A MESSAGE FOR SUNDAY.

THE LOVE OF GOD TO US.

Reading: Matthew 23:37-39.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”

This is the very heart of God, pouring itself forth through human flesh and speech. It is the voice of the incarnate One, it is the innermost life and love of Deity, pleading with men, bleeding for them, and dying for them. He opens His arms to them, to win them back by the power of this story of His matchless love, that has conquered the world, that will “draw all men unto Himself.”

1. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem.”

JERUSALEM the great capital of Judea, the seat of the kings of Judah, yes, the city of the great king David; the place of divine worship, once the holy and faithful city, the joy of the whole earth; wherefore it was strange that the following things should be said of it.

Jerusalem here means the city and its inhabitants; and the nation as a whole. Jesus here grieves and mourns over the city and people of Jerusalem. This is a sad and yet loving prophecy. For Jerusalem was the centre of the rejection of the Christ.

Here is the rejection of the protection of God incarnate, in favour of the outward trappings of religion, in which they had a vested interest, yet had lost their first love.

The intense feelings of Jesus are felt here, as He voices this utterance enhancing the name of “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem.” He repeats the name of the city, again, to enforce His plead over the city. The word is repeated to show our Lord's affection and concern for the city, as well as to charge it with its name, dignity, and purposes; and designs not the buildings of the city, but the inhabitants of it.

The One who could have saved them will not be seen again until the end, when “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord comes.” This solemn warning seems to mean that the return of the Lord awaits the national repentance of Israel.

Acts 3:19-21: “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, Whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.”

2. “The one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!”

Here stands upon the hillside overlooking the city, the Prophet of all prophets. Not content with rejecting God's messages of mercy, the people of Jerusalem would not even allow the prophets to live! Here Jesus was about to finish His work as a prophet in Jerusalem. This thought made Him break out in sorrow over the city.

They had so persistently rejected the messengers of God, and would in the end find itself locked out of the Kingdom of God. Even before the love and compassion of Jesus, Jerusalem remained unyielding. Therefore the Temple would be empty of God’s divine presence, by the rejection of Jesus, the incarnate One. And it would not see Jesus again, until it was prepared to welcome Him as the Messiah, or was visited by Him as its Judge.

The city had so often rejected the ministry of Jesus, she had rejected the salvation He offered her, and now the people were left to the desolation that was coming, which fell upon the city in A.D.70. And all that was to follow, the Nazis, etc.

3. “How often I wanted to gather your children together.”

Jesus here refers to something beyond the six or seven times that He visited them, and taught in Jerusalem while on earth. No doubt it points to “the prophets,” to “them that were sent unto her.”

For the Lord still desires that Jerusalem and its people hear the good news of the salvation of their God. For Jesus Himself said in Luke 24:47, “That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, BEGINNING AT JERUSALEM.” What encouragement!

4. “As a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.”

Only the greatest of all story tellers, Jesus was well versed in the telling of parables, (parables are earthly stories with a heavenly meaning). Jesus takes the picture from a simple domestic scene, and turns it into a picture of His own love, and care for the people and nation of Israel. Was there ever so an attractive story of such grace, and such simplicity as this?

How graceful this figure of protection, rest, warmth, and well-being of a hen and the safety of her chicks, is the desire of the Lord’s protecting arms. How this image arrests us! Who has not heard, and seen the hen when danger was threatening her brood?

She is quick to protect her young, coming herself between them and the danger. How suggestive all this is of what Jesus is and does for men! Under His great wing would He have gathered Israel.

CONCLUSION:

The reason why men are not saved is not that Christ is not able and willing to save them, nor that they are not under obligation to be saved, but that they will not come to Him. Of course, if they perish, they will be their own destroyers, and the guilt will rest for ever on them.

What is the result of all this tender and mighty love?

The answer is, “But you were not willing!” The people resisted such patient, divine love, which caused their own undoing! How often, how many times will you be summoned by Jesus to come near to Him, but you would not? Come to Jesus now!