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 past two days, we've been reading Jesus' final sermon, which took place in the temple at Jerusalem after several confrontations with the leadership.  We began reading the sermon on Monday.  Yesterday we read that Jesus continued, "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you nether go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.  Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.  Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.'  Fools and blind!  For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold?  And, 'Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.'  Fools and blind!  For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it.  He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it.  And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  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."  Jesus' criticism of the Pharisees focuses on their hypocrisy.   Their emphasis is on outward appearance, but He questions their corruptions and greed, which has made its way into some of their practices, against the intent of the Law.  Here the emphasis is on the inner life of the heart, every person's need to know themselves and to discard what is not worthy of humility before God and true righteousness in relation to others.

"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."  Jesus plainly names these men as included in those to whom He referred in the parable of the Wicked Vinedressers (see this reading).  He calls them the latest in a long line of those who persecuted the prophets and refused to listen to God's call back to Himself.  He also speaks to the future when He refers to prophets, wise men, and scribes who will be sent.  Some patristic commentators say that the Zechariah Jesus refers to was the prophet at the time of Joash the king (2 Chronicles 24:20-22), and others teach that it refers to the father of St. John the Baptist, who, according to tradition, was also murdered in the temple.  We note that once again Jesus uses the phrase earlier used for these men by John the Baptist (3:7; see also 12:34).

"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!'"  Jesus mourns over Jerusalem, and here we see an interesting metaphor.  Jesus images Himself as a mother hen, gathering her brood.  But instead of chicks, it is a brood of vipers, full of rejection. 

Even in the midst of condemnation, Jesus gives us an image of God's love:  a mother hen who wishes only to protect and gather her children under her wings.  Let us rejoice at this loving and maternal image we are given at this moment of condemnation, and understand our God more fully, as well as the nature of God's love for us.  Let us note the balance we have in Christ, of images both maternal and paternal.  Not only that, but Jesus also refers to God's love and God's nature when He says, "How often I wanted to gather your children together . . ." (emphasis mine).  In other words, the nature of God's love is to return again and again, even pleading, with open arms, but it is human beings who refuse and are not willing.  In a real sense, we are given here God's own image of God, a rare glimpse at the internal character of God.  How many of us understand this kind of love for ourselves, and know God this way?  This maternal image is a reframing of the repeated sending of prophets, wise men, and scribes to the leaders of the people.  It frames the image He gives us in the parable of the Wicked Vindressers and the repeated sending of servants, until finally the son is sent, as the pleas of a mother who is concerned for her children.  It should give us pause to know that this image is given to us at the moment of condemnation, at the time when the Son/son is about to be murdered through manipulation by those in charge of the spiritual welfare of the people.  Finally, this appeal is to all the people, the whole of the Holy City, and God's love is for all.  My study bible says here that God's deepest desire is the reconciliation of His people, yet most do not want Him.  The image of the desolate house can be used to mean "family" or "tribe" (see Psalm 115:12; 135:19).   The indication here is that both the temple and the nation will be without God's presence once Christ departs.  This is like a mother's statement of  letting go of her rebellious, refusing children -- until, He says, the time of His return.  At this time He begins to openly reveal Himself in His identity as Son.  St. Chrysostom writes:  "This is the language of one that loves earnestly. He is poignantly appealing to them in relation to the judgment that is to come. He is not merely warning them concerning their past follies. He is now speaking of the future day of his second coming."  Gods' love is ever-present to us as well; let us each take His words to heart for all of us.