Out Our Way: Mama hen - Luke 13:34

Out our way, you pick up a lot of lessons just watching nature at work. I have seen numerous examples of mama cows caring for and protecting their calves, but one of the most spectacular illustrations of "Motherly Love" is that of a hen and her chicks. 

Jesus used many different illustrations of God's jealous love for His people, and that one of the mother hen gathering her chicks has always stood out to me, especially after watching a YouTube video of a mother hen protecting her brood from a hungry cobra.

First, she gathered them under her wings as the snake sought to attack and faced down that snake. When it didn't take the hint, she pushed her brood behind her and squawking like the furies, flew into the air and attacked the snake. That cobra had no idea what hit it as she lept and flew at the snake over and over again pecking at its head with her beak and scratching at its body with her claws. Screaming like a banshee, she attacked that cobra over and over again from every angle. I am not sure if she actually did any real damage, but there was no question that the snake got the message and backed off while she continued to attack and hurry it on its way. I am not sure where we got the idea to call cowards "chicken" - but if you have seen a mother hen in action, we clearly have the wrong term. 

Even the city folk of Jerusalem had likely seen mother hens protecting their chicks, and likely had also seen the ferocity of the counterattack when mama thought her babies were in danger. That God wanted to protect them as a hen protects her chicks was an image they understood. But that wasn't the point. For in Jesus' parable, the chicks refused the protection! Go back to the video just described and imagine what would have happened if those chicks had refused to stay under the hens wings and insisted instead of running out into the open where they would be easy prey for the cobra. 

That is the point Christ is making as He warns Jerusalem of the pending destruction they were facing because they refused to come back to God. Replacing true worship of God through obedience and servanthood, corrupt and powerful political cartels, often wearing the robes of priests and scholars, were leading the people away from the worship and protection of God and into a growing secularization and worship of wealth, power and social status in the name of religion.

The image is of helpless chicks abandoning the protection of the hen and inviting the disaster that was already beginning to make itself known. As predicted, within 40 years the Temple and most of Jerusalem was in ruins and the nation of Judah no more. The people were scattered throughout the Roman Empire and the Jewish nation ceased to exist for the next 2000 years. Leaving the protecting wings of the mother hen, the chicks were being scattered out into the open where they were easy prey for the power of darkness, which, in Genesis happens to be symbolized by a snake. Time and again, God called and sought to enfold those who were called by His Name, but they would not listen.

History has a habit of repeating itself and once again we are warned to beware of leaving God behind and rushing helter skelter away from His protecting arms and into the hypnotic grasp of the snake. "How often I would have gathered my children as a mother hen gathers her brood under her wings..." Some will not and some will. It is for us to decide which we will be.

Be blessed and be a blessing!

Brother John

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The Rev. John Bruington is the retired pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Havre. He now lives in Colorado, but continues to write "Out Our Way."