The Second Sunday in Lent
February 21, 2016
Jeremiah 26:8-15
But as soon as Jeremiah finished telling all the people everything the LORD had commanded him to say, the priests, the prophets and all the people seized him and said, “You must die! Why do you prophesy in the LORD’s name that this house will be like Shiloh and this city will be desolate and deserted?” And all the people crowded around Jeremiah in the house of the LORD. When the officials of Judah heard about these things, they went up from the royal palace to the house of the LORD and took their places at the entrance of the New Gate of the LORD’s house. Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and all the people, “This man should be sentenced to death because he has prophesied against this city. You have heard it with your own ears!” Then Jeremiah said to all the officials and all the people: “The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the things you have heard. Now reform your ways and your actions and obey the LORD your God. Then the LORD will relent and not bring the disaster he has pronounced against you. As for me, I am in your hands; do with me whatever you think is good and right. Be assured, however, that if you put me to death, you will bring the guilt of innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and on those who live in it, for in truth the LORD has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing.” (NIV1984)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
“This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.” Have any of you ever heard someone speak those words? Have any of you ever been the person speaking those words? Why? If a child deliberately disobeys their parents that child may learn the hard way that the consequences of disobedience include some type of discipline. And while the child may not be able to comprehend this— it hurts parents to have to discipline their children. Whether it is coming to grips with the fact that your own child deliberately disobeyed you or whether it is having to tell your child that now they can’t go someplace or now they can’t do something as a consequence of their disobedience— that hurts deep down inside. At the same time parents understand the need for discipline. If a child is allowed to simply disobey their parents without any consequences whatsoever that disobedience will only get progressively worse as the child grows older.
As you and I continue our sermon series entitled Holy! Holy! Holy! we come to a truth that is difficult for many people—perhaps even many of us— to understand. That truth centers on the consequences that come as a result of disobeying a holy God. As we stand in the presence of our holy God this morning let’s see how His prophet Jeremiah places before us a picture of: Holy Destruction. There are two things we need to remember today. First, we need to remember that Holy Destruction is always deserved when one rebels against our holy God. Secondly, we need to remember that Holy Destruction is avoided only when one trusts in our holy God.
In order to understand our text and in order to understand our sermon theme for today we need to understand the larger context in which this particular portion of Scripture is found. The prophet Jeremiah lived during what was perhaps the lowest point ever in the history of God’s Old Testament people. On a political level the once proud and powerful nation of Judah was nothing more than a petty pawn. Egypt to the south, Assyria to the north and Babylon to the east were the three great superpowers of Jeremiah’s day and age. When Nabopolassar became ruler of the Babylonian Empire in 626 BC (the same year Jeremiah was called to be a prophet for the Lord) the political landscape quickly began to unravel around Judah. The Babylonians attacked the Assyrians and Nineveh fell in 612 BC. Egypt then marched north to help the Assyrians. King Josiah of Judah tried to stop Egypt and he was subsequently killed by Pharaoh Neco II at the Battle of Megiddo. Pharaoh Neco then set up Jehoiakim as a puppet king in Judah. Jehoiakim was extremely hostile towards Jeremiah. Shortly thereafter Egypt was crushed by the Babylonians under the leadership of Nebuchadnezzar at the Battle of Carchemish. Nebuchadnezzar then besieged Jerusalem and carried many of God’s people into captivity— including Daniel. A few years later Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem again and ended up putting Zedekiah on the throne in Jerusalem. By this time the prophet Jeremiah was virtually under house arrest and remained so until the fall and complete destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC.
The spiritual condition of God’s people was even more precarious than their political condition. We see the depth of the sins of God’s people in Jeremiah 7:30-31. There we are told, “’The people of Judah have done evil in my eyes,’ declares the LORD. ‘They have set up their detestable idols in the house that bears my Name and have defiled it. They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire— something I did not command, nor did it enter my mind.’”
Because of the terrible wickedness of God’s people, because God’s people had been unfaithful to Him and because God’s people had broken the covenant the Lord had established with them, Jeremiah was sent by the Lord to stand in the courtyard of the Temple in Jerusalem and proclaim: Holy Destruction! Jeremiah proclaimed to the people that their persistent rebellion against the holy Lord God would result in not only the complete destruction of the beloved holy city of Jerusalem, but their persistent rebellion against the holy Lord God would result in the complete destruction of the holy Temple— the magnificent Temple designed by great King David and built by wise King Solomon.
Jeremiah’s clear strong proclamation of God’s holy Law led the people in the Temple to “crowd around Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.” When the ruling officials of Judah heard about the commotion taking place in the Temple we are told they “came up from the royal palace to the house of the LORD and took their places at the entrance of the New Gate of the LORD’s house.” The prophet Jeremiah was being officially charged with treason— a crime that was punishable by death. Did Jeremiah back down from the message he was given to proclaim? Not at all! We hear Jeremiah say in our text, “The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the things you have heard.” Jeremiah made it crystal clear to God’s people that holy destruction is deserved when one rebels against a holy God! At the very same time, however, Jeremiah made it just as clear that holy destruction is avoided when one repents and trusts in the grace and in the mercy and in the forgiveness of our holy God. Jeremiah says to God’s people, “Now reform your ways and your actions and obey the LORD your God. Then the LORD will relent and not bring the disaster he has pronounced against you.” Anytime anyone humbly bows before our holy God and says, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13)— He always does! Always!
I think it is highly appropriate, my friends that you and I are studying this portion of Jeremiah during the solemn season of Lent. In reality, there are a number of different ways in which we could apply this text to our lives and to our world today. For example, we could legitimately use this portion of God’s holy Word to remind ourselves that if our nation continues its open rebellion against our holy God— and by that I am referring to things like Planned Parenthood lashing out at the Doritos company because their Super Bowl commercial “humanized” a “fetus”— if our nation continues to openly rebel against our holy God the Lord could easily decide to use a modern-day Babylon to bring us to our knees just as He brought Judah and Jerusalem to her knees so many years ago. That would be a legitimate application of this text. But as I said, we are in the season of Lent— a season that so powerfully focuses our hearts on Jesus, a season that gives us the opportunity for personal reflection.
As I was studying our sermon text for today I could not help but see at least three powerful parallels between the ministry of the prophet Jeremiah and the ministry of our Lord Jesus. First, Jeremiah was sent to proclaim holy destruction because God’s people had rebelled against their holy God. Jesus came to this earth to proclaim holy destruction— not only against rebellious unrepentant sinners, but also against the devil and his demons who were the first to rebel against our holy God. Second, the people’s reaction to Jeremiah’s message was one of anger and hatred— classic signs of a guilty conscience. In fact, the people’s anger and hatred for Jeremiah led them to call for his death! In much the same way the anger and the hatred the spiritual leaders of Jerusalem had for Jesus led them to convince the crowd to chose Barabbas and have Jesus crucified. Third, Jeremiah clearly called God’s people to repentance and told them that the only way to avoid holy destruction was to turn from their sins and to trust in the grace and in the mercy and in the forgiveness of our holy God. In our Gospel lesson for today (Luke 13:31-35) we heard our Savior express a similar sentiment when He said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”
While it would be very easy for us to look at God’s people in the days of Jeremiah, shake our heads and say, “How could you!”, while it would be very easy for us to look at God’s people in the days of Jesus, shake our heads and say, “How could you!” it would be far more beneficial for us to look at the child of God that we see in the mirror, shake our head and say, “How could you!”
Just as the Lord graciously entered into a covenant relationship with His Old Testament children, so also the Lord has graciously entered into a covenant relationship with us, His New Testament children. For most of us the holy God entered into a covenant relationship with us at the time of our Christian Baptism. Since we will be focusing on the Sacrament of Baptism on the Fifth Sunday in Lent, we don’t want to go into a great deal of detail now. Suffice it to say that when we were baptized with water in the name of the Triune God, our holy God “adopted” us to be His holy child! We then promised to remain faithful to our Baptismal Covenant at the time of our Confirmation. Do you remember the promises you made to your holy God when you stood before His holy altar? Let me refresh your memory. Some of the questions that we were asked on the day of our Confirmation, questions to which we answered “I do” include: “Do you believe that the teaching of the historic Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Wisconsin/ Evangelical Lutheran Synod, as you have learned to know it from Luther’s Small Catechism, is faithful and true to the Word of God? Do you intend to continue steadfast in this teaching and to endure all things, even death, rather than fall away from it? Do you intend faithfully to conform all your life to the teachings of God’s Word; to be faithful in the use of the Word and Sacrament; and in faith and action remain true to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as long as you live?” How well have you kept those promises? How well have you stood up for the Truths reflected in those questions?
The other covenant our holy God has established with us is found in the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Jesus Himself says to us, “Take and eat, this is my body, given for you…Take and eat, this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins.” We promise our dear Lord and Savior that when we leave His holy altar after receiving His holy Supper it will be with a renewed zeal to live our life in a way that is holy and pleasing to Him. (Pointing to the cross) How well have we kept that promise?
Yes, my friends, because of our own sin and because of our own rebelliousness we deserve nothing but holy destruction from our holy God! But just as our holy God did not want to destroy Adam and Eve when they rebelled against Him, just as our holy God did not want to destroy the people of Judah when they rebelled against Him, and just as our holy God did not want to destroy the people of Jerusalem when they rebelled against Him so also our holy God does not want to destroy us even though we have rebelled against Him. (See Ezekiel 33:11; I Timothy 2:3; II Peter 3:8-9) In fact God Himself has given us an extremely powerful proof of just how much He doesn’t want to destroy us! That proof is found right there— the cross of Jesus Christ. God’s agape love for us is so unfathomable that He was willing to endure the “destruction” that we deserved all so that we could be saved! The apostle Paul highlighted that wonderful truth when he wrote to God’s saints in Rome, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
“This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.” Even as imperfect parents with all of our weaknesses we understand the where’s and the when’s and the why’s of how true that statement is. (Turning to the cross) “This is going to hurt Me more than it hurts you.” Imagine, my friends. Imagine how much more our holy God understood that very same truth as He not only planned out but as He also carried out our salvation!
To God be the glory!
Amen