"What am I going to do with you?"

Luke 13:31 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 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 Jerusalem! 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.'"

“What am I going to do with you?” If you’re a parent, you’ve said those words. And if you are a child (or you were once a child), you’ve heard those words. They are words of exasperation. Words that you say when the other words that you’ve said have not sunk in. Words that express frustration, and at the same time love.

“What am I going to do with you?” That is Jesus’ lament today. Jesus loves the city of Jerusalem. It is where Abraham offered the sacrifice of his son, Isaac. It is where God showed His presence to the Israelites of old. It is where Solomon built his temple. It is King David’s royal city. Jerusalem means “city of peace.” But it was anything but peaceful. Generations of Jerusalem inhabitants had set up idols in the house of the Lord. They had closed their hearts to God’s love. They had offered empty sacrifices. They persecuted and killed God’s prophets. And now they were only a short time away from doing the very same thing to the Son of God.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem.” You can hear the sorrow in Jesus’ voice. He is frustrated with His people. He is upset because He preaches but they do not listen. He is irritated because He teaches but they do not learn. He is discouraged because He rebukes but they do not repent. But above all, Jesus is grieving because He loves them, but they do not love Him in return.

What is He going to do with them?

They are his little fuzzy yellow chicks. He loves them so, in spite of their opposition, in spite of their obstinance, in spite of their rebellion, in spite of their misunderstanding. He just wants to take them all under His wings, His protective wings, His Gospel wings, and forgive them, heal them, love them, protect them.

But they were not willing! How sad those words are. Chicks rejecting their protecting mother, running all around the barnyard, exposed to the dangerous predators around them … instead of safe and secure under her wings.

Have you ever seen a chicken hawk go after its prey? The old mother hen is often aware of the presence of the hawk in time to gather her chicks under her wings. With a furious fuss, she squawks till her brood is safe by her side. She fluffs out her wings and protects them with her own body. The chicken hawk dives in for the kill, but the mother hen is too big to be a target and the chicks are too safe to be seized.

Except for one. He decides to go off on his own. To escape the confines of his mother’s wings and do his own thing. And what happens? Hawk lunch. Does that mean that the mother’s wings did not offer protection? No! It means the chick forfeited what was offered and suffered the consequences.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem.” Jesus speaks those same words of deep sadness about us. How often are we not the little fuzzy yellow chicks scurrying away from the safety of Jesus’ wings?

What is He going to do with us?

Jesus wants to save us, but so often we live like we don’t want to be saved. We overwork; we overextend; we overindulge; not realizing the danger. We allow the wisdom of the world to influence and shape us more than the wisdom of God. Our god is our belly, we glory in our shame, we revel in our filth. We yearn for earthly things at the expense of forfeiting heavenly things. We allow the Church to become more like the world instead of making the world more like the Church. We hear the Word of God and then live as if we didn’t.

We are enticed by the good-looking bait that lures us away from the safety of God’s wings. We go off on our own, away from the brood of our fellow members who care about us and warn us, away from the constant cries of the preacher calling for us to return, away from safe confines of a God who wishes to protect us. We then become easy prey for the sharp talons of the evil one who is just waiting to swoop down and snatch us away.

Could it be that we are having so many problems in our lives because we have separated ourselves from the God who can overcome all our problems? Why do you think your marriage is falling apart? I have yet to find a marriage fail where both husband and wife are humble, committed Christians, always putting God and their spouse first. Our marriages are struggling because one or both of the marriage partners are pulling away from God. Why is your relationship with your boyfriend, with whom you are sleeping, all messed up? Because you are pretending to be married, without God’s actual blessing of marriage upon your relationship. Our relationships falter because we do the exact opposite of what God says He will bless. Why do you fail to receive respect from your children? Instead you receive eye-rolls, backtalk or complete silence. Could it be because you did not instill in your children, from little on, a respect for their heavenly Parent, and so now they have no respect for either their earthly parents or their heavenly Father?

Find any sin that you are dealing with in your life – gossip, despair, heartache, anger, resentment, greed, unhappiness, or whatever – and see how it is connected in some way with you pulling away from the love, forgiveness, guidance and safety of your God. Now Satan has his talons in you and refuses to let you go.

What is Jesus going to do with you?

You could not blame Jesus at all if He just gave up on you. If He allowed you to go off to your own destruction. If He punished you for your continual acts of disobedience against Him, your defiance against His called messengers, your disinterest in His Word and Sacraments. You could not blame Jesus if He had said, “Look, your house is left to you desolate. You will not see me again!”

But He didn’t! He will not leave you. He will not abandon you. He knows that we, like the city of piece, want to tear Him to pieces. He understands that it is our sinful human nature to be stubborn, obstinate and unrepentant. He has witnessed our adverse reaction to His called workers reaching out to us and our families. Still, in His patient grace He says, “I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.” He says, “I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

In other words, His wings are always hovering over us. His love is always nearby. He will never turn away a helpless fuzzy little chick once that chick realizes just how helpless and little it is. When we have finally had our fill of the devil’s lies; when we are tired of going it alone; when we are beaten up and bruised; when we are sorrowful and repentant; Jesus lifts His wings so we can scurry under. There we can hide in the shadow of His wings (Psalm 17:8). There we are safe under the shelter of His wings (Psalm 61:4). There under His wings we find our refuge and sing for joy (Psalm 91:4; 63:7). Though sorrows and storms and sins and struggles may wash over us like waves, still we can sing, “It is well with my soul.”

Fellow chicks, there is danger all around us. It is danger that we cannot see. It is danger that consumed Adam and Eve in Eden. It is danger that is all around us in our world, inside of us in our sinful nature, whispering in our ear with the supernatural voice of the demons. Jesus moved Himself out from underneath the protective wings of His Father and exposes Himself to all of these dangers … in our place. He endured the wrath of God for our stubbornness and unrepentance. He allowed the people He loved to beat Him, spit on Him, and crucify Him. He let the devil have His way with Him – the prowling lion, the ancient serpent, the old evil foe.

The devil defeated Adam and the rest of humanity by laying out bait that we could not refuse. So Jesus laid out bait that the devil could not refuse – Himself. For how could the devil refuse killing the Son of God?! And so the one who baits us into sin, would himself be baited into his own destruction. Or as our communion liturgy says: “that he who overcome us by a tree, would in turn by a tree by overcome.”

And overcome He was! Overcome were all of enemies! There on the cross, the second Adam crushed the ancient serpent’s head. There the hen died protecting the young. I read a story recently about Ike who helped his grandfather put out the fire that burned his grandfather’s hen house to the ground. As Ike and his grandfather sorted through the wreckage, they came upon one hen lying dead near what had been the door of the hen house. Her top feathers were singed brown by the fire’s heat, her neck limp. Ike bent down to pick up the dead hen. As he did, the hen’s four chicks came scurrying out from beneath her burnt body. The chicks survived because they were insulated by the shelter of the hen’s wings.

Jesus died that we might remain living. He has insulated us from the fires of hell. But He is much greater than that dead hen, for Jesus did not stay dead. After His Sabbath rest in the grave, Jesus marched down to Hades to tear the gates off of hell and proclaim His victory to the devil, the demons and all those who had rejected Him as Savior. He rose from the dead and stripped the grave of its power.

Jesus continues to come with His wings spread over you, calling, inviting, imploring you to repent and return. Quit running away from Him. Stop refusing His Word. Stop rejecting His messengers. Instead, come to the Lord. Take refuge under His wings. Receive His forgiveness in Holy Absolution. Receive His new life in Holy Baptism. Receive His strength in Holy Communion. And it is no coincidence that before receiving Holy Communion we often sing in the Sanctus: “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” For in the Sacrament, we see Jesus in the flesh again and again.

My dear little fuzzy yellow chicks, wash, hear, eat, and drink. There is no danger here. There is no need to fear the foe in these sacred things. This is exactly what you need so that Jesus may heal your broken marriage; so He can put together your damaged relationships, so He can reorder your misplaced priorities, so He can love you, teach your, forgive you, protect you. Repent, return, find refuge. That’s what Jesus wants to do with you. Amen.