Jeremiah: Just Doing His Job

Second Sunday in Lent

February 24, 2013

Just Doing His Job

Jeremiah 26:8-15

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

The Book of Jeremiah is known to modern Christians not because we know anything about Jeremiah the prophet, but because of a verse in the middle of his prophecy. In chapter 29 we read:

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)

In the past I've wrongly latched onto that popular passage as a promise that everything will always work out the way I want them to. But nothing worked out for Jeremiah. The Lord's plan for Jeremiah seemed to be suffering for just doing his job.

You see, nobody liked Jeremiah. His job was to be a shepherd to his flock. His flock was the whole population of Judah (the southern part of the Promised Land). But his congregation didn't come to hear his sermons; he had to go to them. And when he preached, they got angry.

His job was to give sermon after sermon that proclaimed that his country and its people were doomed. His specific message was that the armies of the Empire of Babylon would destroy Judah and its capital Jerusalem. His message also included the fact that the coming destruction was their own fault. He told them that their only hope was to surrender.

“This is what the Lord says: ‘Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine or plague, but whoever goes over to the Babylonians will live. He will escape with his life; he will live.’ And this is what the Lord says: ‘This city will certainly be handed over to the army of the king of Babylon, who will capture it.’” Then the officials said to the king, “This man should be put to death. He is discouraging the soldiers who are left in this city, as well as all the people, by the things he is saying to them. This man is not seeking the good of these people but their ruin.” (Jeremiah 38:2-4)

The congregation of his countrymen was furious. They hated his message and—quite reasonably from their point of view—called him a traitor. They wanted him to preach that they would be saved from Babylon just like the Lord had saved them during the days of Hezekiah. (Sennacherib the Assyrian king had Jerusalem surrounded with 185,000 soldiers [Scott County has 165,000 people]. God saved them by destroying the whole army in one night. See 2 Kings 19.) Now they wanted Jeremiah to predict salvation for Jerusalem as Isaiah had done against the Assyrians. They misused God's past act of mercy as an excuse to believe whatever they wanted and to do whatever they wished in the present and in the future.

They wanted a one-size-fits-all message of happy days and no blame. And anything short of preaching glory, glory, glory, hallelujah was to them betrayal. You might say that before there was Judas, there was Jeremiah.

They got so angry at Jeremiah the traitor that they burned his writings and then they threw him into a water pit. The only reason Jeremiah didn't die there was because a foreigner—an Ethiopian eunuch who worked for the king—asked permission to pull him out.

I can't prove this, but I'm fairly certain that nobody asked Jeremiah to any parties. No one asked him to host a Christian TV show or to be a seminary professor. No one wanted him to be their pastor. All because Jeremiah was just doing his job.

But Jeremiah was in good company, the best, actually—Jesus. Jesus warned His congregation that it was facing doom because they rejected Him and His promises. Jesus even told them a story about how cruel God's church is to His preachers.

And he began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while. When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. And he sent another servant. But they also beat and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. And he sent yet a third. This one also they wounded and cast out. Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’ But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.’ And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him … The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them (Luke 20:9-16,19)

These are just some of the enemies of the cross of Christ of whom St. Paul talked about in Philippians 3:18. They walk and talk like Christians, but when the preacher of His cross correctly rebukes the hard-hearted and correctly comforts the broken-hearted, these enemies of the cross get angry or are offended. They know that the preacher is talking about them and they don't like it. And they firmly believe that it is their right as Americans to rid themselves of any source of discomfort. A caring pastor who talks plainly about their sin and grace must be Jeremiah-ed.

When we were younger, we believed that pastors never stopped being pastors until they died. If they moved, it was to go and be a pastor somewhere else. But sadly in our own little church body it happens that pastors are rebuked by their congregations for caring enough to be honest with Jesus' promises.

For three years you have allowed me to ask if you are staying for Bible study after the service. Will you come? I hope today you will come and be refreshed with the promises of Jesus. The Lord blesses the one who delights in His words and studies them. And a tree near good water is never alone.

He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he does shall prosper. (Psalm 1:3)

Imagine if Jeremiah's fellow pastors and congregation took this beautiful promise to heart! They didn't, but today you do! Today you enjoy the blessings of the Word preached and the Word made flesh. Enjoy also the communion and fellowship of being refreshed by the Word taught and discussed.

Jeremiah was just doing his job. Jesus was just doing His job that He had appointed Himself to do. And Jesus continues to do His job through His preachers today. So today I myself call on Him and pray with you,

Let me despise the cowardly comfort of silence and instead let me do my job as I and all of us boldly embrace our crosses. In the name of our Savior, who washes us clean from all sin. Amen.

In the name of the Father

and of the + Son

and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.