O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathered her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! How ineffably grand and melting is this apostrophe! It is the very heart of God pouring itself forth through human flesh and speech. It is this incarnation of the innermost life and love of Deity, pleading with men, bleeding for them, and ascending only to open His arms to them and win them back by the power of this Story of matchless love, that has conquered the world, that will yet "draw all men unto Him," and beautify and ennoble Humanity itself! "Jerusalem" here does not mean the mere city or its inhabitants; nor is it to be viewed merely as the metropolis of the nation, but as the center of their religious life - "the city of their solemnities, where the tribes went up, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord;" and at this moment it was full of them. It is the whole family of God, then, which is here apostrophized, by a name dear to every Jew, recalling to him all that was distinctive and precious in his religion. The intense feeling that sought vent in this utterance comes out first in the redoubling of the opening word - "Jerusalem, Jerusalem!" but, next, in the picture of it which He draws - "that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee!" - not content with spurning God's messages of mercy, that canst not suffer even the messengers to live! (See 2 Chronicles 36:15-16; Nehemiah 9:26; Matthew 5:12; Matthew 21:35-39; Matthew 23:29-32; Acts 7:51-54; Acts 7:57-59.)
When He adds, "How often would I have gathered thee!" He refers surely to something beyond the six or seven times that He visited and taught in Jerusalem while on earth. No doubt it points to "the prophets," whom they "killed," to "them that were sent unto her," whom they "stoned;" for, says Peter, it was "the Spirit of Christ which was in them that did testify beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the following glories" х tas (G3588) meta (G3326) tauta (G5023) doxas (G1391), 1 Peter 1:11]. He it was that "sent unto them all His servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate!" (Jeremiah 44:4). In His divine and eternal nature, as Olshausen says, He was the Prophet of the prophet. But whom would He have gathered so often? "Thee," truth-hating, mercy-spurning, prophet-killing Jerusalem-how often would I have gathered Thee! Compare with this that affecting clause in the great ministerial commission, "that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nation, beginning at Jerusalem!" (Luke 24:47).
What encouragement to the heart-broken at their own long-continued and obstinate rebellion! But we have not yet gotten at the whole heart of this outburst I would have gathered thee, He says, "even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings." Was ever imagery so homely invested with such grace and such sublimity as this, at our Lord's touch? And yet how exquisite the figure itself-of protection, rest, warmth, and all manner of conscious well-being in those poor, defenseless, dependent little creatures, as they creep under and feel themselves overshadowed by the capacious and kindly wing of the mother-bird! If, wandering beyond hearing of her special call, they are overtaken by a storm or attacked by an enemy, what can they do but in the one case droop and die, and in the other submit to be torn in pieces! But if they can reach in time their place of safety, under the mother's wing, in vain will any enemy try to drag them thence. For rising into strength, kindling into fury, and forgetting herself entirely in her young, she will let the last drop of her blood be shed out and perish in defense of her precious charge, rather than yield them to an enemy's talons. How significant all this of what Jesus is and does for men! Under His great Mediatorial wing would He have "gathered" Israel. For the figure, see Deuteronomy 32:10-12; Ruth 2:12; Psalms 17:8; Psalms 36:7; Psalms 61:4; Psalms 63:7; Psalms 91:4; Isaiah 31:5; Malachi 4:2.
The ancient rabbis had a beautiful expression for proselytes from the pagan-that they had 'come under the wings of the Shechinah.' For this last word, see the note at Matthew 23:38. But what was the result of this tender of all this tender and mighty love? The answer is, "And ye would not." (See Nehemiah 9:26; Psalms 81:11; Psalms 81:13; Isaiah 6:9-10; Isaiah 28:12; Isaiah 30:8-9; Isaiah 30:15; Isaiah 49:4; Isaiah 53:1; with John 12:37-40.) O mysterious word! mysterious word! mysterious the resistance of such patient Love-mysterious the liberty of self-undoing! The awful dignity of the will, as here expressed, might make the ears to tingle.