By Angus Harley

“ “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.” ” (Matt.23:37)

No evangelical denies the Gospel must be preached to all men, or that emotion must be put into this preaching. Nor would the evangelical reject that this preaching is a call for sinners to turn to the Lord, to avoid his wrath. If someone were close to dying, and a doctor offered help, the sick man would be a fool to refuse it. Sinners are perishing spiritually and are ‘offered’ the Gospel to save them. At least, that’s how it kind of goes with the free-offer model. Matthew 23:37 is, it is said, an example of the free-offer of the Gospel. On the face of it, the text looks like some kind of emotional appeal to come to Jesus, for he longs to save sinners, “How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings”. Jesus is mourning and desires to gather sinners under his wings.

Except, is this really what this Scripture is getting at? Does the context convey the above model? I will argue that it does not. My aim is not to demonstrate that the whole of the free-offer model is wrong, but that Matthew 23:37 is not a prooftext for it. I am aware of the free-offer model’s reliance on John 3:16, Matthew 11:28-30, Ezekiel 33:11, 2 Peter 3:9, and Matthew 22 and its parable of the wedding invitations, and other texts. This article keeps exclusively to Matthew 23:37, as part of the problem is that the free-offer model tends to read the same info into its prooftext base.

We see, first of all, that the Jews are described as evil. They are not some ‘lost’ souls who are wandering around battered and bruised, dazed and confused, and in need of deliverance, “ “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!” “

Second, if Jesus was displaying emotion here, it certainly was not gushing love. Jesus declares about the scribes and Pharisees, “ ”You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?” ” (23:33). Thus, eight woes were pronounced upon those scribes and Pharisees (23:13-36), and peppered throughout this language was all kinds of invective showered upon them. Listen to John the Baptist speak about the Pharisees and Sadducees, “ ““You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” ” (Matt.3:7). Not a whole lot of loving going on!

‘Hang on a second,’ someone will say, ‘Jesus was speaking about the whole of Jerusalem, not just some crazed religious bigots.’ Yes, the whole of Jerusalem that, “ ”kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!” ”. The identical hellish spirit is in Jerusalem and in the Pharisees and Sadducees. The same Jerusalem that later cried out for Jesus’ blood (Matt.27:20-24).

Third, the hen gathering its chicks under its wings illustration is a metaphor for spiritual protection, not an expression of longing and mourning. It is the common opinion that Jesus was mourning that he could not bring Jerusalem under his ‘wings’, and that this was the expression of his longing and desire for Jerusalem. This does not fit the profile of the text, however. For one thing, Jesus’ emotion is tied to the recalcitrance and unwillingness of the Jews, not to their present need of salvation. Nor was Jesus mourning Israel’s unbelief. I am reminded of Jeremiah 16:5, “For thus says the Lord, “Do not enter a house of mourning, or go to lament or to console them; for I have withdrawn My peace from this people,” declares the Lord, “My lovingkindness and compassion.” ” Jesus is not lamenting or mourning, but declaring in judgment that the salvation of the Lord so often pronounced in their hearing was now removed from them due to their unwillingness. Jerusalem had foolishly refused the protection of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and it is this stupidity that Jesus targets:

2 Listen, O heavens, and hear, O earth;
For the Lord speaks,
“Sons I have reared and brought up,
But they have revolted against Me.
3 “An ox knows its owner,
And a donkey its master’s manger,
But Israel does not know,
My people do not understand.”

4 Alas, sinful nation,
People weighed down with iniquity,
Offspring of evildoers,
Sons who act corruptly!
They have abandoned the Lord,
They have despised the Holy One of Israel,
They have turned away from Him. (Isa.1:2-3)

Fourth, the elephant in the room: there is no call to repentance here, never mind an ‘offer’. Indeed, this is one of the last texts one ought to appeal to defend the free offer of the Gospel! Jesus is pronouncing judgment upon Jerusalem, not offering salvation to it, “ “Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!“ ”. ‘Ichabod’ to Israel, “ “from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” ”

Fifth, and following on from the former point, God’s ‘desire’ was now to bring judgment upon Israel. Even if God had some emotional tie to Israel in the past, it was no longer there. Israel was now under judgment. Nor was Jesus suggesting that Israel had merely incurred judgment, or that somehow Jerusalem would know the negative consequences of its unbelief. No! Jesus is himself the judge who is leaving behind Israel. It is a divine and active punishment, an execution of the divine plan after centuries of longsuffering on God’s part. So, why don’t the free-offer advocates refer to God’s ‘desire’ for judgment on Jerusalem?

Sixth, God’s love for Israel was temporary and toward enemies. I acknowledge that God had loved Israel. ‘Loved’ is the appropriate term. The nation as a whole is now cast off. An elect remnant was set apart for salvation, but the nation was cast off. Israel as a whole was always his enemy, an enemy that he had loved, but now was judging (see Rom.11:28). What is Judgment Day? God’s act of love for sinners by condemning them to hell? How could it be? In v37, Jesus is not speaking in love, but in righteous anger and judgment. Jesus was declaring, ‘Game over!’