Daily Scripture:
Matthew 23:37 “Yerushalayim! Yerushalayim! You kill the prophets! You stone those who are sent to you! How often I wanted to gather your children, just as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, but you refused! (Complete Jewish Bible).
Reflection Questions:
Mourning over the stubborn city of Jerusalem, Jesus compared his caring for the city’s people to a mother hen putting herself between her offspring and danger. There was precedent for Jesus' imagery, even in that male-dominated culture. Psalm 131:1-3(Psalm 131:1 (0) A song of ascents. By David:
(1) Adonai, my heart isn’t proud;
I don’t set my sight too high,
I don’t take part in great affairs
or in wonders far beyond me.
2 No, I keep myself calm and quiet,
like a little child on its mother’s lap —
I keep myself like a little child.
3 Isra’el, put your hope in Adonai
from now on and forever! (Complete Jewish Bible).) and the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 49:13-15)(Isaiah 49:13 Sing, heaven! Rejoice, earth!
Mourning over the stubborn city of Jerusalem, Jesus compared his caring for the city’s people to a mother hen putting herself between her offspring and danger. There was precedent for Jesus' imagery, even in that male-dominated culture. Psalm 131:1-3(Psalm 131:1 (0) A song of ascents. By David:
(1) Adonai, my heart isn’t proud;
I don’t set my sight too high,
I don’t take part in great affairs
or in wonders far beyond me.
2 No, I keep myself calm and quiet,
like a little child on its mother’s lap —
I keep myself like a little child.
3 Isra’el, put your hope in Adonai
from now on and forever! (Complete Jewish Bible).) and the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 49:13-15)(Isaiah 49:13 Sing, heaven! Rejoice, earth!
Break out in song, you mountains!
For Adonai is comforting his people,
having mercy on his own who have suffered.
14 “But Tziyon says, ‘Adonai has abandoned me,
Adonai has forgotten me.’
15 Can a woman forget her child at the breast,
not show pity on the child from her womb?
Even if these were to forget,
I would not forget you.) (Complete Jewish Bible).) had used mothering images to express the yearning love of God for people, even when they struggled to trust or respond.
For Adonai is comforting his people,
having mercy on his own who have suffered.
14 “But Tziyon says, ‘Adonai has abandoned me,
Adonai has forgotten me.’
15 Can a woman forget her child at the breast,
not show pity on the child from her womb?
Even if these were to forget,
I would not forget you.) (Complete Jewish Bible).) had used mothering images to express the yearning love of God for people, even when they struggled to trust or respond.
- Loving, caring mothers help shape in their children an early sense of the world as a place with a reliable center of love and nurture. Are there ways in which God’s steadfast love seems more real to you because of your mother, or other people who may have played a “mothering” role in your life? How can such a sense support your trust at those testing times when God’s presence and power are not on obvious display?
- Jesus said this in his final week in Jerusalem, perhaps two days before his crucifixion. How could a man who knew he was on his way to a cross (cf. Matthew 20:17-19)(Matthew 20:17 As Yeshua was going up to Yerushalayim, he took the twelve talmidim aside by themselves and said to them, as they went on their way, 18 “We are now going up to Yerushalayim, where the Son of Man will be handed over to the head cohanim and Torah-teachers. They will sentence him to death 19 and turn him over to the Goyim, who will jeer at him, beat him and execute him on a stake as a criminal. But on the third day, he will be raised.” (Complete Jewish Bible).) speak so securely about being able to shelter those he cared about from danger? How can you incorporate Jesus' eternal perspective into your own thinking and feelings about life in this time-bounded, sometimes dangerous world?
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, you mourned like a bereaved mother because the people of Jerusalem would not accept the shelter you offered under your “wings.” Make me willing to accept and find safety in the spiritual shelter you offer me. Amen.
Lord Jesus, you mourned like a bereaved mother because the people of Jerusalem would not accept the shelter you offered under your “wings.” Make me willing to accept and find safety in the spiritual shelter you offer me. Amen.
Read today's Insight by Janelle GregoryJanelle Gregory serves on the Resurrection staff as a Human Resources Specialist. Janelle finds that her heart is constantly wrestling with the truth that she needs a Savior, and the times when she's at her very best are when she's just too tired to put up a fight.
Do you know that Jesus loves you? I mean, really loves you? Beyond just sentiment that would grace the front of a greeting card, Jesus deeply and honestly cares about you, your life, your past, and your future. You are constantly on his mind, and his love for you never wanes, not even for a second. In your greatest joys, his heart bursts with excitement. In your darkest or scariest moments, he holds you close and aches with and for you. In the day-to-day life of commutes, making lunches, sending emails, going to the grocery store, and getting gas – Jesus loves you then, too. When the news is noisy, times are frightening, and disaster strikes around the world, Jesus cares for those who hurt, but that doesn’t mean his love for you is any less intense. Even in the moments of greatest failure, whether they be out in the open or secretly tucked away in your thoughts for not even those closest to you to see -- Jesus sees, and he still roots for you. Your brokenness does not bind his affection. Jesus wholeheartedly loves you beyond any love you’ve experienced from another person. Do you know that? And more importantly, do you believe it? Has Jesus’ love for you penetrated deep into your soul where it is so ingrained in your being that your identity springs from it? I think that would be his hope for you. Perhaps even as you’re reading this, you might hear him whispering, “I see you. I’ve got you. And with everything I have, I love you.”
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Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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