Matthew 23:37-39 37“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one that kills the prophets and stones those sent to it, how many times I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you did not want! 38Look, your house is left to you desolate. 39For I say to you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
Jesus shifts from woes to a lament over Jerusalem. The problem was not just with the scribes and Pharisees but all the people represented by the capital of Jerusalem. The power center had corrupted the whole nation. The story of this is clearly shown in the Old Testament historical books. The way the kings lived trickled out to the rest of the kingdom. The people of Jerusalem and rejected the prophets God sent. One of the clearest examples of this was the prophet Jeremiah just before the destruction of the city by the Babylonians in the year 587 B.C. The mention of stoning recalls the parable of the tenant farmers in 21:35.
Jesus’ image of a hen protecting her chicks shows compassion and sorrow and not judgment. One who was greater than the prophets was among them, yet they would treat him even worse than the prophets. The first person and the aorist tense of the verb I have wanted in verse 37 implies the omni-presence of Jesus as the Son of God in the past of Israel’s history. God the Son as the Word and Voice of God spoke through the prophets of old, calling people to repentance. That voice had come in audible human form, yet the inhabitants of Jerusalem refused to listen even to this speaking.
Verse 38 gives the sad state of Jerusalem of desolation. This word speaks more than simply the impending destruction by the Romans in 70 A.D. The Jews had an even more serious spiritual desolation. God’s plans included the whole world, and sadly, Jerusalem would get passed over as the first place to accept the Messiah. God would leave that place to its humanness void of his protection.
In verse 39, Jesus quotes the same words the crowds shouted out at the Triumphal entry (21:9; quoting from Psalm 118.26). The joy and enthusiasm the crowds showed Jesus would be short lived. The joy of his presence would not be experienced again until his second coming. This was their last opportunity to accept his with joy. The next time he comes will be judgment. At that final moment, Jerusalem will finally recognize their Messiah.
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