Luke 13:34
The wording of Jesus’s lament in Luke 13:34 is
virtually the same as that in Matthew 23:37. Jesus’s central allusion to
YHWH-texts is found in his expressed desire to gather Jerusalem’s children as a
hen gathers her brood under her wings. Theoretically, this claim could have
been expressed by a mere leader—a prophet, priest, or king—of Israel, except
that the Lukan context demands understanding Jesus’s words as the personal
desire of YHWH.
First, YHWH is the only OT figure who compared
his relationship to Israel as that of a mother bird to her young. He introduced
the figure to describe himself bearing the Israelites on eagles’ wings during
the Exodus (Exod 19:4)—a thought repeated in the Song of Moses (Deut 32:11) and
serving as inspiration for Israel’s worship of YHWH who provided refuge in the
shelter of his wings (cf. Pss 17:8; 36:7; 57:1; 61:4; 63:7; 91:4). Second,
Jesus claimed that his desire to gather his people (“Jerusalem”) to himself
(“under her wings”) was a longstanding concern with repeated attempts (“How
often . . .!”). On the surface, Jesus’s expression of frequency does not make
sense of the Lukan narrative, in which no visit of Jesus to Jerusalem as an
adult has yet been recorded. However, in
the Lukan metanarrative, which has been emphasizing the visitation of YHWH to
Israel (Luke 1:68, 78; 7:16; cf. 19:44) in the preexistent “Lord” Jesus (1:17,
43, 76; 2:11; 3:4–6; 7:26–27), Jesus’s claim only verifies the big picture:
YHWH has come again to his people in Jesus, yet they have largely refused to
come under his protection.
Third, Jesus’s lament echoes the laments of
YHWH for his people to return to him. Fourth, Jesus lamented the persecutions
and murders of the Old Covenant prophets as if he himself had sent the prophets
and then arrived as their superior. This interpretation is shortly confirmed by
Jesus’s Parable of the Wicked Tenants (20:9–18) and the resultant opposition
against Jesus by Jerusalem’s leaders (20:19–20). And fifth, Jesus’s use of Ps
118 implied that he himself had forsaken Jerusalem’s “house” (whether that be
the temple, city, or nation) and would remain unseen by them until they
declared that he was coming in the name of the Lord/YHWH (Luke 13:35). These
features support the interpretation that Jesus identified as YHWH by applying
YHWH-texts, such as Deut 32:11 and Ps 91:4, to himself. (Scott Brazil, Jesus
and YHWH-Texts in the Synoptic Gospels [Library of New Testament Studies
694; London: T&T Clark, 2024], 152-53)