How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!

Christ Pantocrator/Teacher, Byzantine, 13-14th century, Vatopedi Monastery, Mt. Athos, Greece

"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 yesterday's reading, Jesus continued His final sermon, given in the temple at Jerusalem:   "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither 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 continues His criticisms of the religious leadership, based on their hypocrisy.  Here He describes the emphasis on outward appearance of cleanliness (as He has already attacked their practice of ritual purity which covers up a lack of concern about true internal righteousness).  This is the starkest and strongest image possible, the image of death within.

"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 speaks of the treatment of the prophets who have come before Him, and links the persecution of the prophets of old with the leadership of His own time.  In the parable of the Wicked Vinedressers (told in this reading from December 5th), Jesus illustrated the prophets having been repeatedly sent to Israel, to call people back to God.  But here, this condemnation of all that has gone before, sweeping up the current leadership in the guilt of those who have committed these crimes of the past, Jesus emphasizes their lack of leadership and care of the common people, their charges whom these leaders are supposed to guide toward God.  We and the crowd that listens to Jesus preach here surely have the recent memory of John the Baptist in mind.  (Indeed, Christ has asked these leaders in the same week about the baptism of John and its holiness, in this reading.)   In fact, my study bible points out that some patristic commentators suggest that Zechariah (mentioned here by Christ) was the prophet at the time of Joash the king (2 Chronicles 24:20-22), but others teach that Jesus here is referring to the father of John the Baptist, who, according to tradition, was also murdered in the temple.

"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!' "  My study bible says that God's deepest desire is the reconciliation of God's people, but most do not want Him.  The desolate house, it says, refers both to the temple and to the nation itself, as house can be used to mean "family" or "tribe" (see Psalms 115:12, 135:19).  My study bible adds that once Christ departs, both the temple and the nation will be without God's presence.  Finally, let us note this feminine image which Jesus presents us of Himself, as a hen who gathers her chicks and wishes only to protect them with love.

Jesus ties in the hypocrisy and bad practices of the religious leaders with the desolation and coming destruction of the temple and of Jerusalem.  In the following chapter, He will go further into this prophecy of what is to come.  But it is clear from this final sermon of Jesus that He knows full well what is to come regarding His Passion and the Cross, and also what will become of Jerusalem and the temple once He has been crucified.  It is a time of the deepest possible transition, the deepest possible effects of their choices.  So much so, that Jesus ties in all the evil that has gone before in terms of the persecution of the prophets with what these leaders are about to do, and what will be the result.  Let us remember that in our past two readings Jesus has scathingly criticized the leadership, based on their hypocrisy which, most importantly, hinders the spiritual progress of their flock toward God.  Jesus has repeatedly said that this is the most important job of a pastor or religious leader.  In His own teachings to His disciples (to whom this final sermon is also addressed), He has repeatedly and emphatically spoken about humility and also the importance of self-knowledge, leading to personal correction in casting off the impulses and desires that may lead to abuses of those less powerful (illustrated in the image of cutting off hand or foot or eye "if it offends" in this passage).  But in today's reading, Jesus takes this all a step further, when He ties this abusive and neglectful behavior of the leadership with the whole of the spiritual history of Israel, culminating in the prophecy of what is to come in Jerusalem and to the temple (which will continue into the next chapter).  Significantly, Jesus' prophecies of what is to come -- and the tying in of repeatedly sending the prophets to Israel to call her back to God -- give us the sense in which our choices manifest in results in this world, even if we no longer are living to see them.  It is similar to the projection of a lifetime spent going in the wrong direction of one individual.  Here, a whole history of passed down errors and selfish personal indulgence -- rather than righteously upholding the teachings of God in personal conduct -- coupled with the refusal to hear the One who is sent, will have disastrous results.  Whether or not we want to see history this way, or even that our choices can manifest in such effects, we must see this text as tying in all of these things, in Jesus' words.  In other words, whatever we make out of what Jesus is saying here, there can be little, if any doubt that we are given the certainty that our own corrupt choices have effects in our lives and upon those around ourselves.  As we have seen from the texts as we read through the Gospels all along, when we are presented with spiritual truth (in whatever form, I would venture to say) we are not simply given a gift which we might easily refuse.  Spiritual truth, in whatever form it comes, is, finally, the gift of reality presented to us; paraphrasing the name of God given to Moses in the Old Testament (I AM WHO I AM - in Exodus 3:14), spiritual truth is what is.  Fighting against and rejecting that reality is, in a particular way, the same as rejecting the laws of physics.  If we fight against gravity, we don't expect that is not going to have its effects.  If we reject spiritual truth, we should not expect that this will create no effects in our lives.  It seems to me that it is certain, whether or not we realize or recognize it in our lifetimes, that rejection of spiritual truth works itself out in real effects -- often with a great lag of time, depending on the circumstance and the depth of rejection involved.  This may seem a bit mysterious, and indeed, it is.  It falls within the very definition of mystery, since "to those who are outside, all things come in parables" (Mark 4:11-12).  Indeed, this word for parables can also be used interchangeably with "riddles" or even "mysteries" -- hidden, secret things.  We are responsible for what we hear, and also for our lack of capacity to hear; at least somewhere deep within us, we have the faculties for such spiritual hearing and sight.  Whether or not we care to use them also seems to be a function of a depth of decision, part of the mysterious nature of faith and how it works within us.  We are offered grace, even in the admonitions of Christ, who, in this starkest and harshest of critical language, still tries to save and to warn.  Let us pay attention for our own conduct, our own faith, our own times, and their effects.   The icon above, from Vatopedi Monastery on Mt. Athos in Greece, is a depiction of Christ the Teacher, as He holds a scroll of His teachings.  Let us note that at the same time, He raises His hand in blessing, indicating that all is given through grace.  But He is also Christ Pantocrator, or Almighty, a reminder that His teachings are His word, the reality or Logos of God, and so they are always connected to His power of judgment and of eternal life.  They carry with them the weight of truth, and its fullness of effect in terms of our own response.  Let us remember that His teachings and warnings carry the same weight for us today as they do for those whom He addresses in the temple.  We are warned of the importance of our own righteousness and the internal life of the soul.  As the hen who would gather her chicks under her wings, everything Jesus says -- even criticisms and warnings -- are given from love for us.  May we be His willing children who do not reject that love.

How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!

 "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 our current readings, Jesus is in Jerusalem.  It is Holy Week, the final week of Jesus' earthly life, and the last Passover He would attend.  Yesterday, we continued reading His final sermon:  "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither 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."  In yesterday's reading, Jesus said to them, " 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."  But here, He goes even further in the description of what kind of hypocrisy He sees in them.  The filth inside isn't a matter of dirty dishes and utensils, but tombs filled with decay and death and uncleanness.  It is a warning to all of us about a hypocritical life, and how seriously we should take this flaw, a kind of fallen state in which we become blind to our own spiritual death.

"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' condemnation of the leadership continues to build.  Not only are they responsible for the extremes death and uncleanness within themselves, but they take on the guilt of all before them who have passed on this way of being untrue to the love of God, the hypocrisy that murdered the prophets while posing as the righteous.  All of this in which they freely chose to participate will come upon this generation.  It is not completely clear which Zechariah Jesus refers to here, but some teach that He refers to the father of St. John the Baptist, whom patristic tradition says was murdered in the temple.   Others teach that it was the prophet Zechariah at the time of Joash the king (2 Chronicles 24:20-22). 

"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!'"  My study bible says that God's deepest desire is the reconciliation of His people, but most do not want Him.  The desolate house, it says, refers both to the temple and to the nation itself.  "House" can be used to mean "family" or "tribe" (see Psalms 115:12, 135:19).  Both the temple and the nation will be without God's presence once Christ has departed.

The maternal image that Jesus gives here of Himself is an astonishing one in a number of ways.  Or, rather, perhaps we could say that it is one which we must sit up and notice.  It is a picture of Christ, the Lord, having watched over Jerusalem like a mother hen throughout time, throughout the history of God's people.  It is important that we have this understanding of the maternal and feminine characterization of Christ's love, care, grace, and tender mercy, because it tells us something about what it means to be fully human as one who is created in the image of Christ, and who must learn to be Christ-like.    The fullness of our Lord includes this maternal image, one of comfort and care and protection  and eternal mercy.  He characterizes Himself as One with the care of a deeply devoted and loving mother, but whose love, concern, and care is not reciprocated by her children. In this extremely moving lamentation over Jerusalem, Jesus teaches us about who He is as Lord of a universe, the One to whom we are to turn, and who longs for us to do so.  But the most devoted care and protection cannot function through rejection, and repeated rejection.  Jesus teaches us that even in His majestic identity as Creator and Lord of the universe, He is maternal and loving, with the tenderness of a mother hen for her chicks.  He inspires us to know what a balanced life really is, with its capacity for love and devotion -- and for the heartbreak of rejection and failure of one's beloved children.  Let us consider all that He teaches us, about Himself, and about what we ourselves are to imitate.  The depth of care and protection that He teaches are His here belong to all who find Him, and are capable of reciprocating even the smallest sense of that love.

How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!

 "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 then 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 our current readings, Jesus is in Jerusalem, and it is Holy Week.  He has made His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, cleansed the temple, and engaged in confrontation, questioning, and testing by the various parties of the  leadership, with His own challenging responses.  (See the readings from Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.)  In Monday's reading, Jesus began His final public sermon, a great indictment of the practices of the leadership.  In yesterday's reading, He continued:   "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you shut up the kingdom against men; for you neither 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 on 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."  Again, Jesus uses vivid imagery to express the idea -- and the true spiritual condition -- of their religious hypocrisy.  We would do well to remember that Jesus is the One who has come to give us life in abundance.  He is the light of the world, and that light is the life of the world.  It is evil that is death, and the internal darkness of tombs is full of death.

"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 then 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 is another measure of hypocrisy:  those who have harmed the servants who have come in the name of the Lord, calling God's people back to God, are their "fathers."  The present day leadership builds tombs to the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and declares they would not have responded as did their fathers.  But Jesus says they are identical and do the same, and thereby witness against themselves.  By doing what they do (and will do to him) they also inherit the guilt of the same acts.  See Jesus' parable of the Wicked Vinedressers in Wednesday's reading for a deliberate illustration of what He is alluding to here.

"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!'"  My study bible says here that God's deepest desire is the reconciliation of His people, yet most do not want Him.  The house left desolate refers to the temple and also to the nation (of which the temple is great symbol and representative), as a house also has the meaning of "family" or "tribe" (Psalm 115:12, 135:19).

Jesus' repeated use of the word "woe" in this final public sermon is one that is important for us to understand in its context.  Hilary of Poitiers has commented that "woe" is a voice of sorrowing. For this reason Jesus says earlier in the sermon that the Pharisees and scribes close the kingdom of heaven, because they hide in the law the consolation of His truth.  They lost sight of the advent of the Messiah expected by the prophets.  St. Hilary writes, "Through deceptive teachings, they do not allow others to go to heaven either. They do not adorn the way of eternity" (On Matthew 24.3).  That woe is a voice of sorrowing is very pertinent and evident in today's reading, as we read Jesus' clear words of lamentation over Jerusalem.  Jesus' words give us this clear understanding, when He says, "How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!"   The maternal image of the hen gathering her chicks is the image of Christ as He pronounces woe, even as He calls Jerusalem "the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her."    All the images given here are maternal and caring.  He even calls Jerusalem "her," giving us not just the language of mother and home, but also of the Bride.  This final summing up of woes regarding the leadership isn't one of condemning anger, but of sorrowful lament.  There may be a kind of righteous anger or indignation at the practices that harm the people, especially the poorest and the helpless who are led astray and preyed upon, but there is sorrow in the lament of where it all leads, and the result these choices will produce.  All of the practices that Jesus condemns are those of turning astray from God and from the prophets and servants repeatedly sent to call them back to God and to God's ways.  The last and final one sent is Christ -- the Son Himself (see again the parable of the Wicked Vinedressers in Wednesday's reading).  Christ's great lament over His beloved, the Bride Jerusalem, becomes a teaching for all of us and for the whole world.  This isn't just about one people, but it is about all of us who call ourselves children by adoption, who desire also to be a part of God's people by following Christ.  The Church falls under the same "rule" that Jesus espouses here.  Hypocrisy that hides greed and exploitation will also bring woe and lamentation, a sad state.  It hides death and darkness inside of a whitewashed exterior, when we are called to come to the One who gives life to the world.  If we look around us in our world, we can see the effects of evil acts.  There is hypocrisy to go around.  Those who profess to love Christ cannot hide behind a false exterior kind of morality or "legality" while the things they do only bring more death and suffering into the world, especially to those who are powerless.  Let us remember His words of lamentation, and that they apply to us today as they did on that day when Jesus said them in the temple in Jerusalem a generation before its destruction in 70 A.D. at the siege of Jerusalem.  He is still the mother hen who wishes to gather her chicks under her wings, if we are but willing to come.