As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, "If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. (Luke 19:41-42 NRSV Bible)
Jesus well knew that His message would not ultimately be popular. After all, who wants to respond to a call to carry a cross? Jesus had no illusions. Jesus said in Matthew 7:14, "...the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life and those who find it are few." Yet-- when we see Him on what was supposed to be the happiest day of His life, Palm Sunday, we find Him standing, weeping over the city He had come to save.

Luke reports other words of Jesus earlier in his Gospel, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often I would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!" This gives us a clear motherly image of God. How could one improve upon Jesus' picture of God as a Mother Hen, brooding over her chicks? God, with outstretched wings, trying to gather together all of God's children into one community of faith and hope and love...but they would not! Moreover, we still don't. Our unwillingness to be gathered together as God's children still brings grief to the heart of God!

God of forgiveness, gather me into your heart today. Amen.

Ron Newhouse

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