Take Refuge Under His wing - Luke 13:34

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”

- Luke 13:34 

One recurring themes from the Old Testament (OT) prophets is the judgment of God. However, most of the time the news of God’s judgment was accompanied by an invitation to return to God and take refuge in Him. 

In the passage above, we see Jesus doing the same - the invitation to repent. At the beginning of the chapter, Jesus warns the Jews of the judgment of God that will fall upon them if they do not repent. God shows how he has been patient with them to bear good fruit and turn to him by telling the parable of the fig tree.

Jesus continues to confront the Jewish leaders who have not freely allowed Him to reach out to the inhabitants of Jerusalem with His good news as we know of the ongoing tension between Jesus and Jewish leaders which culminated in them killing Him.

Jesus had warned the Jews in the earlier passages of the coming judgment, we see Him here expressing His tenderness of heart as He uses the image of the mother bird who wants to protect her young ones from danger by hiding them under her wings. We have also seen this image in the old testament when the psalmist is speaking about taking refuge under the shadow of God’s wings. Psalm 57:1 “Be gracious to me, God, be gracious to me, for I take refuge in You. I will seek refuge in the shadow of Your wings until the danger passes.”

Jesus in our verse is lamenting for Jerusalem because they are not willing to take refuge in Him from the coming judgment. He knows that unless they are under the shadow of His wings they are vulnerable and without protection on the day of judgment. I am not sure how you feel when you think about judgment day or when you think of God’s judgment. Many people are uncomfortable with the concept of God’s judgment. This is because many people only know God as loving and so they do not think of Him as a judge. 

Well, it is worth saying that the loving God is also just which means in His love He ought to show justice. Because true love does not rejoice in sin (1 Cor 13:6). So God will never let sin God unpunished. To emphasize God’s loving justice in the gospels, we see Jesus speaking more about God’s judgment in hell than He does about heaven. 

Furthermore, the testimony that Jesus bears about us as humans is that we are sinners. So, when the just and loving God judges sin we will be judged. That is why Jesus is filled with compassion and laments for us as He did for Jerusalem. Not only that but He then invites us to run to Him as a safe place(refuge) so that we will be protected (under the shadow of His wings) from the coming judgment of God. 

Why should we trust Jesus to protect us from the judgment of God? Well, as Jesus in our passage is on His way to Jerusalem (Luke 13:22), he goes there not on vacation but to face God’s judgment on our behalf on the cross. He dies for our sins so that when we take refuge under the shadow of His wings we will be safe. 

So for those of us who have trusted in Jesus, we have confidence that we will not face God’s judgment because Jesus faced it on our behalf and now we are safe under His wings. But if you have not believed in Jesus, you are without protection from God’s judgment and so unless you repent you shall likewise perish (v1).