Lent day 6: sacrifice

31At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” 32He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. 33Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’ 34Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 35See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’”





"Be careful what you long for," I've been told.  The longing to hold the wayward chicks, to pull them in close to hold them tight doesn't go away -- no matter how far they run from you -- no matter how little they remember about the comfort of that closeness.

"Be careful," came the warning.  Jesus knows all too well in this passage what it means to stretch out his arms to embrace the lost children in Jerusalem.  Like a hen, he says, who stretches out her wings to embrace the directionless chicks.

This is a dangerous posture --wings spread, breast exposed -- but if you mean what you say, and this is truly what you long for, then this is how you stand.  Barbara Brown Taylor reminds us that spread wings of the hen and the outstretched arms of Jesus on the cross are the same dangerous posture.  No protection for our hearts or vital organs we lay bare all that we are in order to make ourselves available.  Maybe they will come and maybe they won't. 

But are we willing to risk it all, to lay down all attempts to protect ourselves in order to stand at the ready with open arms?  Jesus does.  Jesus aligns himself with then hen -- no fangs, no claws notes Taylor.  "Just a willingness to shield her babies with her own body.  If the fox wants them, he'll have to kill her first."  If you mean what you say, then this is how you stand.

To love as God loves requires sacrifice.  To love as God loves means risk.  



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