No One Said This Would Be Easy Series

Part II

“Stephen” happens to be the name of my older brother, and as we are seeing this morning, he was the first Christian to be put to death. And of course, the person who I share a name with, “Peter,” also met a difficult end, according to tradition, Peter was crucified upside down in Rome. And I am wondering (and a little worried) if my parents had some premonition that Steve and I were given these names of martyrs, since after me there are no more martyr names in our family. I suppose you can ask them about that this morning after the service since they are here. But of course, being a follower of Jesus is difficult. There are still some places on earth where Christians give up their lives for their faith. But even being a martyr is much easier than being an enemy of God.

You see, other people aren’t ever the real enemy. The primary enemy is the devil. People under his control, that is, without faith in Jesus, are the real victims in this fight, not the martyrs. Stephen looks like the victim in this story, but he’s actually the winner, and the people stoning him are victims. How is that possible? In our text, Jesus makes an unusual comparison between himself and an animal. We are used to Jesus being the Lamb of God, but we don’t usually picture Jesus as a chicken. But that’s exactly the metaphor he uses here, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.” I’ve read that hens are particularly protective of their chicks. If one goes missing, the hen will change its voice and be mournful, scratch and call for the lost chick. When hens find food, the first part is for the young. Then hen fights for her chicks, it warns them with her calls, and then hen protects the chicks with her wings. How very well this describes what Christ does for us, his people! When one strays from him, Jesus assumes a sad voice, urging repentance. He searches out those whom have strayed away. Before he thought of his own comfort, he considered the welfare of those under him, and so he endured the cross because he know that would help his chicks. He provides for our faith regularly as we hear the Word and are nourished by the sacrament. He sends us regular warnings about dangers to our souls. And finally, when the devil wants to snatch us away, Jesus spreads his wings over us and protects us.

You think it’s hard being a Christian? It’s much more difficult being an enemy of Jesus. They enjoy none of these benefits. We see from our text that this isn’t what Jesus wants. “How often I have longed to gather your children together,” Jesus mourns.

We saw this pointed speech Stephen gave to the Jewish leaders. There was some finger pointing going on there, “You stiffnecked people! You always resist the Holy Spirit! You have received the law…but have not obeyed it.” It sounds a bit unloving, but this is Jesus, that hen, speaking through Stephen, urging repentance, urging them to come under his protective care, urging them to give up being under the devil. But as Jesus predicted, “But you were not willing.”