“The Second Sunday in Lent”
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. (1 Timothy 1:2)
The basis for God’s Word to us today is our Old Testament reading from Jeremiah.
Let us pray…Speak O Lord your words of life to us and may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to You, our Rock and our Redeemer. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Have you ever walked into a situation where everyone seems mad or upset and you wondered, “What did I miss?”
Our Old Testament reading begins this way…
8 And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, “You shall die!
Upon reading that I immediately thought, “What did I miss?” What happened to motivate these leaders and members of the congregation of God’s people to not just ask Jeremiah to resign, but to pronounce a death sentence upon him?
In the first seven verses of Jeremiah 26, which we didn’t hear today, we learn about what led to this reaction. The Lord had given the following message to Jeremiah:
Stand in the court of the Lord’s house, and speak to all the cities of Judah that come to worship in the house of the Lord all the words that I command you to speak to them; do not hold back a word. 3 It may be they will listen, and every one turn from his evil way, that I may relent of the disaster that I intend to do to them because of their evil deeds. 4 You shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord: If you will not listen to me, to walk in my law that I have set before you, 5 and to listen to the words of my servants the prophets whom I send to you urgently, though you have not listened, 6 then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth.’”
Like any good Lutheran sermon, this message from the Lord proclaimed both Law and Gospel. The Law was the Lord’s call to repent of their evil ways, and to turn back to the Lord’s ways. The Law was also the threat that they would be destroyed like the city of Shiloh had been and that their disobedience would become negatively famous, a curse word among other nations, if they did not repent.
In contrast, the Gospel in this message from the Lord, is really that fact that God is taking the time to warn them, to call them to repentance and that He is willing to relent of the disaster He intended to bring upon these people.
So there it is, Law-Gospel. We sin. God judges. We repent. God relents. We confess. God forgives. That’s the work of the Law – showing us our sin, and the Gospel, turning us around and graciously placing us again under the forgiveness and love of God in Christ Jesus.
Unfortunately, this is not what happened back then. You see, few people like to be called up on the carpet, as the saying goes, criticized, judged, called to repent. Even though it was God who was doing the criticizing, judging and calling people to repentance, the only one the people saw was Jeremiah, the man, even though he was the Lord’s ordained messenger, God’s representative.
Just as their ancestors had complained against Moses and were thinking of stoning him, and just as later on, the apostles would be targeted for what they had said, God’s people in this reading, could not see their Lord who was standing right there behind the message of Jeremiah, and if we think forward to Jesus, neither could God’s people see their God who had come in the flesh for them.
I’m sure it’s hard to imagine ever saying to your pastor, You shall die! What would it take for you to even think that or to ask your pastor to get out of town? But we all know that in the heat of some moments, when our emotions take over, we can quickly lose sight of God, and only see the man up here, rather than the vessel of God’s work, or even see our brother or sister in Christ as the enemy.
As we move on in this text to hear what happens next to Jeremiah, we cannot but also be drawn forward to what happened to Jesus many centuries later. But let’s begin with Jerremiah’s situation…
10 When the officials of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king’s house to the house of the Lord and took their seat in the entry of the New Gate of the house of the Lord. 11 Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, “This man deserves the sentence of death, because he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.”
Now I want you to listen to what occurs to Jesus (Matthew 26), a text we will hear during Holy Week…
57 Then those who had seized Jesus led him to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders had gathered. 58 And Peter was following him at a distance, as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and going inside he sat with the guards to see the end. 59 Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death, 60 but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward 61 and said, “This man said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to rebuild it in three days.’” 62 And the high priest stood up and said, “Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?” 63 But Jesus remained silent. And the high priest said to him, “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” 64 Jesus said to him, “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” 65 Then the high priest tore his robes and said, “He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy. 66 What is your judgment?” They answered, “He deserves death.”
Back to Jeremiah…despite the sentence of death hanging over him, Jeremiah continued to proclaim the opportunity for good news and salvation for the people. We read…
12 Then Jeremiah spoke to all the officials and all the people, saying, “The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the words you have heard. 13 Now therefore mend your ways and your deeds, and obey the voice of the Lord your God, and the Lord will relent of the disaster that he has pronounced against you.
Our God wants to relent if we but repent. Our God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love in the midst of all our sin. It is as the Lord says in the book of Joel (2):
12 “Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
“return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
13 and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
and he relents over disaster.
God’s desire to relent is shown most clearly as Jesus goes to the cross for our sins and dies for us while we were yet enemies of God, and then rises in victory over the consequence of sin, that is, death. God is prepared to receive us as sinners even before we make the first move. Jesus has died for all so that all may turn to him in repentance and be saved: you, me, everyone.
However, I’ve found in my own life, as well as in the lives of others, that we often love our sin more than our Lord. Like many alcoholics, we would rather drink the poison of our own sinful selves leading to death, destroying our lives, our families, sometimes even our congregations, than to turn in confession and contrition and in faith to the Lord of life who can transform us.
I said at our voters’ meeting recently that it was easier for me being a trustee than a pastor and what I meant by that is that as a trustee I can fix many things that are broken, but as pastor I can’t even fix myself or any of my parishioners, no matter how hard I may try or want to.
Only Jesus has the fix to our sinful condition, and this is why Jeremiah implied at the end of his message that he was only the messenger, not the healer or fixer. Jeremiah said……
14 But as for me, behold, I am in your hands. Do with me as seems good and right to you. 15 Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and its inhabitants, for in truth the Lord sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.”
This is the position of every pastor. I am in your hands. Do with me as seems good and right to you even though your response to the Word that I or any other pastor proclaims, will mean either life or death for you, for in truth the Lord sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.”
And in truth, the pastor stands as one of our absolutions declare…in the stead of Christ, who on the cross said (Luke 23:34), “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And later on, he would then say (Luke 23:46), “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” – the real hands any faithful pastor or baptized member are truly in.
It may also be true as Pastor Fritsche said at that same voter’s meeting, that you are an easy congregation, by which I think he meant that he enjoyed being your pastor and that is good.
However, that doesn’t mean that the sin each of us struggles with is any less a problem or that we are any less sensitive when God through his messengers poke us where we are most sin-sore, calling us to repent in order that we might come to the One who can heal us, who wants to relent of the disaster that will come upon us apart from that saving work of Christ.
The call to repentance is not God’s way of rubbing salt in our wounds or some pastor’s attempt to make you look bad or feel guilty. The call to repentance is the expression of God’s desire to save you and everyone, to draw you into the arms of the crucified Christ who seeks to wash you clean, clothe you in his righteousness, and then feed you with His own life-giving body and blood.
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
and he relents over disaster.
In the name of Jesus. Amen.