Discussion question: How does the gospel image of Jesus as a mother hen speak to you?
In today’s gospel we meet sassy Jesus. He says, “Go and tell that fox for me…” Jesus, tell us how you really feel. He feels comfortable joking around with the Pharisees in the story. As commentator Richard Swanson notes, they have come to warn Jesus about Herod. The Pharisees are there to help. And Jesus knows they aren’t literally going to say that to Herod’s face. They don’t have that kind of access. And no one says that to Herod’s face and gets away with it. Surely some lackey of Herod’s would ask, “Did you say thank you? Have you said thank you to Herod even one time since you arrived?”
In this scene we also hear from Jesus that Jerusalem is holy. Not just generally speaking, but especially for Jesus as well. The Temple is in the middle of the city, a place he has visited together with his family while growing up. In the middle of the Temple is the Holy of Holies, a mystical space where God is present. For many, the Holy of Holies is where God touches mortality. As Christians we say that Jesus embodies this mystical union as the incarnation of God. Even so, Swanson notes that Jesus is no supercessionist. Jesus doesn’t say that the Temple doesn’t matter or that he sees himself as replacing Judaism. For Jesus, Jerusalem is still a centre of the divine. What Jesus finds troubling is that the city he loves doesn’t love him back. There is a history of the political establishment killing prophets. It is Herod and the Roman Empire especially here who are responsible for the persecution. The Gospel of Luke also alludes to the Roman destruction of the Second Temple around 70 CE after which the gospel is written. In Luke we hear a foreshadowing of the Romans plundering what is sacred. As well as Jesus’ own foreshadowing of Palm/Passion Sunday in the final verse when he says they will not see him until he says, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” Spoiler alert! This is the verse with which we begin Palm/Passion Sunday with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, riding on a colt. So lots of allusions between the destruction of the Temple and Jesus’ death, both at the hands of the Romans – through the power of empire that cannot stand for other powers to rise up in competition.
We also know about recent history examples in which religious houses were destroyed, thinking about synagogues in the lead up to WWII. Last weekend I had the privilege of joining the birthday celebration and 60th Bar Mitzvah anniversary for Dr. Robert Oppenheimer. Some of you may have met Robert through his work on refugee sponsorships. He also once presented a documentary here in the church with his life and story as a child Holocaust survivor. He helped create the Shoah Project, which tells stories about the Holocaust together with academics at UVic. While many of us thought that hard times like WWII are something that happened “back then,” today we are reminded that democracies and peace are fragile and require constant maintenance. We are learning we can’t things for granted we once found an everyday routine like crossing a border. So too we need to look at how minorities are treated including religious minorities, queer people, especially trans people, and the how women and girls are treated.
Today in the gospel reading we also hear Jesus compare himself to a mother hen. We hear Jesus overtly using maternal imagery, longing to care for the people of Jerusalem as a mother hen does her chicks. Given all the masculine imagery in scripture, it is interesting to hear this twist. Now we will take five minutes to break into small groups and discuss the question at the top of your order of worship: How does the gospel image of Jesus as a mother hen speak to you?
