As Jesus laments over Jerusalem, he uses a metaphor to describe his relationship with its inhabitants. Jesus wishes to gather God’s people like a hen gathers her brood under her wings.
This image is even more powerful when Jesus is talking about the decay and destruction of Jerusalem (the metaphorical burning down of the
city).
Stories have been told of what farmers have discovered after their barns burn down. Fire is terrifying to animals. When a farmyard catches fire, animals try to escape. Some species have developed ways to protect their young if they cannot.
Without any escape, mother hens fluff themselves up and gather their chicks under their wings. This tactic is so
effective that, on some occasions, a dead mother hen has been found scorched and blackened while her chicks remain alive, sheltered underneath her wings. She has quite literally given her life to save them.
Jesus desires to do the same for Jerusalem and all of Israel. Knowing the end of the story, we know that, like the hen with her baby chicks, Jesus went to Jerusalem and took the full force of the disaster he was predicting for the
nation and the Temple. “The one gave himself on behalf of the many (2 Cor 5:14).”
How does this image of God as a mother hen help you to relate to God? How can we ensure that we are heeding Jesus’ warnings and running towards God’s loving and protective arms in times of challenge rather than deeper into trouble?
Reflections by Joe Taylor
