March 15th, 2022

​My niece has started asking me (a lot) what my favorites are. “What’s your favorite food?” “What’s your favorite sauce?” Etc. Sometimes I feel awkward when someone asks my favorite kind of movie, because my answer is “Documentaries.” When people want to know your favorite movies, they are often thinking of movies based on stories: a tragedy, a comedy, etc. Sometimes movies are best known for their actors: That movie with so-and-so. That one with what’s-her-name.
 
Occasionally, a movie’s setting vies for attention, even competing with the story. When I was young, I remember seeing Anna & the King in the theater and having a hard time following the story because the scenery was so captivating.
 
Sometimes we start to talk about a setting as if it’s a person. Think of how we talk about “what Washington is doing” or “what Moscow is saying.”
 
But, once in a while, the setting actually functions as a character in the story. Think of movies like Insomnia or Fargo. Or today’s gospel.
 
Jerusalem looms large on the narrative horizon all through the gospel of Luke. It’s the scene of the diabolical one’s final temptation of Jesus in Last Week’s gospel, and the place toward which Jesus is moves in today’s gospel. It’s more than a place, more than a backdrop; it’s a character, and it has a personality.
 
Jesus says three things about Jerusalem in today’s text that help make some sense of that personality.
 
…the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!
Jesus will face serious opposition in Jerusalem, from religious people who have a stake in the tradition and a lot to lose if the tradition should be altered. In fact, enough to kill for. Don’t mishear that as some ridiculous statement that all Jews killed Jesus – that’s not true. Rather, the people in authority, as those in authority sometimes are, were threatened enough to kill. Jesus knows this; he says it outloud, even after he’s just said the second thing I want to note:
 
I must be on my way. Federal Chaplain’s commemorate a day called Four Chaplains Day. It’s a day that commemorates a group of chaplains aboard a ship that was hit by a torpedo. The chaplains went to work handing out life jackets. By the end, there were 8 people left and only 4 life jackets. So, these four chaplains gave up their jackets and went down with the ship. I like to think I’d do what they did in that situation. But, would I? I mean, would I really? In case you ever can’t tell the difference between me & Jesus (that’s a little joke – it’s hard to tell with the mask on), Jesus doesn’t hesitate to move toward the thing that threatens him. Knowing what awaits him in Jerusalem, and committed to his mission, Jesus goes toward Jerusalem. But, lest we think that Jesus is going there to get everyone straightened out, note the third thing he says:
 
How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings...
Jesus seems to have sympathy for Jerusalem, that wayfaring character in this story. Not only does he not refuse to go, and not only does he not call them jerks when he gets there, he seems to mourn their waywardness.
 
Jerusalem, as a character, is complex: a holy place and a hot mess, all at the same time; a threat to Jesus and the object of his love, all at the same time. In other words, and here’s the punchline, it’s us. Holy and a hot mess, a threat and the object of Jesus’ love.
 
In its vulnerability, Jerusalem lashes out, making itself more vulnerable. And, in response, Jesus comes near, opens his arms, and draws us under his wings. And, ultimately, on the cross, opens his arms even further, embracing all, and setting the whole creation free.