"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem!"

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.' Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'"

- Matthew 23:27-39

In the reading from yesterday, Jesus began His critique of the scribes and Pharisees, and the ways in which they used their positions in the practice of faith. Jesus has been in the temple in Jerusalem, and has been questioned by several groups of the various parties of the leadership. Each time, He in turn questions them. He knows the Pharisees are trying to trap Him. Yesterday, in His direct criticism of the Pharisees and scribes, He accused them of keeping people from God, and their own hypocrisy in this respect. They make an outward show of holiness, while in practice they do things to hurt those who follow them. They place emphasis on the material -- the gold of the temple, the gifts of the altar -- and neglect the things of God, the holy, that truly give value. He said, "For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also."

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." Here is the great analogy for hypocrisy, vivid imagery we can't soon forget. Yesterday, He spoke of cleaning the inside of the cup, but today, He goes deeper. There is death inside, death from rapacious behavior and predatory mindset. This is the product of the things they have neglected: justice and mercy and faith.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.' Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation." Here, Jesus reaches His most scathing accusations. And, we note that the analogy to the whitewashed tombs takes on yet more shades of meaning: the whole history of rejection of the prophets, the murder of the righteous, comes full circle in their ways of thinking and practice. The story of the Wicked Vinedressers comes to mind, that Jesus told as parable to the chief priests and Pharisees earlier in the temple discourses. Here, their behavior is projected into the future, and it will be consistent with that of their ancestors with whom they claim to have no kinship, the ones who killed the prophets. It is a prefiguring by Christ of the persecution of His followers to come. This righteous blood that is to be spilled, will add together with that of the history of rejection and persecution of the righteous. All of it, Jesus says, will come to this generation. So, the darkness of the inside of the tombs, filled with the bones of the dead and uncleanness, is their darkness, the darkness of their acts and choices.

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'" This chapter ends with the sad and mournful pronunciation of what is to come in Jerusalem. It is a prediction of the destruction of the city and the temple that will come in A.D. 70. Jesus' mournful desire, to gather the children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, is the sad loss of beloved children, who reject His love and His protection and guidance. They reject His presence and His identity, even as He is the awaited One. These words are the words with which He was greeted by the crowds who believed Him to be a prophet, as He rode into Jerusalem at the Triumphal Entry. But here, the words have a different meaning, more eschatological, that take on the color of Judgment, the times of the End, the last things. He is going away, and leaving them desolate, because He has been rejected.

Although His criticism is strong and vehement, Jesus ends on a note of terrible sadness, lost love, lost children. His analogy to a hen taking chicks under her wings gives us the sadness of a parent who cannot protect her children because they will not accept her love, her guidance, her care. The choices that are to come will bring great destruction -- just as the choice for the rejection of the prophets, the holy, the message He bears is destructive to themselves on spiritual terms. The things Jesus teaches are to come are not matters of vengeance, but they are rather the outcome to a rejection of what one should know better about -- a rejection of justice and mercy and faith. A rejection of His visitation, His care, His love. And that is where the choice begins, where it remains, where it will be "till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'" Destruction comes not as a result of anger or vengeance, but rather as a product of a failure to turn to what is offered, to repent, to change, to hear and see with the ears and eyes of the heart. Let us consider the power of the words in Jesus' mournful tone. We choose carefully what we reject, the things to which we refuse to listen, in our own anger and rage and hostility. Let us consider the things of love, the things we may need to hear when we don't want to listen, the choices we make that are destructive, not for the good nor for our own good. They are all important, they make a difference. And sooner or later, they may and will make all the difference in our lives. Let us take care what we reject, the love we fail to hear and see, which may take the form of rebuke and criticism and warn us of the need for change. Each of us may repeatedly need to hear words that defend the way of justice and mercy and faith when we fail in these respects. Let us also add to this list Jesus' way of peace. We don't know what form His guidance would have taken. We do know the history of the martyrdom to come to His own followers. What we hear in Jesus words is the sadness of rejected love, the inevitability of the outcome of this choice. Love does not compel others to follow! Our choice remains our own. Jesus repeatedly refers to the blindness of the Pharisees, and has taught about the blind leading the blind, and where it all leads. Let us take these lessons to our own hearts, and look to what we find there, to our own humility before the things that are of God.