“Heartbreak”

A Communion Meditation by Rev. Patrice Ficken

Luke 13:31-35

Sanbornton Congregational Church, UCC

March 4, 2007

(Please do not re-print or re-use without permission of the author) 

Speaking toward Jerusalem, Jesus says, “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”  

Jerusalem is the last place, the hardest place for Jesus to bring his message; and though he has been warned that Herod is plotting to kill him, we know that soon enough, Jesus will walk into the thick of it here:  the thick of the power structures, the thick of resistance to his radical message of love and inclusivity, grace and forgiveness.  But not yet.  Jesus still has work to do on the outskirts of the city:  demons to cast out, cures to perform.  He’s doing all he can to spread the love of God to whomever will listen.

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!”  So cries Jesus –  his lament in direct line to the prophets who also lamented Jerusalem’s resistance to God’s word and God’s ways. 

From Marcus Borg’s book, Jesus:

“To Jerusalem, Isaiah said:  “God expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!” (5.7)  About Jerusalem, Jeremiah said: “Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, look around and take note!  Search its square to see if you can find one person who does justice and seeks truth.” (5.1)  Jeremiah even indicted the temple of the God in Jerusalem:  “Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight?”  (7.11)  (Jesus, by Marcus Borg,  p. 104)

The prophets denounced the city for its idolatry and disregard of Yahweh; for its corrupt leaders and its oppression of the poor.  “The fall of the city to the Babylonians in 587 BCE fully vindicated this critique.  God, so Israel came to understand had acted in judgment against his own city.  The precious gift, because abused had been taken away.  Jerusalem was clearly not immune.””  (SOJOURNERS)

Jesus continues the lament of the prophets.  Despite all the heartache the Jewish people endured in the centuries before Jesus, nothing has really changed, except for it is now ruled by puppet leaders installed and approved by the Roman Imperial domination system. 

It is corrupt.  It concentrates wealth and status and power in the hands of a few ruling classes.  In Jerusalem, the religious authorities of the Temple are right in the midst of it, entangled in a system of tithing that allow only those who pay a Temple tax to bring offerings and sacrifices. 

For Jesus this is nothing short of scandalous.  Anything that Jesus had ever learned about what it means to live faithfully, to live in accordance to the law, the Torah – is being violated, not just in Jerusalem but in the very center of religious life, the Temple.  It is no wonder then, that when Jesus returns to Jerusalem, his first act is to turn the tables of the merchants who were selling their wares in the Temple. He does nothing to mask his outrage:  outrage over the denigration of the holy, outrage over the injustice, the widening gap between rich and poor, outrage over oppressive and violent systems and institutions.  But we get ahead of ourselves.  This will happen all during Holy Week.  But not yet, not yet.

For now, Jesus laments the suffering of the people; the unjust systems; the broken promises with God.  The image Jesus chooses is one of the mother hen, protecting her chicks with her open wings.  He chooses an image not of the powerful, but of the powerless.  The hen, is powerless in the face of the fox.  She knows she must sacrifice herself to have any hope of protecting her brood.

Jesus’ heartbreak is that he knows that even with his divine power, he cannot force the people to turn, to love God.   Though Jesus can see all this he doesn’t walk away from Jerusalem.  When the time is right, and the city is bursting with pilgrims for Passover, Jesus will return.  And when he does so, he can only stand by helplessly as the fox circles the coop and zeros in on the kill.  He can only offer himself up, as the hen offers herself to protect her chicks.  His heart will break open to make room for all the world.

Amen.