I've just done the talk at the midweek communion service here at HTB and here's wot I sed...

Luke 13: 31-end

Jesus' Sorrow for Jerusalem
 At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, "Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you."  He replied, "Go tell that fox, 'I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.' In any case, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!
 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'"

In today’s reading, we see Jesus go through quite a range of emotions – His reaction to the scheming of the Pharisees and Herod shows remarkable persistence and perseverence in the face of extreme and certain danger. He shows a spot of humour in his comment that surely no prophet can die OUTSIDE Jerusalem! He then shows sadness at Jerusalem’s unwillingness to accept him, but then a stern understanding of the fact that one day they too will say “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

But we don’t have the time today to look in detail at this spectrum of emotion, and so I wanted to look in particular at just one verse, verse 34:

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often have I longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”

Jerusalem was the city of God and symbolised the whole nation. It was Israel’s largest city and the nation’s spiritual and political capital. Jews from around the world went there frequently, but it had a history of rejecting God’s prophets, and Jesus knew that ultimately it would also reject him as the Messiah.

In this verse we witness Jesus’ sadness at Jerusalems’ inability to see him for who he was, and their reluctance to come to him and receive his love and all he had to give to them. His lamenting repetition of “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem” is reminiscent of David’s emotional lament when he hears of his son, Absolom’s, death in 2 Samuel:

“O my son Absolom! My son, my son Absolom! If only I had died instead of you – O Absolom, my son, my son!”

 I really love these glimpses we have in the New Testament of Jesus’ personality – each time I ponder on them Jesus becomes so much more tangible. In the Garden of Gethemane, we witness his loneliness and fear, in the temple we see his righteous display of anger… this is a God who really gets his hands dirty and understands from the inside the ups and downs of our human existence.

His frustration and sadness at Jerusalem’s, and the people he loved, past and future rejection of him is so similar to that of loving parents, who, with unconditional love helplessly watch their children go off on their own, determined to tread rebellious and dangerous paths against their parent’s advice and better judgement.

The author and priest Barbara Brown Taylor says this:

“If you have ever loved someone you could not protect, then you understand the depth of Jesus’ lament. All you can do is open your arms. You cannot make anyone walk into them. Meanwhile, this is the most vulnerable posture in the world – wings spread, breast exposed – but if you mean what you say, then this is how you stand.”

In nature, it is only human beings who rebel against this unconditional love, pushing the boundaries and testing the patience of those who love us. Sometimes we just refuse to let ourselves be loved by the right people and instead we peck here and there in the hope of finding some morsel of sustinence. It’s not how God wants us to be, but where’s the glory in taking away free will and making someone love you?

In Jim Carrey’s film ‘Bruce Almighty’ Bruce, who, following the breakdown of the relationship with his girlfriend, is highly critical of God’s performance to date and he takes on God’s job for a period of time. When giving him the rules of the position, God tells Bruce that the one thing he can’t do is take away free will. Bruce, who’s desperately trying to win back the affections of his ex-girlfriend, asks: “But how do you make someone love you when you can't effect free will?” God patiently replies, “Welcome to my world, son. When you come up with an answer to that one, you let me know.”

It’s easy, and normal, for us to want to take life into our own hands – to take control, to get what we want, and quickly. It’s easy to get drawn in by the quick fixes that the world offers us. To root our self-worth in the admiration of our peers. To be sucked into life’s little traps which hold us tight. After all, what could God possibly offer us that the world can’t? It’s easy to be too proud and too stubborn to admit that actually, we are vulnerable, and that we need looking after, that sometimes we want to be small and gathered in “as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.” It’s easy to be too proud and too stubborn to receive that free and eternal unconditional love, and just let ourselves be loved.

But it’s when we take things completely under our own control, when we’re blinded by the world’s attractions and the world’s praise, it’s then that we can become the most oblivious to the pitfall that’s coming up.

On Monday night I arranged to have dinner with an old friend. We met at Piccadilly Circus. I love being in Central London – I love the noise, the excitement, the attractive shop fronts, the hustle and bustle. I feel so brave being there… When I’m in the vibrant Capital I feel like I’ve made it in some way – that I’ve really flown the nest, that I’m my own person. So there we were – Bright lights, big city. Life was good, I was in control.  I could see us - two ladies hitting the town. Unfortunately, what I didn’t see, was the plastic string on the pavement in front of me, which quickly became entangled around both my ankles, sending me headlong into what can only be described as a dramatic and painful tumble onto the very hard pavement of Shaftesbury Avenue. I landed very hard on my knee which is now sporting quite a splendid bruise in a rather dramatic range of colours. And within a heartbeat of landing I had one thought… I wanted to call my mum. The brave cosmopolitan girl that I believed I was stripped back to what God created me to be… dependent on unconditional love.

When life is throwing it’s hardest punches at us, we it’s then that we  instinctively return to that childlike state, to want to be in a safe place, to have someone say “I love you, it’s alright, let me take this weight from you, let me make this better.” And that’s just what Jesus offers and promises… “Come to me all you who are weary and I will give you rest.”

Oscar Wilde says this:

“Life is a pilgrimage. The wise man does not rest by the roadside inns. He marches direct to the illimitable domain of eternal bliss, his ultimate destination.”

As Jesus mourned for Jerusalem, so he mourns for us when we just aren’t willing to accept him into our lives. But the beauty and miracle of it all is that our rebellion doesn’t make Jesus love us any less. He waits as we wander rebelliously, dangerously, giving precious time to pointless distractions by the wayside, all the time willing us just to come straight to him. He understands the temptations of the world, and the lies it tells us. And so Jesus waits with wide open arms, in that vulnerable state, for us to realise this, just waiting for us to be willing to let ourselves be loved by Him. Because, as our quote from earlier says “if you mean what you say, then this is how you stand.”

I just wanted to finish with some words from Revelation 3.

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.