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Luke 13:31-35: At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’ Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

Jesus has started his mission and he will finish it, nothing is going to distract him from the work he needs to do. However, Jesus predicts his fate and also the fate of Jerusalem. Herod will not be the one who gets rid of Jesus; Jesus will be attacked and killed in Jerusalem. Jerusalem will not remain standing, she will fall; she will be abandoned. Against this horrific backdrop Jesus gives a tender image, a plea from the heart. Jesus says God wants to draw us under her wings and protect us just like a mother hen with her chickens. Jerusalem, The place where God dwelt has become the place where God’s messengers are killed. Jesus weeps for the city.  It has ignored the prophets in the past, killed them even.  Jesus knows that he has to go to Jerusalem. There is no plan B, there is no other destination. Even knowing what awaits him, Jesus loves the city, loves the people, has compassion for them.  “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”

On a trip to Ghana once we surprised a little group of chicks on the path in front of us. They ran to their mother and literally all tried to get under her wings. I had never seen this before, clearly there was not enough room for all of them but they crowded under while the mother hen fixed us with a beady stare. If you look really closely at the photo you will see the chicken has too many legs!  

Imagine for a moment that we are all called together in our communities to live like chickens under a hens wings, we’d be pretty crowded wouldn’t we, not much personal space all crushed and squashed together. We’d have to get along. Imagine Jesus trying to gather us together and quite apart from not wanting to be gathered, those of us that are together talk like children in the back seat of a car – she’s in my space, he’s looking at me, I’m squashed, aren’t we there yet. Jesus wants the people of Jerusalem to gather together in God’s loving embrace, he wants us to gather together in God’s loving embrace. He knows that not everyone will come. The pain in Jesus’ lament for Jerusalem is apparent.  To have love go unreturned is always painful.  He loved the people, cared for them, would have gathered them to himself and protected them, nurtured them, if he could.  But it wasn’t up to him. If you have ever loved someone you could not protect, then you understand the depth of Jesus’ lament.  All you can do is open your arms. You cannot make anyone walk into them.

Yet the promise of God is that in God’s embrace we find a welcome. Who ever we are, whether we see ourselves as works in progress or finished products, Jesus says I want to gather you in.  When we look at the news this week especially the war in Ukraine, that longing for people to be gathered in, to be protected for those who are under attack, for the victims of war, is tangible. That longing to be gathered in for ourselves who are mourning, and holding space in prayer is tangible. This goes in tandem with a desire for us to draw others in and offer comfort and a place of safety and rest.

Jerusalem was the place where God dwelt in Israel’s history in the temple. Now we are the place where God lives, his Spirit is within us. Now we are called to live lives that reflect Jesus’ ministry. We are called to be a church that faces outwards sees the world as it is and holds the vision of God before its eyes, the vision of the world as it could be, as it should be. That vision makes people stand side by side with refugees and outcasts, welcoming them in the name of God. That vision has people calling and praying for peace. That vision has a church willing to face its own sins and transgressions and look for forgiveness and reconciliation with those we have wronged.

We know that Jesus wept over Jerusalem, over the city’s unfaithfulness and rejection. May Jesus never have cause to weep over us.  

+Jane