2. The next Discourse, noted by St. Luke, [4727] had been spoken in that very day,' [4728] as the last. It was occasioned by a pretended warning of certain of the Pharisees' to depart from Peræa, which, with Galilee, was the territory of Herod Antipas, as else the Tetrarch would kill Him. We have previously [4729] shown reason for supposing secret intrigues between the Pharisaic party and Herod, and attributing the final imprisonment of the Baptist, at least in part, to their machinations. We also remember, how the conscience of the Tetrarch connected Christ with His murdered Forerunner, and that rightly, since, at least so far as the Pharisees wrought on the fears of that intensely jealous and suspicious prince, the imprisonment of John was as much due to his announcement of the Messiah as to the enmity of Herodias. On these grounds we can easily understand that Herod should have wished to see Jesus, [4730] not merely to gratify curiosity, nor in obedience to superstitious impulses, but to convince himself, whether He was really what was said of Him, and also to get Him into his power. Probably, therefore, the danger of which these Pharisees spoke might have been real enough, and they might have special reasons for knowing of it. But their suggestion, that Jesus should depart, could only have proceeded from a ruse to get Him Out of Peræa, where, evidently, His works of healing [4731] were largely attracting and influencing the people.
But if our Lord would not be deterred by the fears of His disciples from going into Judæa, [4732] feeling that each one had his appointed working day, in the light of which he was safe, and during the brief duration of which he was bound to walk,' far less would He recede before His enemies. Pointing to their secret intrigues, He bade them, if they chose, go back to that fox,' and give to his low cunning, and to all similar attempts to hinder or arrest His Ministry, what would be a decisive answer, since it unfolded what He clearly forsaw in the near future. Depart?' [4733] - yes, depart' ye to tell that fox,' I have still a brief and an appointed time [4734] to work, and then I am perfected,' in the sense in which we all readily understand the expression, as applying to His Work and Mission. Depart!' Yes, I must "depart," or go My brief appointed time: I know that at the goal of it is death, yet not at the hands of Herod, but in Jerusalem, the slaughter-house of them that "teach in her streets."'
And so, remembering that this message to Herod was spoken in the very day, perhaps the very hour that He had declared how falsely the workers of wickedness' claimed admission on account of the teaching in their streets,' and that they would be excluded from the fellowship, not only of the fathers, but of all the prophets' whom they called their own - we see peculiar meaning in the reference to Jerusalem as the place where all the prophets perished. [4735] One, Who in no way indulged in illusions, but knew that He had an appointed time, during which He would work, and at the end of which He would perish,' and where He would so perish, could not be deterred either by the intrigues of the Pharisees nor by the thought of what a Herod might attempt - not do, which latter was in far other hands. But the thought of Jerusalem - of what it was, what it might have been, and what would come to it - may well have forced from the lips of Him, Who wept over it, a cry of mingled anguish, love, and warning. [4736] It may, indeed, be, that these very words, which are reported by St. Matthew in another, and manifestly most suitable, connection, [4737] [4738] are here quoted by St. Luke, because they fully express the thought to which Christ here first gave distinct utterance. But some such words, we can scarcely doubt, He did speak even now, when pointing to His near Decease in Jerusalem.