To Encourage You

Matthew 23:37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”

The words above, which are a lament of Jesus, are some of the saddest words in all the Bible.  Yet, in these words, we see an awesome depiction of the deity of Christ.  Who but God could utter the words above regarding an entire nation?  Who but God would have the power to gather and protect an entire nation of people as a hen gathers her brood under her wings? 

In these words, we hear the depth and the breadth of the love of God in His longing to save the world.  It is God alone that has the power to save sinners and the love to want to save them in spite of their rejection of Him.  Sadly, the tragedy of Jerusalem from the first century plays out today as well.  All over the world as Christians reach out with the message of the gospel, so often they are mocked, vilified, imprisoned, and even murdered.  As Jesus continues to reach out to the lost today through those who have put their faith in Him, it is really Jesus, and not His followers, that is being rejected.  Jesus prophesied this with these words from John 15: “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.” 

Of all the tragedies in the world today, this is the greatest – that Jesus came to His own, something we celebrate at Christmas, but His own did not receive Him (John 1:11).  As He stood up in the synagogue in Nazareth and said the following words – those who heard Him tried to shove Him off a cliff:  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor . . . Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”  Such a strange thing, but such an overwhelming example of the self-destructive nature of the sin-sickened heart.  What else can explain the rejection of the one and only Savior of the world. 

So, have you rejected Him?  Have you turned away from Him?  Have you heard Him knock at the door of your heart, but not let Him in?  May God help any who have not turned to Him to do so now, for only in Him is eternal life. And only in Him is the eternal refuge of the One who alone has the power to gather the whole world under His wings as a hen gathers her brood – but we must be willing.  Are you?