Jodie was a young girl who sat next to me in my astronomy class back in High School. She was not your typical girl; she was the daughter of a wealthy dentist in town and was about as attractive as a girl her age could get. Her appearance was flawless but as her friend I knew she was a very unstable girl. She was very insecure about herself and sought the affection of another to whom she could pour her heart and life into. And to no one’s surprise, a co-captain of the varsity football team approached Heidi and asked for a date.
Jodie was in love. This boy, unlike the scrawny boy who sat next to her in astronomy class, had a body chiseled in stone. He was very popular and himself came from a wealthy family. And each day in class, Heidi would tell me how much she loved him, and for two weeks this was the routine each day in class. All she did was talk about how much she loved Kevin...how she stayed at home each night waiting for him to call. How she bought him nice gifts for no reason other than she loved him. Then one day in class, Heidi sat down beside me and didn’t say a word, which was very uncharacteristic of her. I asked if anything was wrong, and with her head still looking toward the ground she softly said, “I slept with Kevin last night.”
Not wanting to get involved in that part of her life, I remained quiet until she said, “And he broke up with me this morning.” I said, “What?” “He broke up with me this morning. He said that he no longer loves me, and now it was time to move on. He said he didn’t want to be bogged down with a steady girl friend anymore.” And then she said, “I loved him…I did everything for him. Why would he do this to me? Why didn’t he love me?”
I jokingly told Jodie that all men were pigs, except for the scrawny ones of course, but the joke didn’t seem to lift her spirits. She was hurting. She felt used, abandoned, and above all else…unloved. And of all the things to feel, unloved is perhaps the worse. One person wrote that there is no greater pain that to offer your love to someone only to have that person throw it back in your face. The pain of rejected love; it’s an awful pain.
You can see the pain in the face of a woman who has been married for twenty odd years, who sacrificed her life and career for her marriage only to have her husband fall in love with a blonde girl 15 years his younger. After all her years of loving, giving, and sacrifice she stands there with her three kids alone, and she hurts. The pain of rejected love.
You can see the pain in the face of a little boy who simply idolizes his dad. For weeks his dad has promised that come the weekend, he would take him to the ball park and teach him to hit a baseball, but just as the weekend before the little boy stands alone by the window waiting with his bat and glove. On his face a single tear falls down as he says to his mother, “Why doesn’t he want to be with me?” The pain of rejected love; it’s an awful pain.
And you can see this pain, perhaps clearest in the face of a loving God whose creation has turned away. He created mankind, sought their affection, purchased their redemption, but in return they have constantly rejected Him. They jeer Him; mock His holy name, some claiming He doesn’t even exist. Oh, the pain of rejected love.
And the greater the love, the greater the pain of the rejection. The bible says that greater love has no man than this, that he would lay down his life for a friend. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. God demonstrates His love this way, while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. The love that God has for His creation is unfathomable, and greater than any love we could imagine. So, with such great love as this, imagine the pain within the heart of God when His people refuse Him.
And we get a glimpse into that pain when we read, "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!”
You can since in these words the broken heart of Jesus. When my mentor, Chaplain Wil Wineman, told me why he and his wife had a second child after they had had such difficulty with the first one, his response made me smile. He said that he and his wife just had so much love to give that one child simply wasn’t enough to contain it.
God created man because He has so much love to give. He wanted someone to love, someone to share and fellowship with, so God created mankind in His own image for that very purpose…to share His love and be loved in return. And even when man would run away from God, God would pursue and call them to come to Him. The loving Shepard would leave the 99 to pursue that one lost sheep. Why? Because the sheep is loved by the Shepard.
When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, they didn’t search out God, God searched for them. Jacob didn’t go into the desert looking for a wrestling match with God, but God pursued Jacob, wrestled all night with Him and changed his name to Israel. And when Israel’s descendents would wander away, God would pursue them.
Prophet after prophet was sent. And each had the same message, “turn your hearts back to God because He loves you and wants you to be with Him.” But with each prophet came the rejection. And the rejection wasn’t just of the messenger, but of the One who sent the messenger. And the more God spoke, the more man turned a deaf ear. The more God showed His love, the more that love was rejected. And this love prompted God to do the unthinkable. When they wouldn’t listen to the prophets, perhaps they would listen to God Himself.
It was this love which wrapped itself in human flesh and descended the birth canal of Mary. It was this love which walked the hard trails of Galilee and spoke to the hard hearts of the religious. It was this love which left Heaven to come into our world, and it was this love that was ultimately rejected. John 1:10-11 says “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”
Oh the pain in God’s heart! 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!” And that unwillingness continues today. You see, just as God called on Israel to respond to His love, He calls on each and every one of us to take up our cross and follow Him. He wants us to respond to His love by simply loving Him back. The bible says that we love God because He first loved us. So how do we respond to that love?
We can respond in one of three ways. Some respond by an outright rejection of God. These people want absolutely nothing to do with God; in fact they despise the very mention of His name. Aaron Burr was the third vice-president of the U.S. and was reared in a godly home. He was admonished at a very early age to accept Christ and follow Him by His grandfather the great preacher Jonathan Edwards whose sermon sinners in the hands of an angry God is said to have started the great awakening. But he refused to listen. Instead he rejected God and said he wished God would simply leave him alone. Although he did achieve political success, his life was filled with strife and hate. At age 48 he killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel, and throughout his life he remained unhappy. Toward the end of his life, Burr told a group of friends, that sixty years ago I told God that if He would leave me alone, I would leave Him alone…and He hasn’t bothered me since. Sad to say, but he got what he wanted. He outright rejected God, wanting nothing to do with Him. Some are like that.
But I would have to say that most people don’t come out and outright reject God, most instead respond to His love with indifference. And many of you are indifferent to God. You’re apathetic toward your relationship with God. You say you love God, but then you act as if He is not there. He’s simply not that important to you. And the truth be told, if your rights as a Christian were taken away from you today, you wouldn’t miss them very much…you would get along just fine. Your faith is simply not important to your life, you’re indifferent and indifference to the love of God is just as bad as an outright rejection.
But amazingly enough, in spite of all of our rejection and indifference, God still loves us. Even though Jerusalem had turned away from God, Jesus still said, “o how I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.” Even in our rebellion, God desires to hold His children.
A while back I came across a story about a family whose twenty year son had become quite rebellious. He spent his nights wasting away with drink and parties, and he constantly spurred his parents love. One night in a drunken stupor he appeared at his parent’s home, stumbled through the door and passed out on their floor. As the father was about to wake him and kick him out, the mother gently knelt down beside him, placed his head in her lap and caressed his hair. When the father began to speak, she said, “Shhhh! This is the only time I get to hold him. He’s still my son. I want to hold him.’
The love that mother had for her son is the same love that God has for you. No matter how bad we’ve been, no matter how unfaithful we’ve been... God still loves. In the bible there is a story of a parent’s unconditional love. It’s the story of David and his son Absalom. Absalom rebelled against his father David and conspired to overthrow David and make himself king. He won the hearts of the people and David was forced to flee for his life, fleeing from his own son. When David and his followers fought back, they eventually turned the tide of the battle, but when news got back to David that his son Absalom was dead, this is how he responded. 2 Samuel 18:33 says, “The king was shaken. He went up to the room over the gateway and wept. As he went, he said: "O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you--O Absalom, my son, my son!" David’s heart was filled with love for his son Absalom in spite of his rebellion, and God still loves the sinner today and he calls on him to repent and turn back to Him.
Some respond to God’s love with rejection, some respond with indifference, and yet still some respond to God’s love by loving Him back. And when we accept that love, we find that our lives are made complete, and though we to have rebelled against God, by His grace and the shed blood of Jesus Christ we find pardon and peace. And it’s that love that motivates our love. During the early days of the Civil War a Union soldier was arrested on charges of desertion. Unable to prove his innocence, he was condemned and sentenced to die a deserter’s death. His appeal found its way to the desk of Abraham Lincoln. The president felt mercy for the soldier and signed a pardon. The soldier returned to service, fought the entirety of the war, and was killed in the last battle. Found within his breast pocket was the signed letter of the president. Close to the heart of the soldier were his leader’s words of pardon. And those words kept him going.
Let me tell you friend, God loves you. He gave His Son to die for you. When you rebelled He remained steadfast. When you were unfaithful, He remained faithful. And above all, He loved. And He loves you today, and calls all of us to Himself.
And no matter our situation or status in life, we can come. Whosoever, the bible says. Not the rich, not the poor, but whosoever shall call upon the name of Christ shall be saved. You see, Christ never turned anyone away who came to Him seeking forgiveness and a relationship. And He calls all of us to Him, but if we reject that call, then the result is that we will be rejected ourselves. Not because God rejects us, but because we have rejected God.
God is patient with our mistakes. He is longsuffering with our stumbles. He doesn’t get angry at our questions. He doesn’t turn away when we struggle. But when we repeatedly reject his message, when we are insensitive to his pleadings, when he changes history itself to get our attention and we still don’t listen, he simply honors our request. Romans chapter one starting with verse 21 says, "For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another." Did you get that last verse there, God gave them over. There is an old saying that says, "Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it." And if you don’t want God to bother you, if you want God to simply leave you alone...then you may just get it. "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! Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ’Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord" Now let me ask you, how will you respond? Have you rejected God in your life? Do you simply want God to leave you alone, or do you want to know Him? We read this morning the story of the prodigal son. Now, I’ve often wondered what life was like when the son returned home. Do you think he ever neglected to spend time with his dad? Do you think he went days upon days without speaking to him? If his dad left him a note, do you think he would put it on the shelf and allow it to gather dust without ever reading it? Do you think he ever sought to break his father’s heart again? Now how about you? Are you breaking God’s heart this morning either with your rejection of His love or your simple indifference? If so, look to that cross and there you see a God who so desired to gather you to Himself that He laid down His life for you.
"O Clara, Clara, 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! Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ’Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’"
