马太福音23:33-39 耶稣招聚、保护我们

33你们这些蛇类、毒蛇之种啊！怎能逃脱地狱的刑罚呢？34所以我差遣先知和智慧人并文士到你们这里来，有的你们要杀害，要钉十字架；有的你们要在会堂里鞭打，从这城追逼到那城，35叫世上所流义人的血，都归到你们身上，从义人亚伯的血起，直到你们在殿和坛中间所杀的巴拉加的儿子撒迦利亚的血为止。36我实在告诉你们：这一切的罪都要归到这世代了。” 37“耶路撒冷啊，耶路撒冷啊！你常杀害先知，又用石头打死那奉差遣到你这里来的人。我多次愿意聚集你的儿女，好像母鸡把小鸡聚集在翅膀底下，只是你们不愿意。38看哪，你们的家成为荒场，留给你们。39我告诉你们：从今以后，你们不得再见我，直等到你们说：‘奉主名来的，是应当称颂的。’

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约翰•杰斯克教授在我上神学院时曾是我的讲道学教授，他告诉我们要用同情去宣讲律法，要用热情去宣讲福音。在今天这段经文的最后，当耶稣对那些反对他的犹太领袖说话时，你可以看到耶稣的热情。他多次愿意聚集耶路撒冷的百姓，就像母鸡把小鸡聚集在翅膀底下，可是他们却不愿意。

我读过一篇文章，是研究草原野生动物的生物学家写的。他正在观察刚经过草原火灾的一片草原，遇见一只被火灾烧死的草原母鸡。他想知道为什么她没有飞走，他用靴子踢开她的遗骸，从她的翅膀底下跑出来六只小鸡。她就是这样把自己的身体挡在火焰和她的后代之间，拯救了它们的生命。

耶稣也是这样做的。他把自己的身体挡在地狱之火和我们之间，这样他就可以拯救我们。他把地狱所有的痛苦、神所有的愤怒都担负在自己身上，他如此受苦为了使我们可以得救。在这一章半的篇幅中，耶稣向法利赛人和律法师宣讲了律法，警告他们的假冒为善，指责他们带领别人误入歧途。耶稣这样做并不是因为恨他们，而是因为爱他们。他仍然在努力的把他们聚集在自己翅膀的荫下！

祷告：主耶稣啊，求你招聚我到你面前，把我聚集在你永恒的臂膀之下！除了你这里没有安全的地方！求你保护我不仅远离这个世界的诱惑，也远离我自己的摇摆不定。求你毁坏我心里所有的骄傲和假冒为善，使我从来也不认为没有你我可以存活。我如此祈求是奉你的名，阿们。

Matthew 23:33-39: “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? 34 Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. 35 And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation. 37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.38 Look, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

        Professor John Jeske was one of my homiletical professors at the seminary. He told us to preach the law with compassion and the gospel with passion. You see the passion of Jesus in this text in the final words that he speaks to the Jewish leaders who opposed him. How often he longed to gather the people of Jerusalem together, as a hen gathers her chicks beneath her wings, but they were not willing.

         I read an article by a biologist who studied wildlife on the prairies. He was looking at the prairie after a prairie fire. He came across a prairie chicken that had been burned in the fire. He wondered why she didn’t fly away. He kicked her carcass with his boot and from beneath her wings a half-dozen chicks came running out. She literally put her body between the flames and her brood to save their lives.

         So did Jesus. He put his body between the fires of hell and us so that he might save us. He took into his body all the misery of hell, all the wrath of God, and suffered so that we might be saved. For one and a half chapters, Jesus preached the law to the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, warning them of their hypocrisy, condemning them for leading others astray. He didn’t do that because hated them, but because he loved them. He was still trying to gather them together beneath the shadow of his wings!

Prayer:  Lord Jesus, draw me to yourself and gather me beneath your everlasting arms! There is no safe place except with you! Keep me not only from the lure of this world, but from my own wanderings. Destroy all pride and hypocrisy in my heart so that I do not for one moment think that I can live without you. I ask this in your name. Amen.