Trigonometry and advanced math in high school or college always eluded me. I could feel the breeze as this kind of higher mathematical thinking zoomed over my head. Now I can safely say that it has been 10 years since I last took this type of math course. Geometry, I am afraid, also created an irrational fear in me that I believe stems from being made fun of by all the 9th graders when I tried to take advanced Geometry as a 10th grader. Math was not my favorite subject in school, or at least these genres of math.
Now algebra that is fun! Give me a variable within an equation and I will happily solve for it. Balancing an equation on both sides and figuring out what the variable equals is so satisfying that even though it was not required when I took my GRE to get into seminary I still did these math problems for the fun of it. I might be alone in this type of mathematical bliss, but I certainly enjoy balancing things out. It just feels fulfilling. I like the feeling of getting things the same on both sides of the equal sign. Algebra is not the only area of life where I do this either.
When I make a mistake, I often will search out ways to rectify what I did wrong. If I lose my temper, I will go out of my way being nice for a while. If I eat too much, I will fast for a time. If I feel I am being lazy, I will work extra hard for a spell. In this way, I attempt to counteract all my sinful ways by doing good deeds. I try to balance out the “good” and the “bad” on the opposing sides of the scale of life. I work as hard as I can to avoid my sentencing to hell.
Yet, there is no way for me to completely balance things out. Sure, I am made good. I am made in God’s image, but try as I might I will never be able to fully avoid falling into sin. What is worse, I being a religious man, much like the Pharisees, can appear to be just as hypocritical as this brood of vipers. “Here walk this Christian path,” I might say, but all the while I am slipping off of the way. How can I escape being sentenced to hell? I can’t!
I can’t escape being sentenced to hell. There is absolutely nothing I can do to redeem myself from the ways of sin and death that mark the way I live and we live our lives. So what do we do? How can we escape being sentenced to hell? Where do we turn if all our works get us nowhere but a dead end?
Jesus says, "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!” He might as well be saying, “Decatur, Decatur, the city that ignores the Good News given to you, following your own will, ignoring my prophets, forgetting the poor among you! How often have I desired to gather you together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you aren’t willing!”
This is one of the few times that Scripture refers to God in a feminine form. Jesus is our loving mother hen. That might seem a bit strange, but what is stranger is that we often completely overlook Jesus' invitation to come under the wing, instead trying to correct our wrongs through our own effort. This invitation does not mean that we go out and do all sorts of sins because we know that God will forgive us (even though God will). This invitation is to come underneath the shield that is Jesus’ wing where we are free from the sin that clings to us, where we are free from the balancing act of life, where we escape hell, and where we are transformed.
Chicks cannot make it on their own. I can still remember in elementary school seeing a chick in an incubator struggling to survive. We cannot make it on our own. Christ invites us under his wing, so that we can grow up in his stature. Jesus bids us not to try to balance out our lives through our own salvation algebra, but to come underneath the shadow of his wing. For it is truly under Christ's wing that we receive redemption from hell, safety from this life's storms, and transformation into Jesus' likeness. Who knew that God would get us out of hell with a chicken wing?!!
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