But wisdom is justified by her children

 

"But to what shall I liken this generation?  It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions, and saying:

'We played the flute for you,

And you did not dance;

We mourned to you,

And you did not lament.'

"For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.'  The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!'  But wisdom is justified by her children."

Then He began to rebuke the cities in which most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent:  "Woe to you, Chorazin!  woe to you, Bethsaida!  For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.  But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.  And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.  But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you."

 

- Matthew 11:16-24 

 

Yesterday we read that, as the disciples of John the Baptist departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John:  "What did you go out into the wilderness to see?  A reed shaken by the wind?  But what did you go out to see?  A man clothed in soft garments?  Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings' houses.  But what did you go out to see?  A prophet?  Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet.  For this is he of whom it is written:  'Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You.' Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.  And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.  For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.  And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"   

 

 "But to what shall I liken this generation?  It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions, and saying: 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; We mourned to you, and you did not lament.' For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.'  The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!'  But wisdom is justified by her children."  Jesus here refers to a game which was played among Jewish children.  Perhaps the words are a singsong that accompanied the game.  The children would divide into two groups; one would pretend to play musical instruments or to sing, and the other group would respond in a manner opposite to what was expected.  So here Jesus draws a parallel to the Jewish leaders who responded in deliberate opposition both to John the Baptist as being too ascetic and to Christ as too liberal in mercy and joy.  When Jesus says that "wisdom is justified by her children," He seems to be referring to the fact that as different as the ministries of John the Baptist and Jesus seem to be, they are both products of holy wisdom, and their spiritual fruits vindicate them.

 

 Then He began to rebuke the cities in which most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent:  "Woe to you, Chorazin!  woe to you, Bethsaida!  For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.  But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.  And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.  But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you."  These are the Galilean cities in which Jesus had done great healings and exorcisms (mighty works) and so they are witness to the holy power at work in His ministry.  My study Bible comments that it is a far greater sin to have seen Christ's works and rejected Him than never to have known Him at all.

Jesus' reference to the children's game teaches us something about the attitude of the critics of both Jesus' and John the Baptist's ministries.  There are those who simply will find fault because they don't want to hear or receive the message that is being preached.  The criticism is erratic and it doesn't make sense -- and it's also immature and childish.  But as Jesus takes on His own criticism of the cities which have rejected Him and His ministry, the tone becomes more serious.  Because, in fact, they aren't simply rejecting His words and teaching, but the actual works -- the spiritual fruits -- that manifest the truth of who He is and what He has to teach, His word.  As my study Bible says, to have seen Christ's works and rejected Him is far more serious than never to have known Him at all.  At the end of yesterday's reading, Jesus called out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"  Here there is a reflection of an idea that is similar to this, as Jesus is asking for spiritual ears that can hear the spiritual messages brought to the people through the work of the Spirit.  Those who saw His mighty works and still rejected Him haven't got spiritual eyes to see.  They don't understand the power of judgment that is inherent in anything with which God may bless and reveal truth to us.  For to reject such efforts is to reject God, and to reject God is to reject life, and all the blessings that includes for us.  We depend upon God for our being, and all that is true, or good, or beautiful.  What is rejected, then, is that substance that is manifest in the works, the reality of the holy power that  is unchanging, and not simply temporal.  Jesus is not performing magic tricks, or spiritual feats to impress people.  His entire Incarnation in the world is God reaching toward us, bringing salvation for those who can receive it, and truly "see" and "hear" it.  In the first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul speaks of maturing in a spiritual sense:  "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.  And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love" (1 Corinthians 13:12-13).  He is speaking here about growth in spiritual maturity and understanding, and let us note the metaphors to sight.  His aspiration is for more understanding, to "know just as I also am known" [by God].  This is what Christ asks us for, this spiritual journey, where spiritual sight and hearing are cherished, sought, and known -- as well as the growth toward greater maturity that St. Paul writes about.  Let us especially note the final line.  Where is faith, hope, and love in the self-serving cynicism of the religious leaders?   Love is also known as "charity" in our traditional language of the King James Bible.  Where is the charity in hearts that are so hard they do not even receive the great healings of human beings they have seen?  Let us remember these words and this teaching, for it is our lack of charity and love that blinds us to such great things we are rejecting -- and the depth of loss that creates for us.

 

 

 

Then they will begin "to say to the mountains, 'Fall on us!' and to the hills, 'Cover us!'" For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry?

 

 Now as they led Him away, they laid hold of a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, who was coming from the country, and on him they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus.  And a great multitude of the people followed Him, and women who also mourned and lamented Him.  But Jesus, turning to them, said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.  For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, 'Blessed are the barren, wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed!"  Then they will begin 'to say to the mountains, "Fall on us!" and to the hills, "Cover us!"'  For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry?"

 

- Luke 23:26–31 

 

Yesterday we read that Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people, said to them,  "You have brought this Man to me, as one who misleads the people.  And indeed, having examined Him in your presence, I have found no fault in this Man concerning those things of which you accuse Him; no, neither did Herod, for I sent you back to him; and indeed nothing deserving of death has been done by Him.  I will therefore chastise Him and release Him" (for it was necessary for him to release one to them at the feast).  And they all cried out at once, saying, "Away with this Man, and release to us Barabbas" -- who had been thrown into prison for a certain rebellion made in the city, and for murder.  Pilate, therefore, wishing to release Jesus, again called out to them.  But they shouted, saying, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!"  Then he said to them the third time, "Why, what evil has He done?  I have found no reason for death in Him.  I will therefore chastise Him and let Him go."  But they were insistent, demanding with loud voices that He be crucified.  And the voices of these men and of the chief priests prevailed.  So Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they requested.  And he released to them the one they requested, who for rebellion and murder had been thrown into prison; but he delivered Jesus to their will.   

 

 Now as they led Him away, they laid hold of a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, who was coming from the country, and on him they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus.  My study Bible comments that the name Simon means "obedience."  It says that this faithful man stands for all who desire to follow Christ and carry the cross Christ places on them (Luke 9:23, 14:27).  

And a great multitude of the people followed Him, and women who also mourned and lamented Him.  But Jesus, turning to them, said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children."  My study Bible states here that weeping is not appropriate for the One who redeems the world through the Cross, but it is rather suited for one's own sins and for the sufferings of others. 

 

 For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, 'Blessed are the barren, wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed!"  Then they will begin 'to say to the mountains, "Fall on us!" and to the hills, "Cover us!"'  This blessing on the barren women is an acknowledgement of the overwhelming pain a mother endures at seeing her children suffer (which is illustrated by the "woe" in Matthew 24:19).  St. John Chrysostom writes, "Mothers are held by the tie of feeling for their children, but cannot save them.  How can one escape the bonds of nature?  How can she who nurses ever overlook the one she has borne?"  Jesus quotes from Hosea 10:8, tying these events to prophecy.

 

 "For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry?"  The green wood is understood to be Christ full of virtue and truth.  The dry stands for the religious leaders and those who follow who are barren of all lie and of all righteousness, my study Bible says.  Note that this also ties in with the themes of Hosea's prophecy, from which Jesus quotes in the previous verse, above, whose prophetic ministry focused on the faithlessness and infidelity of God's people.  My study Bible explains this saying with a question:  If the Romans eagerly destroy the righteous (and Pilate has declared three times he found no evil in Jesus), what horrifying things await the unrighteous?

Clearly there is a hint in the language here, and especially in the quotation from Hosea, that the terrible destruction and hardship to come to Jerusalem in the near future (that is, within a generation from this time in which Christ goes to the Cross) needs to be seen from the perspective of a people who have failed to receive the literal Word of God.  That is, similarly to the ways that the true prophets of Israel were rejected in their time, so it is now with Christ, the Son, who is sent from God (John 4:34).  This is the context in which we read the violence to come.  Jesus says, "For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry?"  He has clearly framed this statement to include Himself as a recipient of the violence which He sets out as on a continuum, within an extended period of time.  To compare the green wood to the dry is to compare healthy wood in a growing tree to one that has exhausted its life and lost its sap.  The violence that begins with His death on the Cross will extend to the "dry wood," that is, to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, in a fire which will engulf the city.  In this light, the "dry wood" analogy becomes even more profound and apt.  We might also consider this unruly mob who has called for Jesus' crucifixion, having been deliberately instigated by those who want Jesus dead, who shout with loud voices that it is Barabbas who should be freed.  We can compare it to the Roman soldiers who will lay siege to Jerusalem in 70 AD, who, although their commander wanted to preserve the splendid temple for his own purposes, in a paroxysm of passion destroyed not only the beautiful temple but the entire city down to its foundations.  In this viewpoint, Jesus indeed prophecies correctly regarding the violence to the green wood and its apogee in the dry.  If the Romans, represented chiefly by Pilate, but also by Herod, allow Christ to be crucified at the behest of this crowd although they know He is innocent, think what is to come in the extreme and chaotic heat of furious battle.  While we cannot say that bad things happen to people as a direct result of sin (certainly we know that Jesus will suffer and that He did not sin; see also John 9:1-4), we might also say that when spiritually we are being called in a particular direction, and we ignore that call, there may be events that happen in our lives which seek to pull us in the direction we need.  On the other hand, there are times when we absolutely know where a spiritual pull from God who loves us would like us to go, and we ignore that call for all kinds of other, bad reasons, such as selfishness, or the pursuit of false idols and passions.   In the case in today's reading, those who seek to persecute Christ know He is innocent of the charges they bring against Him, but in their quest for power, justice comes second, and truth comes last.  These religious leaders are also those who should know better than all others what the signs of the Messiah, the Christ, look like.  In Christ, the injustice is compounded, as He is not merely an Innocent, but One sent by God to heal and redeem, to love and to save.  Let us consider, therefore, Jesus' words regarding the green wood and the dry, and take them to heart.  It is remarkable how often simply going along with a crowd puts us in spiritual danger.  How far do we go down a road of injustice, when we know what we do is wrong, even if convenient?  Are there truths we will ignore or bend to "get along"?  Are there ways in which we ignore the pull of our prayer lives?  We move in a world in which spiritual forces play a role, although we do not see them.  Let us take it to heart that our choices do indeed make a difference, and an impact on the future.

 

 

 

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!

 "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, a great discourse against the hypocrisy and excesses of the scribes and Pharisees:  "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 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.  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' words reflect the parable of the Wicked Vinedressers (in this reading), which Jesus had told to the chief priests and elders, in which each servant sent by the vineyard owner represented a prophet sent to call the people back to God.  Here in today's passage, Jesus more clearly states that these leaders of His time are the children of their fathers, so to speak, as they will kill Him, the Son, and assuredly would have been among those who murdered the prophets.  Their own guilt becomes, in effect, a manifestation of Jesus' words of condemnation in yesterday's reading, in which He said to them, "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."  It is these men upon whom the added guilt of their "fathers" will fall, as they are the same as those who murdered the prophets; in effect, a "brood of vipers."  This is the third time that term has appeared in Matthew's Gospel; the first time it was used by John the Baptist, and the second time by Jesus (3:7, 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!' "   My study bible comments that God's deepest desire is the reconciliation of God's people, but most do not want God.  The desolate house is a reference both directly to the temple but also to the nation itself.  House can be used to mean "family" or "tribe" (see Psalms 115:12, 135:19).  My study bible comments that once Christ departs, both the temple and the nation will be without God's presence.

I don't think we can overestimate the impact of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in terms of the meaning for the whole of Jewish spiritual history.  Jesus places this event, which will happen some forty years after His prophesy of its destruction, firmly within a timeline of choices by the religious leadership to reject God's repeated call in their practices.  Most particularly, it is the rejection of the prophets, including John the Baptist, and the deliberate putting to death of Jesus, that precipitates this horrific event which will take place at the time of the devastation to Jerusalem.  In some sense, the choice that will be offered to the people between the nationalist insurrectionist Barabbas and Jesus Himself will be both a symbolic and actual wrong choice in terms of spiritual truths and God's call to the people.  It will be a figurative choice between a doctrine of a messiah who will return the material fortunes of Israel as great earthly kingdom or Christ whose kingdom is at once "not of this world" and also "within" us and among us (John 18:36, Luke 17:21).  Repeatedly in recent readings (and especially in this final sermon), Jesus has spoken of the depth of commitment to God as something which concerns the heart and soul and mind (as in the first "greatest commandment").  Jesus has quoted from the prophesy of Isaiah suggesting that even as they draw near to God with words, their hearts are far away (Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:7–9).  The repeated powerful emphasis has been on the love of God and its presence within heart and mind and soul over and against a materialist mindset that values the "praise of men" more than the "praise of God" (John 12:43).   The seeking of a messiah for whom the glories of the kingdom of Israel would be paramount, such as becoming once again a conquering worldly kingdom as in the time of David, becomes the lynch pin, so to speak.  It is the stumbling block that prevents the response of the heart to God's call.  Jesus will be condemned by these leaders because He calls Himself the Son of God, but truly we must look at the patterns evidenced by repeated choices to understand the deeper roots of conflict.  We must wonder whether or not an all-powerful conquering Jesus, with an army that would throw off the Romans and establish great wealth for the kingdom of Israel would not, in fact, have been welcomed by both the leaders and the people.  In such a case, He may even have been acknowledged as messiah who was both God and man.  But Jesus, like the prophets before Him including John the Baptist, comes as one with "nowhere to lay His head" (8:20).   He does not command an army, He has not amassed weapons, and His focus is not on a political solution for Israel of overthrowing the Romans.  His focus is, instead, on a purely spiritual call, and a naming of the problems of Israel on spiritual terms:  that "these people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me," and that "in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men."  In today's world, we are experiencing a lot of social upheaval.  Perhaps depending upon which country (or countries) in which one lives, such upheaval affects us on one level and another.  But Jesus offers us a third way, so to speak, in complete contrast to the political solutions which present themselves for today's problems, which we may view as the "commandments of men," in some sense.  For one thing is clear, if we are truly to follow Jesus, and to consider His message for today.  We cannot leave our faith out of our solutions to current problems.  We can't leave God out of solutions to permanent and long-lasting problems that come into the realm of this world of human beings.  Ultimately, goodness and truth and beauty are not mere abstractions or philosophical ideals.  Our solution to all ills has to be a spiritual one to begin with, for it is in the love of God -- the Source of all goodness, truth, and beauty -- where we will find our true peace and joy.   This isn't just a formula for yet another political solution to current events and current problems.  Rather, we have to return to Jesus' true message of hearts that are drawn close to God, and which do not just give lip service to faith or to worship.  We have to come to understand His message in the context of our own times:  where are we drawn that will provide us with real answers to our problems?  How do we seek first His kingdom so that all things are added unto us?  How do we avoid being also a "brood of vipers" like those who may draw near to God with their lips but who would censor and condemn the prophets of our own time?  We have powerful structures and interests at work in the world, and those which are also corrupt.  Of that we can be sure, that nothing much has changed since Christ's time.  But let us consider His lament over Jerusalem, and His warnings to the religious leaders, and think not that we will find respite in easy rhetoric and virtue-signaling, which seem to be so popular and de rigeur.  Jesus does not ask for empty talk of guilt, but rather for faith -- and that is a much tougher and more courageous call.  It is the call of the Cross.

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 brood under her wings, but you were not willing!

 Christ Pantocrator/Logos (Deesis - Supplication), detail, Hagia Sophia

On that very day some Pharisees came, saying to Him, "Get out and depart from here, for Herod wants to kill You."  And He said to them, "Go tell that fox, 'Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.'  Nevertheless I must journey today, tomorrow, and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem.  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 brood under her wings, but you were not willing!  See!  Your house is left to you desolate; and assuredly, I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'"

- Luke 13:31-35

Yesterday, we read that Jesus said, "What is the kingdom of God like?  And to what shall I compare it?   It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and put in his garden; and it grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches."  And again He said, "To whom shall I liken the kingdom of God?  It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened."  And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem.  Then one said to Him, "Lord, are there few who are saved?"  And He said to them, "Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.  When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open for us,' and He will answer and say to you, 'I do not know you, where you are from,' then you will begin to say, 'We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.'  But He will say, 'I tell you I do not know you, where you are from.  Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.'  There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out.  They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God.  And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last."

On that very day some Pharisees came, saying to Him, "Get out and depart from here, for Herod wants to kill You."  And He said to them, "Go tell that fox, 'Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.'  Nevertheless I must journey today, tomorrow, and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem.  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 brood under her wings, but you were not willing!  See!  Your house is left to you desolate; and assuredly, I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'"    My study bible says of today's reading:  "This passage shows (1) Christ voluntarily going to His Passion, (2)  His great love for Jerusalem in spite of its continual state of rebellion, and (3)  His foreknowledge of how He will be received on the first Palm Sunday."

Jesus' lament over Jerusalem tells us of His great love for the people.  All of His recent warnings about Judgment, about the signs of the time, have been stark admonitions given out of love and the deep longing to save.  He knows what is going to happen when He reaches Jerusalem, and He knows what the Passion will hold.  Nevertheless, He laments -- not for Himself, but for the people who are going to reject Him.  We are given a maternal image of Jesus here:  a hen who gathers her brood protectively under her wings.  Some people associate a partridge with this portrayal of Christ from His own example (a partridge is a bird with large broods, her chicks near her at all times).  Whatever way we look at His teaching and analogy for His feelings, we must read love and care, and a willingness to sacrifice for those whom He loves.  His lament is for those who will put Him to death.  Nothing can change His love.  He envisions a house desolate as a result, and it is a devastating understanding.  So profound is this love that Jesus gives a very maternal, literally feminine image (mother hen) of His desire to care for His children.  It turns us back to the understanding that in God there is no gender, and in a truly god-like person we share many characteristics that are assigned to both genders as distinctive.  The courage of this picture of the protective mother is usually assigned as a "masculine" trait, but Christ calls each of us to both "masculine" and "feminine" virtues.  Finally, in the image of the mother hen we must see a vision for the Church.  Jesus remains this great maternal image in that it is His Church that is to be the shelter for all of us together.  Protective, maternal, and nurturing, the Church is supposed to be the gathering place for each of us, with all of our uniquenesses and differences, every charism.  If you look at the architecture of the ancient church of Hagia Sophia (Saint Sophia, or more truly Holy Wisdom), you will see its broad round dome.  Although the church was staggeringly impressive in its conception, beauty, size, and interior decoration, the message is clear from the architecture:  it's a great broad sheltered gathering place, the feminine image of the mother that gathers her children in the humble image of a dome.  To the Greek Orthodox, Holy Wisdom is Logos; the feminine word Sophia (meaning "Wisdom") is also a name of the One we call the Son.  The icon above is Logos - Christ Pantocrator (Almighty), the risen Lord who is the Son.  Again, there is no gender in God as the Persons of the Trinity (that's in contrast to His Incarnation as Jesus, a male human being).  In modern photos of the Hagia Sophia you will see also minarets built by Ottoman conquerors who for a time converted the Church to a mosque.  (There are modern day calls in Turkey to once again turn it into a mosque.  It is currently a museum.)  These minarets stand in stark contrast to the conceived architecture of the Church.  It gives us an idea of the Protection of Christ, a concept so important to the Church from its earliest centuries, wherein the beautiful mosaic of Christ as child with Mary also becomes yet another icon of protection.  In all of these images, we get the sense of Christ's love, mirrored also in the images of His human mother, Mary, and the love and protection she expresses for her child, and for so many Christians, as the one who prays with us.  In my icon page, you can see several example of this loving gaze.  Let us remember Jesus' own words describing His lament over His children who will lose by refusing what He offers, what He brings to the world as gift, pure grace.  It's a lament for the whole history of Israel, the people of God, to whom also have been sent prophets.  Let us not forget the dignity in His protection, His lament, His great love for each of us.  Protection in the context of this reading is above all else a spiritual protection, something He conferred on His disciples.  It doesn't mean our worldly lives are perfect; for martyrs life provides great challenges, and we are all called to "witness."  But this protection works within, for the integrity of our souls and our understanding of ourselves, the unity of love we have with God, in Christ.