Sunday, May 10, 2020
Mother Hen

Matthew 23: 37b
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”

Today is Mother’s Day, and I start out by emphasising that Mother’s Day is not a Christian day or Biblical festival. You might not have recognised that it wasn’t if you usually attend a Christian church, because of how passionately it has been embraced. The entire service is about mothers and the children perform songs, poems, and skits; all mothers get gifts, and then a stirring sermon about mothers. 

But, before I get into trouble with the mothers reading this, Happy Mothers Day!

There is a small passage in Matthew 13:37-39 (repeated in Luke 13:34,35) where Jesus laments over Jerusalem. It is tucked at the end of one of the longer discourses and most times gets overlooked. In these three verses Jesus is confronted by the problem of Jerusalem’s sin that is expressed in rebellion and violence, and he sees the city’s coming destruction.

In the face of this decadence that is centuries old Jesus employs the mothering imagery to express the care that He wants to give them although He recognises that rejection and rebellion continue to characterise their life.

Jesus seems to suggest that the power of mothering is the thing to be brought to bear on the rebellious, the wayward, the violent even. And He also seems to suggest that the maternal instinct persists.

It is clear that mother’s share a tremendous responsibility for ensuring that a godly heritage is passed on to their children. Shared responsibility because it is clear from the whole counsel of the Word of God that father’s are specifically charged with guiding the household and children after him.

God makes decisions to share secrets with Abraham because of the calibre of Abraham’s heart as a father. “For I have known him [Abraham], in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.” Genesis 18:19

The apostle Paul enjoins this idea when he describes his own care for the flock for which God had given him responsibility. “You are witnesses, and God also, how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believe; as you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and [a]charged every one of you, as a father does his own children, that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.” 1 Thessalonians 2:10-12.

But these examples notwithstanding, we see mothers having to come to the table in the absence of fathers. In my favourite examples it is hardly revealed where the fathers were or why they were absent but it is clear that in their absence mothers took on the full responsibility for instilling a Godly heritage in their children.

Paul writing to young Timothy said this about his heritage, “I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also.” 2 Timothy 1:5. Whatever reason his father wasn’t involved his mother and grandmother ensured that young Timothy had a godly upbringing.

My favourite example (I use it every year) is King Lemuel’s Mother. Again, we are unsure about where Lemuel’s father was, but his mother undertook her responsibility to ensure a godly upbringing for young Lemuel. 

You see this record in another short passage in Proverbs 31:1-9, the passage opens with “The words of King Lemuel, the utterance which his mother taught him,” and ends with an entreaty for him to exert this godly influence on the society, “Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.”

Both Lemuel and Timothy go on to exert tremendous influence on their community and society at the time, although the record of their service is sparse.

This brings us back to Jesus and His lament over Jerusalem. In this lament we see that God is patient. Jerusalem had been a slaughterhouse for God’s prophets but He has been patient and still longs for a right relationship with them. 

We also see here that God is persistent. In spite of all that Jerusalem had done through the centuries God still sent Jesus to them, knowing that Jesus would die there too. We sense that deep down in their hearts they were hell bent on sin and rejecting what God offers.

Finally, though, we see that ultimately, rejecting God has consequences for the earthly, physical Jerusalem that was the object of Jesus’ reflection was ultimately destroyed by the Romans.

Mothers share the responsibility to ‘save’ this generation of children from the ultimate destruction. This responsibility persists even when we see the rebellion in their hearts that is driven by the spirit of the age. This responsibility persists even when they test your patience. This responsibility persists until you see them come to Jesus.

The environment today is much like it was in the Jerusalem that Jesus looked upon. The manifestations might be in science and technology, style and fashion, or in art and culture but it remains a reflection of rebellious hearts hell bent on sin.

The appeal today is for Godly mothers to persist,  to gather your children under your wings like mother hen and guide them to the right relationship with God so that you release them into a culture and society where they will exert a Godly influence.

Think on these things:

1. How did your mother contribute to your relationship with God?
2. If you are a mother, how can you more deliberately take responsibility for leading your children to Christ?
3. For father’s reading this, what more can you do to support mothers in their shaping role?

Prayer focus:

Let us pray today that all mothers reading this will find the strength in God to persist with their children and God’s will is evident in their lives..

In His Grace
Pastor Alex