Holy Saturday Haiku
O Jerusalem!
I'd gather you as a hen
her chicks; You would not.
The mosaic (above) of the hen with her chicks memorializes the prophetic sorrow of Jesus for His beloved people. This mosaic is found in the church of Dominus Flevit ("God weeps")
on the side of Mount Olivet, overlooking Jerusalem.
This Holy Saturday Haiku is taken from Matthew 23: 37-38:
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is forsaken and desolate."
This verse is part of the discourse of Christ in the days immediately before his crucifixion--He weeps for the coming destruction of Jerusalem..and His disciples are stunned--they know that Jesus alludes to Old Testament events when God, who desired to spare His repentant people, used a similar image:
"Like birds hovering, so the LORD of hosts will protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver it, he will spare and rescue it. Turn to him from whom you have deeply revolted, O people of Israel. " (Isaiah 31:5)
And the fate of Jerusalem that Christ wept over? In 66 A.D. the Jewish War erupted. By 70 A.D. the city lay under siege, few of its chicks survived the horrors and atrocities, including cannibalism. (Cf. Flavius Josephus, The Jewish War)
