At the North-East corner of the Mount of Olives near the site of the tombs of the prophets Haggai, Malachi, and Zecharia is a lovely little chapel called Dominus flevit, built in the shape of a tear and designed by the famous Italian architect Antonio Barluzzi. As you kneel in prayer and look towards the Crucifix on the Altar you can see a lattice window incorporating a chalice and beyond it is one of the most beautiful views of the old city of Jerusalem. It was there, at that spot that Jesus wept for Jerusalem.

It is difficult to spend any time in the Holy Land without being overcome with the sadness that pervades its history. How everything that was meant to be just isn’t. It is now a land of Promise that is morally impoverished by hostility between those who inherited it from God; a land in which security is only won at the expense of others. A land without love in the place Jesus showed us how to love one another.

A city for all: That chalice in the window says it all. It represents the unity for which Christ lived and died. Around Christ’s table we are called into fellowship with each other – to eat and drink together, leaving behind differences of race and gender, doctrine and dispute, and yet everywhere we fence that table around with barriers, claiming exclusive rights to the blessing Christ proclaimed and made a reality through his death and resurrection. On my visits to the Holy land, I have witnessed the tragic divisions that scar not just our world but particularly our Christian denominations.

At many sites, there are Altars exclusively reserved for the use of one denomination or another. Most offensive of all is the infighting that goes on in the church of the Holy Sepulchre where Christian denominations war for control of the holiest places in the building.

The Pharisees who came to see Jesus on this occasion had the same agenda. They wanted him out of Jerusalem. This was their city and they alone had the authority to say what happened here. They came to Jesus with a threat veiled as a warning. “Watch out! Herod is coming to get you. It was they, with the collaboration of the chief priests and rulers who eventually handed him over to Herod and the Roman power.

Jesus refused to leave, he would he said “Reach my goal” and complete his mission.

“So go tell that fox, ‘I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day, I will reach my goal” Luke 13: 32. The agenda of the Pharisees was the same as the current religious powers, they will keep the ‘Others out’. They will stop at nothing to maintain their authority over Jerusalem. Yet Jesus’ life and death were not determined by Herod or the Pharisees but was planned and directed by God, and his mission would unfold in God’s time and according to His will.

A chicken and its chicks:

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often have I longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! Look, your house is left to you desolate”. Luke 13: 34/35.

Stanley Spencer caught the essence of this picture in his final painting in the Lent series ‘Christ in the wilderness. He called it ‘The Hen’ and it was painted in 1954 some fourteen years after the completion of the other paintings in the series.

Christ is portrayed as a hencoop, sheltering the mother hen who hides the chicks beneath her wings. He could have portrayed Christ as a sheepfold, for this too is a familiar image from the gospels. Christ is the gate into the sheepfold and he is the protecting walls around it. So too is the image of the mother hen sheltering her chicks beneath her wings. The prophetic writing of the Old Testament often refers to the Almighty as a protecting wing. We can see from the huge sleeves in Jesus' robe that there is room for many chicks in the folds for he too is our protecting wing.

There are some cockerels and a hen who choose not to enter into the hen coop but wander around outside, but the door is open for them to come in too. We can see a late arrival just coming into land, it is not a chick but a sparrow, however, it is welcome too.

This is a picture of inclusive love for all whatever their stripe! Jesus is the one who gathers in as opposed to the religious leaders who wish to exclude all but their own. Such is the love of our Saviour for us that he welcomes the stranger, and protects the weak. The loving, saving, presence of the one who stayed with us to the end, refusing to be moved from his task, that all could take shelter under his wings.

The time for weeping is over, it is time to start mobilising God’s love to counter the divisions of race, religion, gender, and class,

be it here or in Jerusalem. Only then will we be blessed because we come in the name of the Lord. That is the Chalice that Christ hands to us.

Rev. Simon Brignall