The LORD builds up Jerusalem [anew];
he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
He heals the brokenhearted,
and binds up their wounds.
In the Shemoneh Esrei, Israel’s daily prayer, which very probably was composed in the first century CE, that development then came to its conclusion. The tenth petition is: “Sound the great shofar for our freedom and raise a banner to gather our exiles and unite us together from the four corners of the earth. Blessed are You, LORD, who regathers the scattered of His people Israel.”
Thus the petition for an eschatological gathering is among Israel’s fixed prayer formulae. In the time of Jesus the petition had long been in circulation. So it was almost a matter of course for him to adopt the idea of “gathering.” He did not need to think directly of gathering out of the Diaspora, because the idea had already acquired its own quality. It stood for the eschatological union, rescue, and redemption of Israel. But Jesus not only made verbal use of the idea; in his own matter-of-fact way he brought into being exactly what the idea meant.
John the Baptizer
The Baptizer must have given Jesus a critical impetus. It is true that John preached the immediately approaching judgment, but this expectation of the judgment soon to come did not make the gathering of Israel somehow superfluous. On the contrary: it made it all the more urgent. Precisely because the time still remaining for Israel is so limited, the Baptizer had to bring the people together and equip them for what was about to happen. The one who judges with fire will then bring this gathering process to an end: he will fill the granary with wheat and burn the chaff in unquenchable fire (Matt 3:12).
We have already seen2 that the Baptizer addresses not humanity in general or all sinners throughout the world but the people of God. The baptism he confers is not intended to inaugurate a special community or to rescue individuals as such from judgment (though it is meant to do that too); it is an “eschatological sacrament” for Israel.3
What is important for the Baptizer is that there must always be true children of Abraham, always the true Israel (Matt 3:9). The repentance and baptism now offered by God is the last chance for Israel to become this people of God, for Israel is now in the deepest crisis of its history. It can repent and allow itself to be gathered like wheat, or it can refuse to repent. In that case there will be a separation, just as the chaff is separated from the wheat (Matt 3:12). So for the Baptizer, as far as Israel is concerned, there is gathering and there is separation. Jesus, in his own way, will accomplish both.
“Whoever Does Not Gather with Me”
Jesus too wanted nothing else but to gather Israel in the face of the reign of God now coming to pass. But his point of view is different: the impulse is not the impending judgment but the joy of the reign of God. Judgment is not suppressed or ignored; it remains in the background. If Israel refuses, it will bring judgment on itself. So Jesus can say: “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters” (Matt 12:30 // Luke 11:23). This saying of Jesus has rightly been dubbed a “call to decision.”4 There can be no neutrality toward Jesus, only for or against. Whoever does not decide for him has already decided against him.
But what makes this saying of Jesus even weightier is that it is not just about a decision for or against Jesus. Since this is about the eschatological gathering of Israel, the choice for or against Jesus is also a decision for or against the salvation of Israel.5 Anyone who does not gather with Jesus now, in this crucial eschatological situation, stands in the way of the salvation and redemption of the people of God.
Besides this radical call to decision there is another saying in which Jesus also speaks of the gathering of Israel. It must have been uttered in a late phase of his work because he is already looking back at a good many refusals: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Matt 23:37 // Luke 13:34). On the surface this means that Jesus often wanted to gather the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that is, to make it the center of the eschatological Israel. But that would presume that he had appeared in Jerusalem a number of times. We cannot exclude that, although it contradicts the way things are presented in the Synoptic Gospels.6 But we can also understand Jesus’ words differently if we suppose that Jerusalem stands for all Israel.
Thus, for example, in the biblical book of Lamentations the words “Jerusalem,” “daughter Zion,” “daughter Judah,” “daughter of my people,” and “Jacob” are repeatedly exchanged for one another. “Jacob” means all Israel. In and of themselves Lamentations 1, 2, and 4 refer to the city of Jerusalem. It is addressed in the same way that Jesus addresses Jerusalem in our text. But the three songs constantly look beyond the city itself to encompass the whole land. For every reader or hearer of Lamentations it was clear that here Jerusalem represents Israel. The lamentation over the destroyed capital is at the same time a lamentation over the people of God, sunk so deep in misery. Jesus quite certainly knew these language conventions. Therefore he could have understood all Israel as included among the “children of Jerusalem.” The capital city is responsible for the land and also representative of it.
But however that may be, these words were probably spoken in Jerusalem, and in them Jesus summarizes his whole activity in retrospect—as his effort to bring about the eschatological gathering of Israel.
The image of the bird (in the Greek text) is, as so often with Jesus, taken from everyday observation. The reference is not to the eagle that spreads its wings but to the hen who repeatedly invites her scattered chicks to gather around her, clucking at them in a low tone; sometimes she also tucks them under her wings. But the true point of comparison in the image is not the protection of the young ones under her wings but the gathering of them.
The Petition for Gathering in the Our Father
At this point we must certainly take a look at the Our Father, for this prayer that Jesus formulated for his disciples summarizes his whole will in one work of genius. For that very reason we find an irritating state of things in the Our Father: here Israel, the people of God, apparently does not appear. There does not seem to be anything said about the gathering of the people of God either. Does that not refute everything we have said to this point? The objection is justified, but it misses the point, because the Our Father itself is shaped by the theme of the gathering of Israel. Its very first petition is: “Hallowed be Thy name!” (Matt 6:9 // Luke 11:2). Exegetes are united in saying that this is not only and not even primarily about the hallowing of the Name of God by Israel. Rather, what is in the foreground is that God is to hallow his own Name, just as he is to bring about his royal reign (second petition) and accomplish his plan of salvation (third petition). But what does it mean for God to hallow his Name?
We can simply not understand this first petition without its Old Testament background. At its base is the theology of the book of Ezekiel, especially chapters 20 and 36. Ezekiel speaks repeatedly of the holy Name of God, and this book contains the single passage in the Hebrew Bible in which the statement that the Name of God will be hallowed has God himself as the acting subject (Ezek 36:23).
In and of itself the hallowing of the Name (qiddush hashem) is a widely attested Old Testament and Jewish theme. But the subject is always the human being or the people Israel, and the reference is primarily to keeping the commandments. This is clear in the basic text, Leviticus 22:31-32: “Thus you shall keep my commandments and observe them: I am the LORD. You shall not profane my holy name, that I may be sanctified among the people of Israel.” So Israel is to hallow the Name of God. That is the normal usage. The statement that God himself hallows his Name, however, points clearly to Ezekiel. In that book, at Ezekiel 36:19-28, we read: