6th Sunday after Pentecost (June 22, 2008)

“Burdened to Be a Blessing”
Jeremiah 20:7-13

INI

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Before you and I delve into our text for today—the Old Testament Reading from Jeremiah 20—I’d like to first direct your attention to the Holy Gospel from Matthew 10. There Jesus says some words which may sound a bit startling to our ears. “Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake.” Perhaps those words even sound familiar to you. What could possibly cause such family crisis? What would cause brother to rebel against brother…or father against child…child against parent? Maybe you’ve heard stories from the Civil War back in the 1860s, when our nation was divided over the issue of slavery. At that time, families were divided…they found themselves on opposite sides of the battle lines. I remember as a child when there would be movies and miniseries on television that reflected those divisions in families during the war. This seems to be a similar sort of thing to what Jesus is talking about, and it also relates very well to our Old Testament lesson as well.

Jeremiah preached to a nation that had been through division and hardship, probably even worse than that of our own Civil War. During Jeremiah’s lifetime, there had been some reform in the ways the people of Israel were worshiping, but Jeremiah stood as God’s prophet…and therefore God’s voice as to how those reforms should take place. Oftentimes, Jeremiah had to say things that the people didn’t want to hear. Quite regularly, people wished that Jeremiah would just shut up with all his talk about what God wants. There were even those who wished that Jeremiah were dead: then they could go about doing things their own way without the pesky prophet of the Lord to pick at their practices.

But a special burden had been placed upon Jeremiah. The same burden had been placed on the disciples whom Jesus was sending out to encounter “brother against brother” and “child against parent.” That burden is placed on you and me as well. Jeremiah had been given the Word of God to share with God’s people. And believe it or not, the Word of God can be a burden! The first verse of our text today from Jeremiah 20 says, “O Lord, you have deceived me, and I was deceived.” That word which is translated “deceived” is also used to mean “persuaded” or “convinced.” In other words, God appointed Jeremiah to be a prophet—even though there were probably times that Jeremiah didn’t want to be a prophet! Jeremiah had been burdened with the Word of God that made him a “laughingstock”—“everyone mocks me… 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.”

In the case of Jesus’ words to his disciples, the Word of God that the disciples carried would be enough to split apart families. In the case of Jeremiah, being a prophet saddled with God’s Word was something that pit him against the entire people of Judah. A familiar hymn that is loved by many of you is “Onward, Christian Soldiers.” Have you ever stopped to think, “Why am I a soldier?” “How did I get signed up for this war?” When each of us is baptized into the Christian faith, in essence, we are placed in the middle of the battlefield. And the Word of the God that each of us bears, cuts very sharply. It wounds people. It pierces them deeply. One only needs to look across the Christian church today to find examples of how many have attempted to soften the blow of God’s Word. But you can’t do it! You can’t soften its blow… you can’t silence it and try to hide it. It says things like Jesus’ words in our Gospel today: “Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.” You can’t soften that. You can’t find a way to work around that reality.

Jeremiah realizes that he must speak God’s Word, even if it gets him killed. “If I say, ‘I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,’ 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.” It is a burden that the Christian bears. Everyone of us has experienced times where being a Christian has actually been a burden for us. It means that Satan is working overtime to try to tempt us and cause us to fall away. It means that he’s marshaled all his forces to try to conquer you and separate you from God. It means that he’s using the world to try to cause you to reject the Word of Law and Gospel that convicts people of sin and shows them forgiveness in Jesus Christ. Satan’s voice is the one speaking through others to say, “Denounce him! Let us denounce him!...Perhaps he will be deceived; then we can overcome him and take our revenge on him.”

But the Word cannot be overcome. The Word must endure. The Word must be spoken, no matter how bad the consequences seem to you and me. And though this Word divides brother against brother and splits families apart…though this Word tears apart nations and brings prophets to their death, this Word is God’s power with his people. The very Word that is a burden upon each of us is also the blessing of God’s presence with you and me. The Word that puts the prophets to death is the Word that promises the prophets new life and salvation. The Word that divides brother against brother and father against child is the Word that heals brokenness and hurt—first in our heavenly relationship with God, and yet also in our earthly relationships with one another.

This image of the Lord who fights for his people gets lost among the countless other images we have of Jesus. Sometimes in an adult membership class, I’ll ask the group a question that says something like, “How do you normally picture Jesus? Think of the different paintings and representations you’ve seen of him. How is he depicted?” The usual responses include something like “Jesus as a shepherd” or “Jesus with little children.” Many people like to think of Jesus as our healer or Jesus as our friend. How often do you think of Jesus as your warrior? Jeremiah says in our text, “The Lord is with me as a dread warrior; 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.” The Lord Jesus Christ is our “dread warrior.” In other words, he is the warrior that all of his enemies shrink in fear at.

Now most often when you and I picture a warrior—we picture someone who is larger than life…covered in armor and bearing some sort of deadly weapon. And yet the best picture of Jesus as our warrior is Jesus hanging from the cross—his own side being the one pierced by a spear with blood and water pouring forth. At the very point when Jesus carried his biggest burden—that of our every sin—Jesus showed himself to be the greatest blessing ever bestowed upon mankind. He became our warrior because his death defeated our enemy of Satan and our enemy of sin. He triumphed for us as the wound in his side flowed. Our warrior is not someone covered in gold-plated battle clothes and bearing a sword of might. He’s covered in the wounds of his crucifixion and he bears the sword of the Word of God—mightier than any manmade weapon on earth.

Because Jesus’ burden has become a blessing to you and me, so the same can be said of the burden placed on each of us as we are marked as Christians. Though the Word of God has the power to tear apart families and bring down nations—it is also the power of God to restore us and make us clean from the sin that destroys the body. Though the Word of God marks us as Satan’s enemy and opens us up to his assaults and temptations, the Word of God is our victory over Satan through the cross of Jesus Christ, our warrior who fights for us. Though the Word of God is a burden upon us…causing us to be mocked and derided by the world…so it is also the blessing of being marked as one who is fought for by Christ our Lord.

I read an interesting anecdote this week that helps to explain the burden and blessing analogy. When you bait a hook, whether it’s with a worm…nightcrawler…leech…minnow, the fish that bites your hook sees something weak and vulnerable. But when that fish bites into what it thinks is weak, the sharp sting of the hook pierces the fish and sends it to its doom. Often times you and I feel like bait in this world…left to be devoured by the fish…the enemies who seek to destroy us. But the very Word that is placed on us in our Baptism means we are not just fish food, but that Christ is within us to pierce our enemy and deliver us from persecution. May the Lord who fought for you on the cross continue to preserve you and protect you as the burdens of this world reveal the blessings of God in your every day lives. In Jesus’ name…Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.