Jesus the Mother Hen

In the 1950s, a small chapel called Dominus Flevit was built on the western slope of the Mount of Olives, just outside the old city walls of Jerusalem. The picture I have included with this post is a mosaic that is on the front of the altar in the chapel. In the middle of the medallion is a white hen with a golden halo around her head. Her wings are spread wide to shelter yellow chicks that crowd around her feet. The medallion is rimmed with red words in Latin. Translated into English they read, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!" The last phrase is set outside the circle, in a pool of red underneath the chicks. These words are Luke 13:34. My sermon on Sunday will be based on this passage in Luke. How many sermons have you heard about Jesus as a mother hen?