Today's passage almost has the feel of Aesop's fables with barnyard animals playing a starring role. In the short space of five verses, we find pictures of both a fox and a hen. Herod is called a fox. Jesus says he feels like a mother hen. And the people in Jerusalem are all the little chicks running around in great danger.

There is an old proverb that warns, "The fox is in charge of the henhouse." We might use that expression when we put the oil companies in charge of making sure we don't have price gouging during an oil crisis. There's a fox in charge of the hen house.

Jesus describes Herod as a "fox," a fascinating choice. I am sure that Herod would have preferred a nobler mascot. A fox is an animal noted for cunning, craftiness and slyness. A fox will prey on the young of others. And Herod could be just that ruthless, as we see in the fate of John the Baptist. Herod is a symbol for raw, political power.

Why a hen? Why not a lion, King of the jungle? Why not an eagle? Why not a mighty warrior on a white horse from Revelation? We want to hear about the one with eyes like a flame of fire and with the armies of heaven following him. We want to hear about the sword that comes from his mouth and strikes the nations. I prefer to tell you a story of victory and conquest. I even want to say that the hen is victorious over the fox. In the end it is true, but first he has to die.

The well-known preacher Barbara Brown Taylor says, "Jesus won't be king of the jungle in this or any other story. What he will be is a mother hen, who stands between the chicks and those who mean to do them harm. She has no fangs, no claws, no rippling muscles. All she has is her willingness to shield her babies with her own body. If the fox wants them, he will have to kill her first." Jesus came to be a suffering servant and live a life of self-sacrifice. And he calls us to that life as well.