Lent: Belonging to Jesus the Mama Hen

So there's a story in Luke chapter 19 as Jesus is passing through Jericho.

Luke 19 · chapter mention

And this is a story about a short, rich man named Zacchaeus, right?

You remember the wee little man named Zacchaeus, maybe you remember the song.

And this guy's rich because he's a tax collector, which means he worked for Rome and he went around and he collected taxes from everybody else.

And then usually what happened, almost always, was these guys not only did it collect the taxes, but then they used their power and they're forced to collect a little bit more for themselves.

So they're also thieves.

And this is what this guy was.

And on this day, Jesus has come through Jericho.

It's almost like a parade.

It's a crowd.

And Zacchaeus he runs ahead, he climbs up into a tree.

Because he wants to see this man, this Jesus.

You've got to imagine this guy's wealthy, he has money, he has resources, he probably has a nice house, he probably has a nice camel or two.

I mean, he has it going on.

He has what he wants, but in some regard, he doesn't belong.

In some regard, he doesn't belong to the people around him because he's the tax collector, he's the outcast.

But he hears about this Jesus who accepts people who don't belong.

So he climbs this tree just to see this Jesus.

And we get these amazing verses because I think we all we are all wondering if we belong.

And is belonging possible?

Is belonging possible for us?

Like if God actually sees us, if he actually does see us, like as we are, not like we pretend to be when we show up at church, but as we actually are, truly, truly are.

Would God actually accept us?

And that's where these verses are amazing.

Verse uh 5 and chapter 19 of Luke.

And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.

So he hurried and he came down and received him joyfully.

And when they saw it, the crowd, the religious people, when they saw it, they all grumbled.

He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.

See, they just can't place this.

They have no framework for this.

All these religious moralists are here and they're seeing this.

They have no placement for this.

Jesus stops the parade for this guy, they know this.

This was the guy stealing money from them.

And by Jesus going to this non-Jewish, non-kosher home, this is Jesus saying to all these people, this man belongs.

This is the man that belongs.

And maybe that doesn't feel new to you because you've heard it enough times, but if you've ever not belonged, or if you've ever screwed up, or you've ever been a part of a mindset or a place where you always have to be good enough, get good enough, maintain good enough, and then you can belong to God.

If you've ever been in any of those situations, this truth is amazing.

Now the secret none of us are really telling each other is we're all wondering if we belong.

Right?

And maybe you have some friends, maybe you have a great family, maybe you joined a club, maybe you have a good work life scenario, maybe you have a sweet somebody, but still, even then, in all of that goodness, even then underneath, there is this hum for us that we're wondering, we're wondering.

We're wondering about belonging.

We're wondering, are these people accepting me for me?

Are they accepting me for some performance?

Do I belong?

Is it possible that I could belong?

And here's what we find to be true.

Where we find our belonging has a huge effect on our life.

Where we find our belonging has huge effect on our life.

And so now we're in the season of Lent, those 40 days leading up to Easter, and so we're taking a break from working our way through books of the Bible to take these laid-out passages for us that are in the lectionary to guide our teaching.

So we have two passages this morning.

One in Luke, Luke 13, not the one I just referenced, but Luke 13, and then also one in Philippians.

We'll get two different images from these passages.

And each of these images has something for us.

So I'll make a few points.

We'll look at these passages, we'll see what we can learn.

Point number one is this you have secure belonging in God.

You have secure belonging in God.

We see it in our text in Luke 13, which I read, there's the religious people are there, and they warn Jesus that Herod wants to kill him, and Jesus says, to tell that fox, and that's an insult, by the way.

That's an insult at the time.

He says, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow.

But the third day I finish my course.

And then he says in verse 34, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it.

How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her broad under her wings, and you were not willing.

So there it is.

You really didn't expect it to come to church and see that Jesus says, I'm like a mama chicken, and you are like my little chic, and I want to have you under my wing.

You belong to me.

You should exist under my wing.

Last summer I was at my uncle's house.

Our whole family was up there visiting my family in Seattle.

We're at my uncle's house, it was on this beautiful lake, and so we're on the back deck of my uncle's house, and back deck, a little bit of lawn, and then the lake, and we're all sitting out there, we're talking, and sure enough, a bald eagle just comes, just soaring like right at us from across this really wide lake.

And he's, I mean, we see him just a little speck.

He's getting closer.

Is that an eagle?

Is that an eagle?

Oh, it's a body eagle.

We're all getting excited.

He just comes right at us, and as soon as she gets near us and she starts to lift up.

It's just sore.

I mean, the we need just huge wings.

I mean, she looks so regal, and her eyes were piercing, and you go, like, I want to belong to that.

Like, that's what I want.

I want to belong to a bald eagle.

Like, that's so regal and majestic, right?

And we get images like that in the Bible of God.

We get regal, majestic, mighty images of God.

We get them, but not here.

Here we get a mama chicken, is what we get.

And there's a reason.

The reason is that nobody's afraid of a hen.

Right?

Like you're not afraid of a mama chicken, right?

Like a mama chicken is approachable.

And that's the point.

God is approachable.

In Jesus, we we get this approachability of God that we can approach God and He's loving and He's caring.

Point number two is sort of that.

Your belonging with God is secure because of Jesus.

That's good news because it's not on you, it's not on your work, it's on Jesus' work.

Your belonging with God is secure because of Jesus.

Is there in verse 32?

He said to them, Go and tell that fox, behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow.

And then here's the hint that it's all about his work, and on the third day I finish my course.

Right?

He's alluding toward Good Friday, where he will die for our sin.

Our sin is put upon him, his righteousness is given to us, and then the third day, Easter morning, he rises from the dead to conquer death.

That's his work for us.

Author Barbara Taylor says this Jesus won't be king of the jungle in this or any other story.

What he will be is a mother hen who stands between the chicks and those who mean to do them harm.

She has no fangs, no claws, no rippling muscles.

All she has is her willingness to shield her babies with her own body.

If the fox wants them, he will have to kill her first.

And that's the image for us that our security is not by our fight and our work, our security is because of the mama chicken.

That's what Jesus is saying.

I'm the mama chicken, I will stand between you and the enemy.

I will stand between you and the lies.

I'll stand between you and your guilt.

I'll stand between you and your inability to earn righteousness.

I'll be your righteousness, I'll be your absolution, I'll be your forgiveness.

Point number three, our belonging and satisfaction is in God alone.

Our belonging and satisfaction is in God alone.

Christy and I watched A Star Is Born This Week, the Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga movie, and Cooper, he plays this rock star named Jack, and Jack has hits and stardom and fame and money.

And he has he is all that people would think.

That's what you want, but he's also coping with a past of hurt and neglect as a child, and he's an alcoholic and he's a drug addict.

The first two that they meet one night, the first time they meet, they they meet, and and there's this sweet little scene.

They're sitting in a parking lot and they're on a curb, and it's the beginning of the song Shallow, which you've probably heard.

It's all over the radio at this point.

And she says to him, she sort of like whispers it to him.

She says, She says, Tell me something, boy.

Aren't you tired trying to fill that void?

Or do you need more?

Ain't it hard keeping it so hardcore?

And then later on, he he sings to her.

He says, Tell me something, girl.

Are you happy in this modern world?

Or do you need more?

Is there something else you're searching for?

And in the song they both sing, I'm fallen, and all the good times I find myself longing for change.

And in the bad times, I fear myself.

No, what are they talking about?

Why is this soundtrack number one right now?

Well, maybe because it's Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga, right?

But it is number one, it's sustaining itself, and it's because they capture, they capture our condition and our struggle that we just keep trying to live outside the wing.

We keep trying to find our satisfaction and security outside of God.

And it's only in relationship with the Father that finally our hearts are at rest.

Paul speaks of this search, strong words in Philippians 3, 18 and 19.

For many of whom I have often told you and now tell you, even with tears, they walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.

Their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and their glory, they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.

So enemies of the cross, that would mean they live outside the cross's proclamation of redemption for them and righteousness for them and identity for them and belonging for them.

They're gonna do it themselves.

Enemies in the cross are gonna do it themselves.

And I would just ask anybody who tries this, like, how's that work?

How's it working?

Is it working out?

And Paul says, you go that way, your mind will be limited without any sight beyond the immediate temporal world.

He says, you will try to find glory in shameful things because you'll be trying to fill that void, and in all of it, your God will be your belly.

That's a beautiful metaphor.

Dark, but beautiful.

Years ago, a mentor of mine took me to Israel with a group of people.

We traveled around to different sites and he would teach lessons in the different sites, and we went to this ancient theater at Caesarea by the sea.

Big outdoor stadiums, huge stands down to a stage.

And the Romans they would come and they would fill these stands and they would watch the theater, the people sing, and whatever play was going on, and they would eat and they would eat and they would eat and they would gorge themselves.

Now there was a room underneath the stadium, and you went into this little room, a little long room, and you went in, and there's this long trough.

And at first I walked in, I thought this was like an ancient urnal, like the old Braves Stadium, and you know what I'm talking about.

It's like one long trough.

You're like, this is odd, this is weird.

And that's what I thought it was.

It was like, oh, this is where the Braves got it from.

It's not what it was.

The Romans would eat and eat and eat and engorge themselves so they could not eat any more.

They would excuse themselves from the theater, they would walk down, they'd go in this room, they would vomit, they would return to their seat to eat more.

And they would do it over and over and over again.

And it's easy to kind of laugh at, like, oh, how primitive.

What a primitive people.

I can't imagine doing anything like that.

But we do it, don't we?

I mean, we consume status and you know, money, experiences, materials, love, religious, you know, moralistic deeds.

And we think if we can consume enough, I can get enough in that in my belly, if I can get enough of it, then I'll then I'll finally belong to God.

Then maybe I'll be full in this world.

And then we have this Zacchaeus, like we talked about earlier on.

We have this Zacchaeus, who I think he had consumed a lot.

He had the money to, and he's realizing it's not enough.

And he's like climbing up in a tree just to see, just to see Jesus.

Paul goes on to write in Philippians 3, verse 20, but our citizenship, but our belonging is in heaven.

Philippians 3:20

So it's beyond this world.

It's more than the physical, more than the temporal.

And from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself.

Therefore, my brothers, and we say my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.

A lot of days we don't feel like this uh citizen of heaven.

There's a lot of days we don't feel like we are a friend of God or belong to God.

Because we wonder like, could God actually still love me?

If he sees me, if he really knows me, because of this guilt or this addiction or this woundedness, this condemnation, this grief, this loneliness, this inability to get our act together, this fear, this anxiety, whatever it is.

Could I possibly belong to God?

And the amazing answer is yes.

Forever, yes.

And that's what we have in Jesus' work for us.

See, this morning, it's all good news to you this morning.

It's all good news.

It's yes to you.

So I am a little obsessed with the movie A Stars Born, so indulge me, even if you didn't like the movie, it's okay.

You know, that's fine, you don't have to like it.

We can still be friends on that.

Um, I might think less of you a little bit, but we can still be friends.

And I won't ruin the movie, so you can start to calm down.

People get nervous at this point if a pastor mentions a movie two times in a sermon.

But there's this scene, there's this scene, and Jack horribly embarrasses, I'll be very vague, Jack horribly embarrasses Allie.

And it's heart-wrenching.

I was we're watching it, I started talking to the TV.

I don't know if you have that moment in your house, you're watching something, you're like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, don't do that.

You know, like I'm talking out loud to the TV, and it is heart-wrenching, it is, it is shame, it's shameful, it is failure.

She's just trying to kind of like survive through it.

He just made a fool of himself, and afterward, he's he's he's apologizing and he says, I embarrassed you.

She doesn't hesitate.

She says, I'm not embarrassed of you.

And he says, and your dad.

My father loves you.

I cover you.

I cover that in a walk with you.

And my father loves you.

About sixteen hundred years ago, there was a man named Patrick that lived.

And he went to Ireland to be a missionary.

To tell people this about this Jesus and his forgiveness and his righteousness.

So let's close with his prayer as we close this sermon.

Let's pray together.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.

Father, would you help us to hear?

That you are not embarrassed of us, that you are as approachable as a mother hen, that in Jesus you have satisfied all your justice toward our failure and our sin and the sin of the world.

It is all satisfied.

That you hold no condemnation toward us, that in fact you just want us to live under the wing, close to you, and you are always willing, always willing to be between us and our enemies.

Give us greater faith and greater trust that you are, in fact, our absolution, our righteousness, our security, our satisfaction, and our full belonging that we need.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.