Lent 2 March
4, 2007
“Protected By the Hen”
Luke 13:31-35
31
At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, “Leave this place
and go somewhere else. Herod wants to
kill you.”
32
He replied, “Go and tell that fox, ‘I will drive out demons and heal people
today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal. 33 In any case, I must keep going today and
tomorrow and the next day – for surely no prophet can die outside
34
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! 35 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.’”
Raise your hand if you have
ever seen a chicken coop. Keep your hand
up if you have ever seen a hen and her chicks inside of a chicken coop. Keep your hand up if you have ever walked
into the chicken coop when a hen and her chicks were inside it.
What happened when you walked
in? I don’t know personally; my hand
went down after question number two. But
I’ve been told that if you walk into a chicken coop when a hen and her chicks
are inside, the hen goes into defense mode.
Big-time. She scrambles to scoop
up her chicks and locks them down under her wings. She doesn’t leave any of them out in the
open. And once her chicks are under
those wings, it is extremely difficult to get the hen to move. To get to the chicks, you’ll have to go
through her. And that ain’t gonna happen.
In the Scriptures today Jesus
describes himself as a hen. I don’t know
if you’ve ever thought of your Savior as your mother hen before; yet it is
clear that Jesus wants to be a hen for us.
It’s kind of the same as ‘He is our shepherd and we are his sheep.” He is
our hen and we are his chicks. He longs
to scoop us up and lock us down under his wings. He longs to keep us safe from everything and give
us full protection. He is willing to fight
off anyone who tries to devour us. Baby
chicks are very devourable – and so are we. But to get to us, Satan will have to go
through the hen first. And that ain’t gonna happen.
Listen to the Scriptures
today; and hear how Jesus longs to protect us as a hen protects her
chicks. (read text)
Did you hear our Savior’s
emotion? “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how
often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her
chicks under her wings…but you were not willing!” Jesus longed to scoop the people up
and keep them safe as mother hen, but they were not willing. They thought they were better off on their
own. They just wanted him to go away.
Why did they want him to go
away? In verses 31-33 we see some of
their reasons. At that time some Pharisees came
to Jesus and said to him, “Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.” The Pharisees and religious leaders
were tired of having Jesus in their neighborhood. They were tired of being exposed as a bunch
of self-righteous hypocrites who weren’t nearly as glamorous as they thought
they were. They wanted Jesus to quit
making them look bad and just move on.
So they came to Jesus and threatened him. “Look, Jesus, Herod is after you. If he finds you, what happened to John the
Baptist might happen to you too.
Remember, Herod was the one who had thrown John the Baptist into prison
and beheaded him.
But Jesus wasn’t worried
about Herod beheading him. Remember when
the people of
Listen to Jesus make it clear
that He was the one in charge. 32 He
replied, “Go and tell that fox, ‘I will drive out demons and heal people today
and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal. 33 In any case, I must keep going today and
tomorrow and the next day – for surely no prophet can die outside
And after putting them
squarely back in their place, Jesus warned them about their arrogance and
rejection of him. “Stop worrying about my schedule and start worrying about
your souls.” 34 “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! 35 Look, your
house is left to you desolate.” Can’t
you hear the heartache in our Savior’s voice?
He longed to scoop these people up like a hen scoops up her chicks. All he wanted to do was to keep them safe and
lock them down under his wings like a hen keeps her chicks safe by locking them
down when danger is coming. This was
something he longed for not just once or twice but OFTEN. But these chicks were not willing. They thought they were safe from Satan. They thought they were good people and, thus,
they were on good terms with God. They
had no need for a Savior and they didn’t want to be under anyone’s wings.
So Jesus had no choice but to
tell them, “Your house is left to you desolate.” The word translated “desolate” means “you
have it entirely on your own to protect; for God no longer lives in it or
protects it.” Ouch. There was no hen to lock them down and keep
them safe. There was no protection
available. When Satan the lion entered
the chicken coop, the chicks would be on their own to defend themselves. You know who would win that battle.
How heartbreaking for Jesus
to have to tell people that he loved, “Your house is left to you
desolate.” And in those words there is a
warning for us. We are only chicks! Yet we are bold enough to tell the hen, “I
don’t want you around; go away.” We are
only chicks! But we’re all are capable
of shoving Jesus to the side. We are
only chicks! Yet it is within us to
shake our puny little fists at God, thinking we know better than he does. Within my own heart beats a rebel. Can’t you hear the aching heart of the Savior
crying out to you, “You who run after everything under the sun and are never
content and think you are too busy for Bible study or Sunday School or personal
devotions, you who push away my love which is what you need the most …all I
want to do is scoop you up and keep you safe.
But you keep on kicking and screaming for me to let you go.”
And do you know what the
worst possible thing is that Jesus could do?
The worst possible thing Jesus could do is to listen to us and let us
go. Thankfully he loves us and refuses
to listen to our foolish demands. He
will not let us go; rather he keeps coming to us and telling us about his
forgiveness. He continues to remind us
that God will not treat us as our sins deserve.
And when we are trusting that promise, we are safe. We are in lock-down under the wings. The devil cannot steal us, the devil cannot
lie to us, the devil cannot devour us.
We are safe in Christ’s forgiveness.
And that will never change. The
hen will always protect her chicks, no matter what.
I’ve heard other stories
about hens protecting chicks during forest fires. After the fire rages through, when you are
sifting through the torched trees and ashes left behind, you might find a hen
blackened and burnt to a crisp…with little chicks alive and safe under her
wings. Even during a forest fire, the
hen would not move so that the chicks could stay protected. She was willing to die so that they might
live.
And now you’re starting to
see why thinking of your Savior as a hen is a good comparison to make. He was willing to die so that we might
live. He was willing to be burnt to a
crisp on the cross so that we could be secure under his wings. Rejoice dear Christians! It doesn’t matter how many fires burn through
your life. It doesn’t matter how many
stressful things you are dealing with today.
Jesus has you in lockdown under his wings. He isn’t moving. And they’re going to have to go through him
to get to you. Amen.