would condemn his soul.
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