Baptismal meditation

Matthew 23: 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!

This is a surprising way for Jesus to talk about Himself and His relation to Jerusalem. At the end of a chapter of vigorous denunciation, Jesus would suddenly turns all sentimental over the city that, by His own description, kills prophets and stones those sent to her. His diatribe ends not with a bang, but with a whimper and tears.

But that’s not all. The image itself is surprising.

It is a feminine image – Jesus is a hen, not a rooster, much less the Lamb of God or the lion of Judah. And it is an avian image – Jesus apparently has wings, under which he can gather chicks. Like Herod, the Pharisees are foxes, who prey on the people of Jerusalem, and Jesus the protective hen who wanted to keep the fox from them.

In Biblical perspective, the image is not so surprising. Virtually the first thing we learn about God in Scripture is that He has a Spirit, and that this Spirit is like a bird: “The Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters” is part of the second verse of the Bible, and that hovering is like the brooding of a hen over her eggs. When He brings Israel out of Egypt, Yahweh again hovers, this time carrying Israel from slavery on eagle’s wings (Exodus 19:4; Deuteronomy 32:11), forming Israel into a new creation under the brooding of His Spirit.

Yahweh bears His people to the land, where they set up the tabernacle and later build the temple. Yahweh’s winged Spirit descends on the house, and the temple becomes a place of refuge, a safe house for the persecuted Psalmist: “How precious is Your love, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings” (Psalm 36:7). “In the shadow of Your wings will I take refuge, until destruction passes by” (Psalm 57:1).

The image is maternal in Matthew 23, but wings also have marital connotations in Scripture. When Boaz promises to marry Ruth, he spreads the wing of his robe over her, taking her under his protection. When Yahweh finds infant Israel kicking in her blood and afterbirth, He cleans her, and when she reaches maturity He spreads His wing over her. The temple is the place of Yahweh’s wings because it is the place where Israel renews her marital covenant with her Husband, where again and again He throws the wing of His garment over His bride.

Once we see all this, we don’t find Jesus’ image so startling after all. Of course Jesus has wings. He’s the incarnation of Yahweh, come to spread His wings over Israel, come to gather them into His protective shadow, come to carry them on eagle’s wings in a new exodus from the desolate house to a new land, come to hover over creation to make it new.

And of course Jesus has wings because He has been filled and baptized with the hovering Spirit. Many centuries after the Spirit hovered over the waters of creation, He descends again, winged, at the baptism of Jesus. At the Jordan, He hovers over the waters to form a new creation in the incarnate Son.

Jesus’ baptism is the one baptism, and our baptisms are all incorporations in that one baptism. Like Jesus’ baptism, our baptism brings us under the wings of Yahweh. Baptism brings us into the household of God, where we can hide in the shadow of His wings. In baptism, the Lord spreads the wing of His garment over us, claiming us as His bride. In baptism, the Spirit descends winged to give us wings, so that, born by water and the Spirit, we are like the Spirit-wind, flitting here and there, blowing where we wish, making sounds but moving on before anyone can tell where we’re coming from or where we’re going.

This is what is happening to Lucia and Soren today. Jesus is gathering them as His children, caring for them and nursing and guarding them by His Spirit like a hen over her chicks. And this is the message that you must continually reinforce. When they are frightened, tell them they are under the wings. When they feel alone and unloved, tell them that the Lord is a faithful husband who has spread His wing over them. When they struggle with sin, tell them they have passed through the waters and their God has borne them on eagle’s wings from death to life. When they feel powerless, unable to walk much less run, remind them that they have been given the winged Spirit who renews their strength so they can walk and not faint, run without weariness; so they can mount up with wings like eagles.