Jesus the Mother Hen

Journeying with Jesus

Luke 13:31-35 

Jesus The Mother Hen

  

 As we move through Lent this year we will continue to follow Luke as he traces the steps of Jesus toward Jerusalem. In the book of Luke Jesus is continually moving toward Jerusalem always walking, always moving toward the cross. As we journey together through Lent; together we will journey with Jesus as he moves toward Jerusalem and the cross. In the gospel of Luke Jesus is constantly turning the world on end. Jesus is always drawing illustrations from unexpected places and he is continually raising up the despised, the rejected and revealing to us that our stereotypes are often incorrect. We make assumptions and Jesus reverses them. We think things should be one way and he shows us that the opposite way is true. The last are first, and the first are last. The children are gathered in instead of turned away, we are told to be more like them instead of less like them, the unclean woman is praised, the gentile is welcomed in, the Samaritan is the hero. Here in this passage things are no different. It almost seems like this passage was engineered to be contrary, to shock and dismay the average gospel reader. Nothing in this passage is the way it should be. And since this passage is only four verses long I am sure a fair few of you are looking at them, skimming them real quick and thinking to yourselves, what in the world is she talking about? Nothing in this passage seems out of the ordinary. There is nothing here that shocks me or even causes me to raise an eyebrow. Well, then perhaps you are not reading it close enough. Nothing in this passage is what is should be. Nobody is playing the roles we would have laid out for them. Our passage this morning begins with Jesus being confronted by Pharisees. Well, that is not out of the ordinary. The Pharisees are always confronting Jesus, in most of the gospels that is almost their vocation. They are there to try to trap Jesus, to challenge him and call him out when he is eating with sinners or picking wheat on the Sabbath. I mean, that’s what Pharisees do right? But what are they doing here? Are they challenging him? Are they attempting to trap him? Are they telling him that he is doing or saying things that are contrary to the law as they see it? No, they are doing none of these things. They do come to him and try to chase him away, “Go, get away from here! (CEB)” But their motivation is what is unexpected. Herod wants to kill Jesus and apparently these Pharisees, unlike the ones we are so used to encountering in the gospels, don’t want Jesus dead. They want to protect him. And Jesus then responds kindly by thanking them for their concern. And tells them he will take their advice into consideration as he books for his future speaking engagements. Jesus responds to these warranted concerns from these unlikely candidates exactly how we think Jesus would respond, with polite, thankful thoughtfulness. No Jesus responds rather strangely. He calls Herod a name and tells them to go tell Herod for him, that he will here casting out demons and healing people for the next couple days and then he will be on his way. Herod wants to kill him and he gives Herod his traveling agenda. He will move on in a few days. But he is not running away, he knows that Herod can’t kill him while he is here, he knows that the prophets like himself die in Jerusalem, so he is on his way there. He is not going to bother running and hiding, he knows where he is going and he knows the end he will meet there, not need to worry that it will happen before then. Thinking about Jerusalem, seems to distract Jesus (I have never imagined Jesus easily distracted but hey, nobody is doing or saying what I would expect them to, in this passage, so why stop now?) and he begins to talk about Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the place where he will die; Jerusalem is the place that kills prophets and stones the people God sends to her. And this upsets Jesus? Bothers him? Angers him? No, it causes him to want to gather all of Jerusalem up like a mother hen. Now let us stop and think about this for a moment. I want you to bring before your minds’ eye the images of Jesus you might have. Think about it, catalogue them for me. Bring them up. There is the ever popular, Lamb of God. And then there is the Lion of Judah (that’s Aslan but the imagery is the same) and then there is the ever popular, Mother Hen. Come on that was the first one that came to your mind wasn’t it? I know whenever I go into one of those Christian bookstores, the place is covered with images of Jesus the Hen. It is such a good strong, image. I know if I have the choice between being protected by something it is going to be a Mother Hen. No, not at all. Even I, who am fond of pointing out all the feminine imagery of God in the Old Testament, had completely forgotten that Jesus had ever said this. Jesus is the mother Hen who wants to gather her own close and protect them, nurture them and care for them. So in the upside down, backwards world of our passage this morning, the Pharisees come wanting to protect Jesus, wanting him to flee for his life, but Jesus is not concerned, hands out his travel plans and says that will die when and where is will die, in Jerusalem. In fact he is concerned for Jerusalem (and by extension all Israel), Jesus wants to protect and care for them, like a mighty eagle, like a great big mama bear, no like a hen. The whole passage brings us to Jesus the Mother Hen, gathering and protecting her chicks, but not being able to. It is almost heart breaking. Jesus wants to, has wanted to many times, but is unable. The chicks won’t come. They will not be gathered, they will not be protected. In fact in some ways in this passage they have come to him wanting to protect him, but they can’t and in turn he is unable to protect them. But he tells them he will come to them, he is coming to them. And they will know that he has come when “Blessed is the name of the Lord,” is sung. But we are still left with this unexpected image of Jesus; Jesus the Mother Hen; gathering and protecting; caring and nurturing, longing for her own. But not only that, Jesus the Hen is apparently denied what she longs for. She does not get her chicks. She does not get to gather or protect. He nest is empty, it is barren. But that does not mean she stops longing. It does not mean that she stops hoping, that does not mean that if one day her chicks do hear her and do come running that she will refuse them, that she will close her wings and turn her back. If they come, when they come, even as she is continually coming toward them, she will open her wings wide, gather them in and then hold them close, safe and warm. Jesus has his face set toward Jerusalem. He is journeying toward her every day. He does not care that he will die there; he does not care that he will be rejected there. He will still go and he will go with wings wide open, a mother hen calling to her chicks, desiring to gather them in, to protect and care for them. He will continually walk toward Jerusalem longing, desiring, and wishing to gather his own to himself. Jesus is always longing; desiring for his own; not just Jerusalem; not just Israel, but all the world. We don’t always need a loving, caring, nurturing, protecting Jesus, but it is nice to know that Jesus is all these things, as well as a sacrificial lamb or strong lion. Jesus the sacrificial Lamb of God is a humbling image. Jesus the Lion of Judah is powerful and awe inspiring, and sometimes those are the right image. They are the image we need. Sometimes we need a rawring Lion, or a gentle Lamb. Good images that show us the power and the sacrifice of our Savior. But sometimes, sometimes we need Jesus the Mother Hen; the Hen who gathers and protects, the Hen who is patient and waits for us. Sometimes we need to know that Jesus longs for us, longs to gather us up in his arms, to protect us, but also to nurture us, to care for us. And he wants do to this even when we turn away, even when we choose to do things differently, even if we want nothing to do with him. He still wants, he still longs, and continues to long, even when we don’t come home, or say we don’t need him, or turn around and think that we can try to protect him. Jesus the Mother Hen, is always calling to us, always has her wings open wind, her face turned toward us, journeying toward us, calling our name, longing to gather us, longing to protect us, longing, to care for us. No matter how we, as wee little chicks, wander off, and think that we can handle the world on our own, she is still there, waiting, empty nest, warm and inviting, just waiting for us, with no shame, no guilt trips, no retribution for our wandering, just loving acceptance. And sometimes we chicks do wander. Sometimes we do things we know we should not do, sometimes we go down paths we know we should not go down. Sometimes we begin to think we can handle life on our own, we are too grown up, too mature to need to come home, be protected, nurtured, cared for, we are too big for that. We don’t need to turn to Jesus in prayer; we don’t need to read the Bible every day (after all we live it what need is there to read it EVERY day?) We don’t need to seek Godly counsel on the decisions we are making. We can handle this; surely Jesus will come to us if he does not like our decision. We come to believe that we know what we are doing, where we are going and we wander away from the nest, on purpose, by accident, the result is the same. Jesus is still there calling to us, waiting for us, longing for us to return, and desiring to gather us in, to protect us, care for us, and nurture us. No matter how far we have wandered, not matter where we are, Jesus is waiting.