Like a hen gathers her chicks
Readings: Luke 13. 31-35, Genesis 15. 1-18, Philippians 3.17 – 4.1
Our Gospel reading today is a slightly odd little section but it gives us two wonderful truths; the assurance that God is on control, and that wonderful image of Jesus gathering us to him like a hen gathers her brood under her wings.
So some Pharisees arrive warning Jesus that Herod wants to kill him. We’re not sure of the motivation of these Pharisees in giving this warning. It may be that they really are concerned for Jesus’ wellbeing and are trying to protect him. We do encounter other Pharisees after all who are not opposed to Jesus, who listen to him and even support him. Perhaps these are from that group. Or perhaps they are trying to get rid of him, move him on away from their area of influence.
Either way Jesus’ response is rather direct isn’t it, he doesn’t mince his words. ‘Go tell that fox’, it feels perhaps odd to hear Jesus speaking in this way, it feels like an insult. And whilst in some ways it’s associated with the cunning and slyness we associate with the word, it certainly fits Herod. More particularly though, for a culture centred on livestock and agriculture, the fox is the one who comes to ravage and scatter, as anyone who has owned chickens will tell you. So, go tell this ravager and scatterer of God’s people that I’m not going stop, I’m going to continue my work, and yet I must be on my way, for I’m not going to be killed until I reach Jerusalem.
There are all these threats to what he’s doing, threats from some of the Pharisees, and now the news that Herod, the Tetrarch, the ruler of that area, is also planning to have him killed. And yet Jesus continues on undeterred. Why? Because he is confident in his Father, that all will go according to the Father’s will, and that whilst he will be killed, it won’t be until he is raised up upon the cross. There are all these swirling threats, and yet Jesus seems unaffected by them all. Why? Because he is still in the hands of his Father and no-one else’s.
And then, as he laments over Jerusalem, which we’ll circle back to in a moment, he cries out how he longs to gather those children under his wings like a mother hen where they will be safe and protected. Children here isn’t just a reference to those under the age of maturity in the city, but all of the people in the city, for God, for Jesus, they are children in need of care and support and guidance.
What a wonderful double assurance we have in this passage. Not only are all times in the hands of our heavenly Father, such that nothing is beyond his control and his ability to one day work for our good, as Jesus shows us so clearly in his own trust. So too we have the assurance that we, who have been willing, have been gathered to Jesus like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. Once we turned from our sins and placed our faith and trust in Jesus and what he has done for us on the cross, we were gathered to him, kept under his wings, guarded and defended. Which means like Jesus we can have the assurance that we are safe. That whilst hard times come, even terrible times, nothing will snatch us from our Fathers hands, nothing will ravage and scatter us like a fox, for we are kept under Jesus’ wings. It’s a wonderfully comforting image isn’t it.
It doesn’t mean hard times won’t come, even as Jesus is speaking of his trust in the Father, that nothing will happen to him yet, he has the cross in his sights where terrible things do await him. There’s that reference to the third day in Jesus’ words, a foreshadowing of his death and his resurrection on the third day. Hard times will still come but Christ goes with us through them all, will not abandon us to them, will bring us through them all, and will ultimately, perhaps in this life, but certainly in the life to come, bring us into perfect safety and peace.
We might not see how, but God will do it. It’s like Abram in our Old Testament reading, soon to be renamed Abraham, he can’t see how God will accomplish the promises made to him, of innumerable descendants and possession of the land he lives in now as a stranger and foreigner. He can’t get his head around how God is going to come through on the promise, he’s just one man, he has no children.
And so God makes a solemn oath, that’s what’s going on in that rather strange ritual. You cut the animals in two and then you pass between them making your oath, and in some sense it calls down a curse on you if you break the oath, that your body will be torn apart like these animals if you break it, that you’ll be handed over to your enemies. In other words, tear me apart if I don’t come through for you. It’s a rather pagan ritual but common in those days. And it was the practice in those days that both parties would pass through the pieces as they make their oath to one another, make a covenant. One party agrees to do something and in return the other party agrees to do something and they both pass through. But look at what happens here, Abram is simply the witness to the oath, he doesn’t go through the pieces, only God does. Here God is taking all the responsibility on himself, all of the risk is on him. He’s making it clear as day, in the most solemn way, that he will be faithful to his word. Abram need do absolutely nothing.
Even when we can’t see how he could do it, God assures us he will be faithful to his word, faithful to his promises. We might feel like we’re being attacked on every side, that everything is going wrong, and yet we are still kept in the palm of God’s hand, under the shadow of his wings, and he will bring us through it.
But there’s a second strand to our readings today, and it has to do with Jesus’ heart for those who do not believe, echoed by Paul in that reading from Philippians. We live in a world that’s increasingly divided, ever deepening gulfs between people over politics and religion and morality. And the prevailing narrative is often to write the other side of the debate off as utterly lost, unworthy of respect, unworthy of our time.
How do we react when others disrespect us, reject us, even work against us? Well, forget you then, I’m cutting you off. And sometimes that’s for the best, don’t get me wrong. Sometimes unfortunately its necessary, the road has run out. But look at Jesus’s response.
Here he is journeying towards a city and a people he knows will reject him, who will call for his death in the most gruesome and humiliating way. A people who will cry ‘crucify’ and laugh and mock as he hangs dying. And what does he say of them? Even as he remembers their many previous sins, how these people have killed the prophets and messengers of God, ‘how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing’. He still loves this people, still longs to bring them to himself, to bring them to the safety and security which his presence brings.
God’s heart, his longing is that all should be saved, all should come to faith in Jesus. He hasn’t written anyone off, as we sing in ‘To God be the glory’ – ‘the vilest offender who truly believes, that moment from Jesus a pardon receives’. Jesus’ heart goes out to all, even those who will kill him, even the ones who long most truly and deeply for his humiliation and death, he still loves them, won’t reject them, wants to bring them too under his wings.
What a God and Saviour we have. What hope for us when we wander, that Jesus will bring us back into the fold. What a hope for those who fear they have gone too far, are utterly lost, Jesus will still welcome you. Even those guilty of the greatest sin, those who crucified the Son of God, Jesus longs to forgive, we are never too lost that his heart doesn’t reach out to us.
And yet, we must be willing. Whilst his heart goes out to them he declares that these people, they’re not willing, and so judgement will come. He doesn’t rejoice in that fact, it breaks his heart, but nevertheless the results of their rejection are coming. Like Paul writing to the Philippians, he writes how many live as enemies of the cross of Christ, how greatly this grieves him, how he writes of that with tears in his eyes, because judgement is coming for them, and he longs that they turn back and trust in Jesus. What happens when you reject the very source of all light and life and love, but finding yourself in darkness, disconnection and death.
Jesus longs to gather all in, God longs that none should be lost and all should be saved, and yet we must be willing, must turn back, away from sin and put our faith and trust in Jesus, and we’ll find as we do he gathers us to himself like a hen gathers her chicks.
My brothers and sisters, the scriptures call all to return to God, to turn from sin and put our faith and trust in Jesus, to do so freely and willingly. And as we do we find three assurances. That no-one is too far gone, too broken, too sinful, too lost that Jesus’ heart doesn’t go out, longing to gather them in. And that as we turn we are gathered to him like chicks under the wings of their mother, guarded and protected. And the assurance that all our times are in God’s hands, and nothing can snatch us from him.
Amen.