Richard Davenport
March 16, 2025 – Second Sunday in Lent
Jeremiah 26:8-15
Laurie and I watched a debate recently where one man squared off against 25 LGBT activists. The idea was that he would make a claim like, “LGBT ideology should be eradicated,” and the activists would trade off challenging his claim until 20 minutes had passed. He would then make a new claim along the same lines and they’d go through the process again. In total he did this four times before the debate was concluded.
Watching the back and forth, you wonder what each side thinks they’re going to accomplish here. You aren’t likely to sign up for this sort of thing unless you are already a strong supporter of your position. That begs the question: why do this at all? The chances of you actually bringing one of your opponents over to your side is almost non-existent. So why even bother? Why put up with all of this grief? It’s not like you’re getting anything out of it.
In a lot of these cases, you aren’t really trying to win over the opponent. It would be nice, sure, but since that probably isn’t going to happen, there must be some other goal you’re trying to accomplish. In this case, you may be trying to win over all of those people sitting on the sidelines. Many of them are probably on one side or the other already, but not necessarily all of them. There may be those who really don’t know what your side has to say. They may not end up agreeing with you, but at least they’ll have heard your arguments from someone who actually knows what they are, rather than people who just parrot one side’s talking points.
But, maybe there are people out there who really don’t know what to believe. There are surely people out there still sitting on the fence about the whole matter and don’t know which side to go with. If you get your message out there, they’ll be able to take that information and think it over for themselves. They’ll get it right from the source. You may not win over your opponents, but you may win over some of your hearers, and that’s still a win.
The scene in Jeremiah today looks very similar. Jeremiah is in the temple and he’s confronting a number of other people with a very different viewpoint. Jeremiah is pointing out how the people should turn back to God’s law and leave their evil ways behind. If they don’t, God will send disaster upon them.
The people are obviously not convinced. Some even argue that his words should mean his death. Thankfully, cooler heads prevail and no one actually tries to carry that out. Just after this, the rest of the crowd points out that Jeremiah is speaking in God’s name in God’s house and thus was doing just what he was supposed to be doing.
Still, what does he think he’s going to accomplish here? If he’s not going to win any hearts and minds from the opposition, then why bother? Maybe he’ll win over some of the other people listening in, but reading on, it doesn’t sound like that’s the case. It sounds like he says his piece and the best he gets is that they don’t execute him.
That’s rather harsh. In this case, he doesn’t have the option of saying, “No.” God sends him to do this, sends him even knowing the kind of reception he’s going to get. That’s got to be a tough job, facing down people who hate you, despise you, who even want you dead. It’s quite evident throughout the book of Jeremiah that the job really takes a toll on him. He has a hard time and he shares his grief with God more than once during his prophetic work.
Do you have what it takes to carry out your prophetic duties? Do you have the fortitude to confront people, even if it means your death? That’s a tall order, but it isn’t even the biggest problem here. It would be nice if we could worry about doing our prophetic job, if that was what we could discuss, but that’s not the starting point here. As tough as that job is, we’d like to put ourselves in that position, but we don’t get that luxury.
Here in Lent, we consider even more closely the state of our lives, who we are, where we’re going, why our lives are the way they are. We look at sin and what it means for us, how every sin taints us a little more, corrodes us a little more deeply. We’d like to think of ourselves as the faithful, stalwart followers of God, ready to take on all of his enemies and shine the light of his truth into all of the hidden and slimy recesses of the sinful world. However, we aren’t the heroes in this story.
Thinking back to the debate Laurie and I watched, it’s no surprise the activists got angry, insulted him, laughed at him. It’s no surprise they thought he was stupid and hateful. He was calling attention to their sin and pointing out the dangers that accompanied that sin. To accept that he was right meant accepting that they were sinners, that what they were doing was harmful to themselves and to everyone else. They would have to accept that they were not only wrong, they were dangerous, selfish, and misguided. Knowing that, they would hopefully be driven to repent of sins.
For as hard as it is to confront people about their sins, it’s even more difficult to be confronted. It’s even harder to hear someone telling you that what you’re doing, however fun it may be and however good it may feel, is going to kill you. Not only is it going to kill you, it’s probably going to do a lot of damage to you and to the people around you before you go.
We think of Lent and we think of Jesus heading to Jerusalem, heading to the cross, heading to his death. We think of him dying to save people from their sins. But only those who recognize they are sinners and see what awaits all sinners will desire what Christ offers. Only those who see their sin for what it is will then see the need for someone to save them from their awful fate. Only those who know themselves to be sinners will see the cross, not as a way to get rid of a rude and hateful person who doesn’t want you to be happy, but instead as the punishment I should be receiving that is now going to another.
We aren’t the champions, boldly confronting the sins of others, not in this story, not in Lent. We are the heretics, the idolaters, the self-assured, the greedy, the callous, the demeaning, the smug, the abusive, and all of the rest. As tough as Jeremiah’s job is, we’d rather be him than all of the priests claiming to be righteous servants of God in this story, because they’re the ones God condemns and ultimately destroys.
God’s judgment will come. The disaster will come. His wrath will sweep away every sin and every evil. He created perfection and he will have it back. Are you righteous, or are you a sinner? Is the disaster coming for you, or will you be good enough that it will leave you unscathed?
Before Jesus’ ministry had begun, John the Baptist was preparing the people for what was to come. He announced Jesus as the one who came to bring judgment, clearing his threshing floor and casting the chaff into the unquenchable fire. For all of the stories in the Gospels that show Jesus as mild mannered, compassionate, patient, and loving, we are called to remember that he is still the almighty judge, with all of the authority of heaven and earth. Despite what some would have us believe, that God operates differently in the New Testament than he did in the Old, nothing has changed. God’s patience lasted for a very long time. He patiently endured his people’s growing self-confidence and self-reliance. He endured their rejection of his gifts, their desire to strike out on their own and leave their loving Father behind, along with everything he had given them. He endured their rejection and apathy. But it would not go one forever. He would give them what they asked for and they would regret it bitterly.
Jesus is perfect, as both God and man. He fulfills the role mankind was always meant to carry out, to be a prophet, to bring God’s word to the world, whether the world wanted to hear it or not. He comes to convict sinners, to warn them of what is to come. He comes to tell you you’re going to die.
But, this is Lent. We know where Jesus’ path leads. We know how the story ends. It’s the same event, but how you receive it depends entirely on whether you have listened to his words. Has he come to belittle you and insult you, or has he come to save you? Prior to Jeremiah’s confrontation, God commands him: “Thus says the Lord: Stand in the court of the Lord’s house, and speak to all the cities of Judah that come to worship in the house of the Lord all the words that I command you to speak to them; do not hold back a word. 3 It may be they will listen, and every one turn from his evil way, that I may relent of the disaster that I intend to do to them because of their evil deeds.”
There is Law and condemnation, but for those who hear it and take it to heart, there is the good news of salvation. The judgment is coming no matter what, but that doesn’t mean it’s coming for you. Jesus continues to work the same way. We look at the cross and we are tempted to write it all off as the just desserts of someone who thought he was better than you, who thought he knew better than you, who thought he could be more holy and righteous than you, and failed. It is by the grace of God that we see the cross for what it is, the destruction of sin, and the salvation of the sinner.
It is as one redeemed that we are then sent forth to continue the prophetic work. We do not go to others to look down on them or insult them, but to tell them we have been right where they are now. We were once the ones who thought we needed no one because we could do it all ourselves. Then we saw the reality of sin. Then we saw the cross and knew that one day that would be us. We come to them, not in pride, but in humility. We do not call to them as the righteous judge, but as one who should be judged, but who has instead been deemed righteous.
Lent, and the journey of Christ to the cross, does not begin with the cross. It begins with sin and death. For it is only by beginning with sin and death that we see the cross for what it is, not the end and death of the sinner, but the beginning and life of the righteous.