Luke 13:31-35 At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, “Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.” He replied, “Go tell that fox, `I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’ In any case, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day– for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem! “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, `Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'”
At the end of my first year of and for all of my second year at seminary in St. Louis, Cheryl taught school in a town 45 miles east of there: Worden, Illinois. She taught Kindergarten through 4th grade in a two-room school at Trinity Lutheran Church. All things considered, it made more sense for us to live in that town of 900 and have me commute back and forth to St. Louis than the other way around. Not long after she started teaching, their pastor took a call and left. I was asked to help them out, which I was more than happy to do. I preached almost every Sunday that summer and twice a month during the school year. I also made hospital calls and home visits. Since that was a farming community, and I was a city boy, I really enjoyed going out to visit people on their farms, and they seemed happy to show me around.
One dear widowed lady, Erna Knackstedt, raised chickens. She showed me around her barns with the thousands of chirping, seemingly helpless chicks. And I saw how a mother hen reacts when any perceived threat enters her space. She squawks and puts up a commotion and runs around frantically. It’s a little unsettling when you first see it, even though it may not scare you away. After all, it is just a chicken, and how threatening can a chicken be? But that is not the point. As that mother hen is putting on that scene, all the time she has her wings spread out, herding her chicks out of harm’s way and to safety. She wants to protect her chicks.
I watched a young father trying to do some grocery shopping with three boys, about 3 and 5 and a baby in a car seat. The older two kept trying to wander away. I felt sorry for the guy, knowing what it is like to have more kids than hands. He was trying to herd them along, keeping them close as they made their way through the store. Of course, those boys weren’t willing to herded. They had their own ideas of where they wanted to go, exploring and picking up things and playing games. At one point I heard the father say something we’ve all said: “Stay close to me — I don’t want anything to happen to you!” We want to be protective, but children aren’t always willing.
Jesus is concerned about little helpless ones. In the passage above, he speaks of how He wants to gather up “Jerusalem,” referring to all of God’s chosen people, the descendants of Abraham, the Jews. Time after time God had sent prophets to call them to repentance, yet they would not listen. And now God’s Son Himself is on the scene to bring the promised salvation to the Children of Israel. He wants to lead them to safety. He wants to protect them. But they are not willing.
Jesus is still our mother hen, wanting to gather up His followers and keep them safe. It may sound strange to hear God spoken of in feminine terms, since for the most part God has revealed Himself in the masculine. However, there are other instances of this imagery in the Scriptures. In order to reveal part of His more tender side, God said through Isaiah: “As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted …” (Isaiah 66:13) So it is not all that unusual that He uses the image of how fiercely protective a mother can be to describe the way He wants to protect the ones He loves, the ones for whom He came to suffer, die and rise again.
I’ll have more thoughts on this tomorrow.
