The Standoff!

[00:00:00] In the name of Jesus. [00:00:03] Amen. [00:00:07] Well, last Sunday, our Old Testament text gave us kind of an interesting introduction to Jeremiah. And thank you, Pastor, for that. Advance organizer, get ready to hear about Jeremiah this morning. [00:00:21] Jeremiah was a bullfrog, right? [00:00:25] Maybe he was God's spokesman. [00:00:31] He was constrained to speak God's word, even though it was usually bad news that he had to share with God's people in Judea and in Jerusalem. [00:00:44] And he had a reputation and it wasn't a good one. [00:00:50] And he was a laughingstock. [00:00:55] And we heard these words last week that he said. [00:00:59] He said, if I say, I will not mention God or speak anymore in his name because God had kept telling him to go and say all these things that made him unpopular and a laughingstock. [00:01:13] He said, 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. [00:01:24] And it was his way of saying, This isn't a great job, but I'm going to keep doing it because God has constrained me to do so. He couldn't hold in God's word. He had to let it out. So today we're in chapter 28 of Jeremiah, but it's just a little snippet. And so I have to back up into chapter 27 to give you kind of what's going on in this text today. In chapter 27 of Jeremiah, Yahweh Almighty God instructs Jeremiah to make and wear a yoke, an ox yoke. [00:02:11] And it's an object lesson to show that God has given Babylon the power to dominate all peoples. [00:02:19] That Babylon was specifically chosen to conquer God's people because of how far they had wandered away from him in unbelief, and that any other would be prophet who predicted otherwise, well, they were simply wrong. [00:02:44] And today's text even includes for us that history will show if a prophet's telling the truth or lying. [00:02:55] Well, them's fighting words. And no wonder Jeremiah was ridiculed all the time. [00:03:02] So when we get into Today's chapter, chapter 28, just before our little snippet of text, Jeremiah is confronted by another prophet by the name of Hananiah with precisely such a prophecy of false comfort. [00:03:19] Hananiah has come on the scene and he's not telling the truth. Hananiah directly contradicts Jeremiah's prophecy. In effect, he says, hey, everybody, everything's going to be well and the captives of Judah will be released and God is going to break Babylon's yoke of power. [00:03:43] Now, in the verses that follow Our little snippet of passage in Jeremiah 28, we learned that Hananiah enacts his own object lesson because he goes over to Jeremiah, takes that yoke that Jeremiah is walking around with and breaks it in two in his own way, trying to show, hey, Babylon's going to be broken in two. [00:04:14] So these words from our text. [00:04:19] Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to Hananiah the prophet in the presence of the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the Lord. [00:04:29] And the prophet Jeremiah said, amen. [00:04:33] May the Lord do so. May the Lord make the words that you have prophesied come true. [00:04:42] Sounds like Jeremiah is agreeing with Hananiah, doesn't it? [00:04:48] Nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, it's a standoff between the two prophets and they're fighting over the future of Judah. Was Judah going to revolt against the Babylonians with Hananiah or submit to Babylon's yoke under the judgment of God, as Jeremiah says? [00:05:13] Which isn't so at this point. Judas came. [00:05:18] He's listening to all of this, and you know what he does? [00:05:22] He decides to go the way that Hananiah is saying and he revolts against the Babylonians. And this debate that's going on between these two eventually leads to the fall of Jerusalem and that devastating Babylonian exile that happened in 586 BC where God's people in Judah and Jerusalem were hauled off to Babylon for 70 years. [00:05:53] Jeremiah's message was, listen, folks, our God is on Babylon's side. [00:06:05] He's using Nebuchadnezzar as an instrument of wrath and judgment. [00:06:12] So, well, that sets the stage for our text. And remember, our text today is in the presence of the priests and all the people. [00:06:24] It's a confrontation between prophet and prophet. Whose message, Jeremiah's or Hananiahs would have been more attractive to the people. [00:06:37] Well, of course, Hananiah, he's promising, in God's name, no less, that the calamity of Babylon's power was going to pass away quickly. Oh, it'll only take about two years. [00:06:51] Who wouldn't prefer a quick and easy peace? [00:06:55] How much more comforting it was to be told that God was on your side and that the trouble will soon be over. [00:07:04] But see, Hananiah is proclaiming God's grace without any repentance. [00:07:13] He's proclaiming victory without any suffering. [00:07:21] In effect, he's preaching a theology of glory instead of a theology of the cross. [00:07:31] You know that differential, right? [00:07:36] Jeremiah's words in verse six of our text, they are pure sarcasm. When he says, amen. May the Lord do so. May the Lord make the words that you have prophesied come true. In other words. Yeah, that would be a great idea, but it's not going to happen. And then he reminds Hananiah and us that God's prophets are usually bearers of bad news. [00:07:59] Did you hear it? There's going to be war, famine, pestilence. [00:08:08] Still. [00:08:10] Well, in the final analysis, we recognize a true prophet by the test of whether or not he says what he says is true. [00:08:19] And if you go to your history books, that is the Bible, Jeremiah's prophecy is the one that came true. [00:08:34] So I tell you all of that this morning about Jeremiah because it helps us understand what it is that Jesus is saying to us in the Gospel lesson today. [00:08:50] He says, I have come to set man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter in law against her mother in law. And a person's enemies will be those in his own household. And whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. And whoever finds his life will lose it. And whoever loses his life for my sake, we'll find it. [00:09:31] We're accustomed to a more gentle Jesus, right? [00:09:37] You know, meek he is. By the way, you can leave your children with Jesus, but Jesus comes today and he shatters those misconceptions about why he's come. [00:09:53] Yes, he can be gentle, but he is also mighty. [00:09:59] He is the Lord of hosts. [00:10:02] A thousand angels await his any and every command. [00:10:11] And he has come not to be the God who keeps your agendas running or make your dreams come true. No. He comes carrying a sword into battle, knowing that he is the only one who can carry a sword into battle and come out with life, everlasting life. [00:10:38] His sword destroys and protects. [00:10:45] His sword kills and it saves. [00:10:55] And what is left over when he is done, it will last forever. [00:11:07] So today, you and I are confronted with a crossroads not unlike that crossroads that Judah was facing when Hananiah and Jeremiah were in their conflict. [00:11:24] Let me just remind you, whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever finds his life will lose it. And whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. [00:11:34] That choice is stark, is it not? I mean, save your life or lose your life. Yikes. [00:11:47] See, we can seek to save our lives, use God's name to pursue our ambitions and stock our closets full of Clothing and our fridges full of food and have the most toys. But still we will die. [00:12:03] Or we can lose everything, unclench our hands and let it all fall away. [00:12:14] Our carefully curated ambitions, our ideal families, our pious hopes, our hollow dreams, our. Well, even our grudges and our sins. [00:12:33] Let them all fall away and we'll live. [00:12:39] Live? [00:12:41] Why? [00:12:42] Because when we stand before God with nothing in our hands, our lives finally empty and sometimes painfully so, this is when we receive life as a gift. Our hands are open to receive it. It's God's gift to us in Jesus Christ. It's not a life that we can earn. [00:12:59] It's not a life that we can create. It's a life that comes to us only as a gift from a savior who gave his life for us. [00:13:10] In this life, well, sins are forgiven because of the sacrifice of Christ our King. [00:13:21] Rather than hiding our sins or overlooking them or minimizing them by comparing them to the world. At least I'm not as bad as so and so over there. [00:13:31] We confess our sins. [00:13:34] We even said it this morning. If we confess our sins, say it with me. God, who is faithful and just, will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. See, in this life, love for God and love for neighbor overflow. Because our Lord conquered death and ascended into heaven and now rules through his people in love. [00:14:05] Oh, look, I'm telling you. [00:14:08] And you know already, losing your life is not easy. It's not pleasant. I mean, you need an example. Just ask Jeremiah. [00:14:18] But our Lord gathers those who have lost their lives and opens them up to love. [00:14:25] And it's love received from him in forgiveness and love offered to others in his name. [00:14:35] Our Lord opens our lives, not always gently. [00:14:40] It's not like a mother unfolding the blankets to see her newborn baby. No, it's. [00:14:48] Well, Lord opens our lives more like a farmer breaking the earth open with a sharp edged plow. And the field does not like that blade. And we forget how hard and dry and bony that ground can be sometimes. And that torn up earth looks more like a wound or a scar than a safe place for seeds. Many of you know this, but Jesus, he has warned us. [00:15:19] Houses will be divided, families will be fractured. [00:15:28] He swings a mighty sword. [00:15:32] He breaks the earth open. [00:15:36] Why? [00:15:40] Because love, real love, his love, divine love, does not sit on a shelf quietly like a photo from the past. [00:15:51] No, his kind of love hangs on a tree in the middle of a very dark afternoon. [00:16:00] And it reveals the end of sin. [00:16:03] And his kind of love rises from the grave early in the morning, making way for the outpouring of the Spirit and of his love. [00:16:17] It's love that breaks forth like life that would break forth in a desert when there's a spring rain. [00:16:26] Or love that pours forth like springs of water from an otherwise dead, dry rock. [00:16:40] Don't you see? When the Lord opens up our lives to love, suddenly the kingdom of heaven is well, according to Jesus, hidden in small things. [00:16:53] Like whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple. Truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. [00:17:06] A cup of cold water, A spare room, really sharing a meal. [00:17:23] See, it's these small moments, these gestures of love that we might think are insignificant are the stuff of the kingdom of God. [00:17:36] It's a high school basketball star who suddenly realizes that forgiveness is holier than gossiping, that her former friend is a backstabbing traitor. [00:17:48] Or it's a rich woman at a dinner party who can no longer laugh at a cruel joke, but instead speaks up for the joke's victim. Speaks up. [00:17:59] It's a man driving home from work who pulls over to the side as an ambulance passes. And instead of going on his merry way, he offers up a prayer, something he hasn't done for 20 years. He says a prayer for whoever is in that ambulance. [00:18:20] It's a nurse with swollen fingers who's lacing up a patient's shoes. Lacing up? [00:18:27] It's an old man who moves over for a stranger who shows up at church. [00:18:32] It's a paramedic who carrying someone's mother out the door, but puts a look of hope on his face. A look of hope. [00:18:45] The world may think these things are small, even insignificant, but you know what the Lord calls them? [00:18:59] Love. [00:19:01] Not the kind celebrated with rainbows on billboards or in the pages of some popular magazine, but the kind of love that contributes to a kingdom. God's kingdom that never ends. [00:19:15] It's okay. It's small. [00:19:18] It's personal. [00:19:21] It's just like the people that live in that kingdom. But it's powerful and it's eternal, just like our Lord. [00:19:33] And why? [00:19:35] Because it's our Lord Jesus, the Lord, who calls us into his kingdom, who calls the littlest people whose lives have been opened to the largest of loves. [00:19:50] Amen.