To Gather Together
Based on Luke 13:31-35, this piece of scripture pops up during the church season of Lent (the forty days leading up to Good Friday). In this passage Jesus expresses, in response to the news of King Herod (that wily fox) desires to kill him, his desire to gather the people “as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.” We often think about desire as a human impulse, sexaul desire, the desire for love or for power. This scripture suggests a case of Jesus, of God incarnate desiring, of longing to provide the shelter we so often seek. Now God does not need us in the way that we need God, we are the restless ones, but God is open and moved by the creation, by our longing and desire to be loved.
“The Christian story is not about human actions and desires rather it is about God’s action and desire to love us, to be in relationship with us.”
In the image I chose to depict Jesus standing in the city as he proclaims his desire to gather up people, with wings hovering above. He is speaking the good news he states in the beginning of Luke’s gospel of “bringing good news to the poor and to set free those who are oppressed.” Spoiler, this news is not welcome, especially among the powerful authorities at the time and so I include the image of stones being thrown at him to represent this rejection.
