The Grace of God, the Love of Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
Jeremiah 11: 18 “Moreover, the Lord made it known to me and I knew it; Then You showed me their deeds. 19 But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; And I did not know that they had devised plots against me, saying, ‘Let’s destroy the tree with its fruit, And let’s cut him off from the land of the living, So that his name will no longer be remembered.’ 20 But, Lord of armies, who judges righteously, Who puts the feelings and the heart to the test, Let me see Your vengeance on them, For to You I have committed my cause.” (NASB)
A prophet’s life was never easy, but Jeremiah had an especially rough time of it. He was a prophet to the southern kingdom of Judah. His dates are 628 BC to 588 BC. Judah fell to the Babylonians in 586 BC. God sent Jeremiah to preach to a crumbling nation and warn of their impending demise if they did not repent.
Jeremiah is known as the “weeping prophet” because of the often gloomy nature of his message and the grief he expressed over his people. Yet in the midst of a ministry of preaching the law and judgment, there is to be found here and there in the book of Jeremiah verses of hope and promises for the church. Jeremiah 29:11 is one of those. “For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for prosperity and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
This morning’s Old Testament lesson from Jeremiah 11 is not a passage that inspires hope however. To the contrary. Jeremiah wrote, “The Lord made it known to me and I knew it; Then You showed me their deeds. But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; And I did not know that they had devised plots against me, saying, ‘Let’s destroy the tree with its fruit, And let’s cut him off from the land of the living, So that his name will no longer be remembered.’”
From the very beginning of his ministry, Jeremiah and his message was opposed by those who heard him. Over the years, he was whipped and put in the stocks, attacked by a mob, threatened by the king, ridiculed, arrested, beaten, accused of treason, and thrown in jail. He lived through the siege of Jerusalem.
And through it all, Jeremiah was alone. No wife. No family. No friends. Abandoned by all.
In a village named Anathoth he was surrounded by a people who were planning to kill him. At first he was not aware of just how deep the hatred of him ran. He was a bit naivé. He called himself “a gentle lamb led to slaughter.” Then the Lord God showed Jeremiah the sad truth. They hated the message and messenger so much the villagers wanted him dead. But it’s even worse than that.
Our assigned reading ended at verse 20. But here is what verse 21 tells us. “Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the people of Anathoth, who are seeking your life.” It was the villagers of Anathoth who were plotting to kill him. Anathoth was not your ordinary run of the mill village. It was located about three miles from Jerusalem and it was a village with a purpose. It was set aside by the Lord God for the Levites. The Levites were the priests of Israel. Anathoth was dedicated to the raising, teaching, and maintenance of priests. The villagers of Anathoth should have welcomed Jeremiah and his call to repentance, after all that was what they were suppose to be doing. Instead, they were so offended by the message they plotted to kill him.
It gets worse. In the introduction to the book of Jeremiah (1:1) we read, “The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin…” Anathoth was Jeremiah’s hometown. He grew up there. Not only were the men in Anathoth priests, they were Hilkiah’s and Jeremiah’s neighbors and relatives.
So imagine his shock when he learned they want him dead. For what? For preaching and teaching what the priests should have been preaching and teaching? He was doing what the Lord God expected the priests to believe and to do.
Add to this that life in Anathoth was pretty good. By the time Jeremiah showed up, king Josiah’s reign had come and gone. Before Josiah, Judah had lost its way. It had been led by corrupt and idolatrous kings and priests. Josiah came to office and started to reform and restore Judah. Josiah restored the temple, right worship, practiced repentance, and brought back a measure of prosperity.
The priests of Anathoth must have been a part of all that, but Josiah was dead now and his reforms were slipping away. The people of Judah were turning away from the Lord God and the king and priests were leading the way. That’s why God sent Jeremiah to warn of them of His judgment if they did not turn around (repent) and come back to Him. The priests of Anathoth didn’t want to hear that message.
The priest said, “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit.” Jeremiah was the tree and the words he spoke, the words God had given Jeremiah to speak were “the fruit.” Destroy the tree and the speaking of those offensive words stops.
Against all this, Jeremiah was called to be faithful. He was called to resist the temptation to do what we all do so easily these days – compromise. He could have made peace with his hometown, taken the edge off, watered down or bent the Word of God, but he didn’t. By the grace of God, Jeremiah didn’t give in to any temptation to speak in a way pleasing to the priests and unpleasing to the Lord God.
Jeremiah goes to his hometown like “a gentle lamb led to the slaughter.” He goes alone. He is seemingly at their mercy alone. Puts me in mind of a new pastor who gives offense to the ruling families of the congregation by doing what God has given him to do. They turn the congregation against him. Then along comes the synod’s politicians following after the money and lawyers instead of the Word of God to hang the pastor out to dry.
The villagers of Anathothed want to make sure Jeremiah’s “name will no longer be remembered.” Jeremiah feels betrayed and abandoned and rightly so. He wants vengeance against those who seek his life. He prays for vengeance! He wants to see it with his own eyes. We know the feeling well because we are guilty of the same. When we are wronged or when we think we deserved something better, we want payback.
Jeremiah’s isn’t exempt from those kinds of thoughts. He prays, 20 “Lord of armies, who judges righteously, Who puts the feelings and the heart to the test, Let me see Your vengeance on them, For to You I have committed my cause.” He wants vengeance, but commits his cause and any action into the hands of God.
Jeremiah knows the law and the books of Moses. He knows that the Lord God had said, “Vengeance is Mine, and retribution; In due time their foot will slip. For the day of their disaster is near, And the impending things are hurrying to them.” (Deuteronomy 32:35) Jeremiah was cut to the quick when he learned of the plot to destroy him. He desired vengeance on those who opposed him, but he bridles the desire. He doesn’t devise any schemes. He leaves their fate to the Lord God “for to You I have committed my cause.”
While their anger and plotting is directed against Jeremiah, their fight was with God and God’s words. Jeremiah understand this principle, thus leaves the vengeance to God. It’s not the messenger’s job to carry out the king’s vengeance when his message is rejected and his warnings ignored. That is the calling of the king. It’s the messenger’s job to deliver the message, in the hope that hearers will abide by the king’s decrees.
Jeremiah had a miserably long ministry. It lasted decades and was comfortless for all the reasons stated earlier. He was alone, unwelcome, and persecuted. After Judah fell at the hands of the Babylonians Jeremiah was taken to Egypt by some Jewish zealots and according to one extra biblical source of the day was murdered there.
Yet, they failed. Jeremiah’s name has not only been remembered, his preaching and words were acknowledged by the Old and New Testament church as the words of God.
Among all the prophets, Jeremiah’s life and ministry is unique in that it foreshadows the person and work of promised Messiah unlike any others. Jeremiah was like “a gentle lamb led to the slaughter.” But he was not the Lamb led to the slaughter.
That was left to the Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He had been working miracles left and right. He was transfigured on the mountaintop before Peter, James and John. With His words Jesus drove back and silenced the priests, Pharisees, Sadducess, and scribes of His day.
As far as the disciples are concerned, things were looking pretty good. Jesus was restoring the kingdom just like Josiah did. In the middle of all this Jesus has a “Jeremiah moment” – a prophecy of doom and gloom, at least that is how the disciples heard it. “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And when He is killed, after three days He will
rise.” (Mark 9:31). The focused on the first part, not so much on the resurrection part.
Usually when we hear this section of Mark 9 read we tend to focus on the fact that the disciples didn’t understand, were afraid to ask, and defaulted to the “who’s the greatest in the new kingdom” argument. It is safe to say that the book of Jeremiah wasn’t foremost in their minds.
But Jesus understood. The priests were plotting against Him: perhaps not the priests of little Anathoth, but the ones in Jerusalem. Jesus spoke the truth and they didn’t want to hear it. He is the Prophet delivering God’s saving message to a people who thought they were already saved. So they want to destroy this Tree with its fruit.
He is God Himself and He could easily defend Himself with force; yet He goes with them as “a gentle Lamb led to the slaughter”—as the Passover Lamb sacrificed for the sins of the world. He could destroy them with one word, instead He will remained silent. He could pray for immediate vengeance, instead He says, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)
God has provided for you a gentle Lamb, led to the slaughter, the spotless Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. He was innocently led to slaughter for your offenses, and His Blood covers all your iniquities. He is the perfect sacrifice offered once for all.
Jesus was cut off from the land of the living. He who lived eternally entered the grave for you. He was rejected by man and God alike so that you are accepted by God into His Kingdom. Those men who killed Jeremiah, thought they had succeeded in cutting him off from the land of the living, but in Christ, Jeremiah was made alive eternally.
“Vengeance is Mine!” says the Lord. The Lord God’s vengeance took place on the Cross. There He has repaid every sin with blood. There Jesus became the vile offender.
You have been unfaithful. He is faithful to the last. You have disobeyed the Law. He obeyed it to the letter. You have felt alone and forsaken, He was alone and forsaken. But to you He says, “‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever abandon you,’ so that we confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?’” (Hebrews 13:5-6)
Although they tried to erase Jesus’s Name from the earth and even today many band the speaking of His name and preaching of His Word, “God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11)
He alone is the perfect Prophet and the perfect Preacher. He is still preaching. He continues to preach in the church through His called and ordained servants. He speaks forgiveness in absolution. He feeds us forgiveness in the Sacrament of the Altar. Jesus is your Prophet, your Priest, and your King. Your forgiveness and salvation is His cause.
AMEN.
MAY THE PEACE THAT SURPASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING KEEP YOUR HEART AND MIND IN CHRIST JESUS. AMEN..