INTRODUCTION
If I could ever go to the Holy Land,
there is one sight I would especially like to see.
It is the view of the Holy City,
Jerusalem, from the Mount of Olives.
This is the view that would have
greeted countless devout Israelites as they came in their joyful pilgrimages to
the great feasts at the Temple.
It is the view that Jesus saw as he
approached the city on Palm Sunday, that last week before his crucifixion.
Of course, the city looks much
different now than it did then, but I would try to imagine the city Jesus saw
as I looked at the modern one.
I. From that mountainside Jesus saw
the beautiful city of Jerusalem, to him, the dearest city on earth.
A. In Jesus’s time Jerusalem was a
walled city of narrow streets and closely-packed small houses. Its walls
included 74 towers.
Along the streets, were shops
selling all sorts of goods from many countries, shoemakers, dyers, tailors, woodworkers,
and workers in iron and brass. Skilled artisans crafted jeweled cups, rings,
silk and fine linen fabrics, and ointments and perfumes as precious as gold.
Jerusalem was a cosmopolitan city
with visitors coming in multitudes for the holy festivals that occurred many
times a year.
Hundreds of synagogues dotted the
city, some for different nationalities of Jews from abroad.
In Jerusalem, the tiny houses of
the working people contrasted with white marble mansions of the rich with their
formal gardens, courtyards and pools—and the magnificent palaces of King Herod
and the High Priest.
A visitor would have seen a great
open-air theater with semicircular stone seats ascending from a central stage—and
the hippodrome, an oval track, like a stadium, for chariot races, with stone
seating all around.
The Jerusalem of Jesus’s time was
one of the most beautiful and grandest cities in the world.
B. But the most impressive sight of
all, the crowning jewel of Jerusalem, was the magnificent Temple—a building of
shining marble and glittering gold.
The Temple complex was on the most
elevated part of the city—called “Mt. Zion.”
Its white marble and enormous
bronze doors were dazzling in the morning sun.
The central shrine, into which only
priests could enter, was surrounded by spacious courtyards where the worshipers
gathered. All-in-all the Temple and its grounds covered 35 acres.
This Temple was much larger and grander
than the Temple Solomon had built. That one had been destroyed by the
Babylonians hundreds of years before. But when the people who returned from
Babylon had rebuilt it 500 years before the time of Christ.
Then, forty-six years before the
time we’re going to read about, King Herod had begun to enlarge it and renovate
it on a grand scale. But the work was still not finished, and craftsmen and
builders were still working on it when Jesus visited it.
This glorious building was one of
the wonders of the world. People said, “He who has not seen the Temple of Herod
has never known what beauty is.”
Though God was so great that he
filled the universe, the Jews believed that this was his earthly house. Here he
especially dwelt, and here he was most perfectly worshiped.
II. On Palm Sunday, as Jesus
approached Jerusalem on the Sunday before his death, he looked on the city with
her beautiful temple and thought of its multitudes of people, he began to weep.
A. Here’s the story from Luke 19:41-44:
As
Jesus came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you, even you,
had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they
are hidden from your eyes.
“Indeed,
the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around and
surround you and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground,
you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone
upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from
God.”
Jesus wept because what he saw
before him, not a glorious city but the smoking ruin it would be in 40 years. In
AD
66, the Jews revolted against their Roman occupiers. Jerusalem was besieged;
many died of starvation, and people who attempted to escape were crucified by
the hundreds. The Romans crushed the rebellion, destroyed Jerusalem and its
Temple, slaughtered, thousands of Jews, and took many into captivity as slaves.
The Roman general Titus refused to
accept the wreath of victory. He said, “There is no merit in vanquishing a
people forsaken by their own God.”
B. Jesus had come to call the
nation to repentance and to God. He saw the disaster approaching, and he knew
that only by turning to God could its people avoid catastrophe.
By this time Jesus knew that his
people would not repent but would reject him and kill him. They would reject
the Father who had sent Jesus to be their Savior.
So Jesus wept.
This story is a window into the
heart of God. In Jesus’ tears we see how much God loves the people he has
created…and how much he grieves when we reject his love.
III. If you would go today to the
spot where Jesus beheld the city and wept over it, you would find there a little
church called Dominus Flivet, which
means in Latin, “The Lord Wept.”
A. This little church is in the
shape of a teardrop, intended to remind the worshiper of Jesus’s tears.
Inside, above the altar, is a great
window, overlooking Jerusalem. The view from the window is broken by an
intricate filigree of intersecting iron grillwork. So that when you look
through it, it is like a stained glass window, except that what you see is not
colored glass but a panorama of Jerusalem broken by the shapes of the spaces
marked out by the grillwork.
Under the blue sky you would see
the buildings of the city. And in the middle, the great mosque—The Dome of the
Rock—a holy shrine of Islam that stands in the exact spot where the ancient
Temple stood.
The most remarkable sight in this
little chapel is a mosaic on the altar. There, worked out with bits of colored
glass is a picture of a hen and its chickens.
Did you know that Jesus once
compared himself to a mother hen? He did. And it is one of the most meaningful
images of Christ that we have.
The hen in this mosaic is wearing a
halo. The chickens are under her wings. And around the circle that encloses the
hen and her chicks are these words:
“O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, killing the prophets
and stoning those who
are sent to you!
How often would I
have gathered your children together
as a hen gathers her
chicks under her wings,
and you were not
willing” (Luke
13:34).
These are the words of Jesus from
Luke 13, spoken by Jesus on a previous visit to Jerusalem.
In the mosaic below the altar, the
last phrase—“…and you were not willing”—is
set inside the circle, just under the little chicks’ feet—in a pool of red.
IV. Jesus didn’t compare himself to
some noble bird like an eagle or a hawk, or even a rooster, who is also a good
fighter. He compared himself to a mother hen. Thinking of Jesus as like a
mother hen has a lot to teach us.
The mother hen is protective of her
chicks. When she senses any danger coming, she clucks in a particular kind of way
and her chicks come running to take refuge under her wings.
Then she fluffs herself up and
faces the intruder.
If it is a fox, she fights him to
the death. She will not abandon her chicks, even to save her life.
B. Many stories have been told of
grass fires that swept through farms and farmyards.
And after the fire had burned out, people fine the charred body of a hen, burnt to a crisp. And as they brushed the
dead hen aside with their foot or a stick, baby chicks would come scurrying out
from under their dead mother’s body.
Seeing the fire coming, the hen
didn’t run to safety but gathered her chicks under her wings and saved them—at
the cost of her own life.
C. This is what Jesus would do
before the week was out.
He would go to Jerusalem and let
the full force of evil flow over him. He would give his life, so that those who
flee to him for refuge can be spared.
The mother hen helps us understand
the meaning of Jesus’ love for us. She helps us to understand what it means to
find salvation in Christ.
CONCLUSION
As we grow older we realize how
fragile we are. We realize how dangerous the world is.
We realize how little of our life
is really under our control. We can eat good food, exercise our bodies, get our
sleep, and try to keep our minds awake by mental activity. But we don’t know
what is going on inside our bodies. We know that they are wearing out. We know
how much vigor and strength we have lost and we can look forward to increasing
weakness.
We can occupy our minds with what
we have lost and are losing, or we can set minds to think about the blessings
we have enjoyed, the things we have learned, the love we have received, and all
we have to look forward to.
We can realize that we still have
opportunities to serve God by serving others, and we can determine to live for
God as we never have before. We can lay up treasure in heaven and prepare
ourselves for our homecoming.
So what does it mean to dwell under
God’s wings?—to take refuge in Christ?—to make him the stronghold of our life?—to
live our lives in confident hope?
It means that we take hold of
eternal life—we don’t just relax and coast to Glory. We keep our faith bright
and our hope alive by living in fellowship with God, in connection with
believing friends, in obedience to God’s will, in prayer and thankfulness, and
in meditating on God’s Word. This is dwelling under Christ’s wings—this is dwelling
in the shelter of the Almighty.
Jesus took his thoughts about God
gathering his people under his sheltering wings from the Old Testament. In Psalm
36 an ancient believer addresses God this way:
How precious is your
steadfast love, O God!
All people may take
refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the
abundance of your house,
and you give them
drink from the river of your delights.
For with you is the
fountain of life;
in your light we see
light.
And in Psalm 63 a psalmist writes,
My soul is satisfied
a with a rich feast,
and my mouth praises
you with joyful lips
when I think of you
upon my bed,
and meditate on you
in the watches of the night;
for you have been my
help,
and in the shadow of your
wings I sing for joy.
My soul clings to
you;
Your right hand
upholds me.
Do all you can to keep connected
with God. That’s what it means to take refuge under the wings of Jesus. That’s
what it takes to continue your journey into the future with faith and joy.
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