In Matthew 23 and Luke 13, Jesus mourns over Jerusalem and the lack of faith of her people. He says that if they allowed themselves to be gathered together, He would have done so like a hen gathers her chicks. This statement is deeply profound in more than one way.
Have you ever heard a hen clucking to her chicks? There is a different tone to the way she does this than any other cluck she makes. It's softer, more gentle. She's very careful, generally speaking, with her chicks, and she guides them. When she gathers them in under herself at night, you can't even see them because they are completely surrounded by her wings. They are kept warm against her body. This all has the image of tenderness we tend to associate with motherhood whether in animals or in people.
But please don't mistake this tender affection for passiveness. A mother hen will die protecting her chicks. She will stubbornly remain over them in the face of predators and inclement weather. She will peck at whatever may attack and will her puff herself out to make herself look bigger. She will do everything in her power to keep those chicks safe, even if that means losing her life.
This is not the image of a chicken we are used to. We are used to hearing someone called a chicken when they are afraid of something or when we are goading them into doing something they are unwilling to do. But that's not at all the picture Jesus intended (in my opinion; I can't exactly back this up with Scripture...). Can you see Jesus saying, "Well, I'm really just a chicken. I'm going to run away when times get tough"? NO! He didn't run away in the garden when He knew what was coming and He was in agony over it. He didn't escape when He said "I am" and knocked over the cohort of Roman soldiers prepared to arrest Him and take Him to His doom. He didn't leap off the cross in a show of divine power. He was like a lamb led to the slaughter. He was silent and He took it. For me. For you.
I buried a dead chicken this morning and though she wasn't defending chicks to her death, it made me think of the gentleness of my Savior that was never passive. He was zealous for the honor of His Father, and He died a cruel, horrible, excruciating death protecting me from the wicked one. He gathered me in, held me close, and said, "You will not have her."
But then I have a major role in this. If the chicks stay under the protection of the hen, they remain safe even when she is dead. (Not always; no analogy is perfect) But what if they decide to come out? That means certain death in the face of whatever killed their mother. We, too, have to choose to accept the protection Jesus offered by dying for us. We can remain safely against His body, or we can poke our heads out.
Unlike the chicken, though, there's more to the story. Satan thought he had won a great victory when Jesus died. After all, he vanquished the Promised One, right? God's plan thwarted? Not hardly. Yes, Jesus died facing our enemy, but He was buried and He rose again three days later. He won the victory over sin and death and hell. He offers us that victory. We simply have to remain in the protection He has provided.
And when we do that, we are able to move when He moves. We can go where He directs. We can safely move about with Him as He guides us gently. And when we go astray, like a chick who wanders too far, we can be sure we will be hearing His voice calling after us.
"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love." (I John 4:18; KJV) When we are safely under the wings of the Hen, fear has no place. We know we are safe in the love of our Savior. There may be storms raging around us; there may be a predator trying to attack, but we are secure in the knowledge of our salvation in Him that has gathered us to Himself. And better than a chicken, we know that our Protector has already won the victory and is alive to keep defending us. Simple faith. Stop making things so complicated. Don't figure out the pros and cons. Just do what you know He has called you to do in this moment. And when you don't have a clear direction, just keep following what you know to be in His Word. Eventually, you will have a clear direction.
Be a little chicken today.
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