Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Jeremiah 20,7-11. Oculi

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

Jeremiah 20,7-11 1919

Oculi 026; 3. Sonntag der Passionszeit „My eyes“

Gabriel, Archangel

24. März 2019

1. O Lord, Thou art merciful to the afflicted, look upon us and lift up our souls from despair, so that trusting in Thee we are born up with Thy salvation. Amen. (Introit, tlh)

2. »O Lord, You have deceived me, and I was deceived; you are stronger than me, and You have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me. For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout: „Violence and destruction!“ For the Word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long. If I say: „I will not mention Him, or speak any more in His Name,“ then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot. For I hear many whispering. Terror is on every side! „Denounce him! Let us denounce him!“ say all my close friends, watching for my fall. „Perhaps he will be deceived; then we can overcome him and take our revenge on him.“ But the Lord is with me as a mighty man of war; therefore my persecutors will stumble; they will not overcome me. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten.«

3. In 627 bc, about a year after King Josiah of Judah had turned the nation toward repentance from the widespread idolatrous practices of his father and grandfather, Jeremiah and the other prophets encouraged Josiah to stand fast to his religious reforms. Josiah did stand fast, but after he died, the people quickly returned to the comfortable idols Josiah’s ancestors had introduced in the land. Jeremiah then preached a scathing message of the law, telling Judah that unless they repented of their idolatry, the greed of the priests and the false comfort proclaimed by the false prophets, then the Babylonians would conquer Jerusalem and carry the people into exile.

4. This politically incorrect message did not sit well with the king of Judah, Jehoiakim, or the people. They persecuted Jeremiah and imprisoned him. The Church finds herself in the same situation of Jeremiah. We live in a nation and a culture that prides itself with all forms of immorality. All this is the result of idolatry. The average American citizen does not see it as idolatry, but any religion that is not centered upon Christ Jesus the Cornerstone is an idolatrous religion. Much of American religious or spiritual life is idolatrous. This is an unpopular message, but it is the message that Christ’s Church and pastors proclaim.

5. Jeremiah remained a laughing stock and was mocked by many. His call to repentance fell upon deaf ears. The Jews of his generation were idolaters, and they rejected the Lord and His prophet Jeremiah. It is also true today: idolatrous people reject Christ and His Word. They reject the Commandments, live immoral lives, do not see themselves as sinners and thus they ignore the call to repent, refuse to confess their sins and miss Christ’s forgiveness. Furthermore, they reject the gospel and its free gift of grace and forgiveness on account of Christ. We live in this idolatrous culture and we are influenced by it. We are tempted to be idolatrous, refuse to heed to God’s Commandments and reject His gospel. The apostles exhort us: »Do not love the world nor the things of this world« (1. John 2,15), »and do not be conformed to this world« (Romans 12,2). The Christian life is a life of consistent repentance. We do so each week by confessing our sins and receiving God’s absolution; we may also do so daily by our individual Christian piety.

6. Jesus reminds us in today’s Gospel pericope that there is a cost for following Him. To be fit for the reign of God is to keep our eyes focused upon Jesus and not looking back longing for the things of this world (Luke 9,62). Jesus has set His face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9,51). That is where Oculi puts us today at the midway of Lent: Jesus’ eyes are focused upon Jerusalem and our eyes are to be focused upon Jesus.

7. At Jerusalem, Jesus would be delivered into the hands of men (Luke 9,44). Rejection, suffering and the cross await Jesus at Jerusalem. Jesus bids us to follow Him to Jerusalem. Our pastor asked us at our confirmation: „Do you intend to continue in this confession and the Church and to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it?“ (Agenda 29) Jeremiah posed a similar question in his day: Do you trust the Lord? Do you believe He will deliver you safely through the threat of idolatry and the mighty Babylonian army? Eyes focused upon the things of this world cannot see nor comprehend the things of the Holy Spirit. Judah saw a mighty Babylonian army sizing them up; Judah knew all their neighbors had been beaten by this army, so they decided to trust in the gods of the Babylonians for deliverance, hoping they could secure peace. We see Jesus heading to Jerusalem; we know what awaits Him there: rejection, betrayal and death. Do we trust Christ? Do we have our eyes focused on the suffering and crucified Christ? He saw beyond the cross and the grave; Jesus saw the light of the resurrection that was beyond Jerusalem and His tomb. Do we trust Jesus to see the same in our lives too?

8. The world despises the cross, for it only sees it as weakness, shame and utter failure. So, too, does the world scoff at Christ’s resurrection; impossible, never happened, just the wishful thinking of his distraught disciples, they mockingly say. What good is a crucified Christ when evil still runs rampant across the world? The crucified Christ cannot even save his own people from suffering and death. What good is a suffering Christ who cannot even keep his Christians safe? So goes the wisdom and the mocking of the world.

9. The prophet Jeremiah reminds us that God often clothes His Great Glory in meekness. Jeremiah says it appeared to Judah that God had abandoned them, but in reality God was with them as a mighty man of war [μαχητής ισχύων]. The same is true when Jesus entered this world. He was incarnate of the virgin Mary, grew into manhood, studied carpentry from Joseph, travelled and taught. Many perceived Him to be a gifted teacher, prophet and healer. But Jesus was also bent on war, and His enemy was the Devil; Jesus had arrived to free all mankind who had been taken as spoils of war so long ago at the Garden of Eden. Jesus was going to defeat sin, death and the Devil, but His weapon would not be the weapons of this temporal world but His own life and shed blood. Jesus offered Himself up as a sacrifice and in doing so He purchased our redemption. The Apostle Paul explained it this way: »Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form/nature of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be held onto, but He deprived Himself of power, taking on the form/nature of a slave; being found in the likeness of men, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death on a cross« (Philippians 2,5-11). In doing this, Jesus became our Victorious Redeemer.

10. Our eyes see the suffering, sacrificing and crucified Jesus who in humble weakness appears defeated but in this very humbleness His Divinity shines forth in its greatest Glory as He redeemed the fallen world. Our eyes see the Suffering Christ who is the world’s Savior. Out of His love for all the world, Christ gave Himself over to the world to deliver it. Christ would have all people repent of their sins and to receive His forgiveness that He purchased for them. He would have all people bow before Him and kneel before Him in faith. Our eyes behold the Merciful Christ who is the friend of all people and the Savior of all sinners. Amen.

13. Let us pray. O Christ our Lord, You plant a harvest with Your gospel seed; send us the Holy Spirit, so that we remain focused on You and follow You to Jerusalem where You have purchased our redemption. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Saturday, March 30, 2019

Jeremiah 20,7-11. Oculi

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