Ministry Musing

By Donna Kelly

April 2025 – Matthew 23:37-39

As Matthew tells the story of Jesus during the last week of his life (we call it Holy Week), Jesus is often in the Temple courtyards teaching the people. The religious leaders work to set traps for him; asking questions that they believe no matter how Jesus answers, he can either be accused of treason against Rome or turn the people away from following him. But each time he surprises them with his answers. He sees what they are up to and spends several chapters calling them out.

But in verses 37-39, Jesus shows his love for the people of Jerusalem. He has come to show them the way to peace, God’s way of love and justice. He knows that if they don’t follow him, Jerusalem id facing certain doom. He tells them he has wanted to “gather them “under his wings as a mother hen gathers her chicks”. The people were looking for a strong warrior to lead them in a righteous rebellion against Rome. The picture God offers here is one of a protective mother hen, yearning for her chicks to come to her for safety and protection. Yet the people of Jerusalem aren’t looking for that kind of God; they were looking for a strong warrior to lead them in a righteous rebellion against Rome. Jerusalem couldn’t see the way Jesus laid out for them.

And sometimes, you and I are Jerusalem. Often, we are blind and deaf to the promises of God and closed off to the future. It comes as a result of our hanging onto and defining ourselves by past hurts, guilt or losses and refusing to look into ourselves or considering something new for our lives. We can find we are Jerusalem-like when we are suspicious and cynical and when we circle the wagons, draw lines in the sand or refuse to welcome others who see things differently than we do. It occurs when we let fear overwhelm us and allow power, security, control and self-sufficiency to become our principal values. It’s what lies behind our refusal to listen to others and when we believe that our way is not only the best way, but the only way or when we allow structure, rule or law to become the ends rather than the means.

Matthew invites us to contemplate Jesus as a mother hen whose chicks don’t want her. Her wings are empty. She is a mother bereft, struggling with futility. At the moment, all Jesus could see were chicks scurrying off in the opposite direction, taking no notice of the approaching danger, nor of the urgent warnings of the one who longed to give them and us safety.

The good news of life in Christ is that he is always coming to us, in thousands of ways, every moment of every day. The promises have, do now, and will always remain. God never runs out of room under his wings and never, ever gives up on us. Jesus will always be waiting for us to reopen our hearts, and be ready and willing to say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

Donna Kelly 

email Donna at: donna@sotpmail.com