Good and Dead Preachers
Lent 2 C
Jeremiah 26:8-15 and Luke 13:31-35
21 February 2016 – Redeemer
It’s not a very good day for preachers in today’s readings. Jeremiah finished preaching and instead of an “amen” his congregation said, “You shall die.” Jesus is preaching and teaching along the way to Jerusalem and the Pharisees warn him, “You’d better move along – Herod wants to kill you.” Some have speculated the Pharisees actually wanted to get Jesus to Jerusalem – because then he would be in their territory and they could kill him. Most of the Pharisees thought the only good Jesus is a dead Jesus.
How bad does your preacher need to preach before you wish him dead? Jeremiah sermons were bad news. He preached that God’s Temple would be destroyed, that Jerusalem would be desolate, that all its residents would be taken away. Jeremiah preached against the very promises God had made – God promised He would dwell in His Temple and in Jerusalem forever (2 Chron 33:7). Jeremiah preached, “The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the words you have heard. Now therefore mend your ways and your deeds, and obey the voice of the Lord your God, and the Lord will relent of the disaster that he has pronounced against you.”
The Lord had given His gifts, His love, His salvation, His men from Abraham down to Jeremiah to care for and keep His people. He had been a husband to Israel, and He looked for one thing in return – that she would receive His gifts, that she would have faith in Him alone, that she would listen to His Word alone and not the sweet nothings whispered into her ear by the latest young and exciting false god to come along. Above all the Lord wanted to gather His Israel to Himself, but she would not. She would not repent. She would not love Him alone. She wanted love her own way and that’s why Jeremiah’s preaching was like fingernails on a chalk board to Jerusalem. Such preaching, where it happens today, goes over just as well – how popular is the truth that Christ’s cross alone is the way to heaven? Don’t we, like Israel of old, commit adultery against the Lord when we chose the temples of pleasure over the Lord’s house? How many times do you think adultery against your marriage would be permissible? Yet, when we are absent from the Lord’s house to pursue our desires, is it anything less? Paul preached that way to the Philippians, “For many … walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.”
I admire Jeremiah as a preacher. I’ve never received a death threat for a sermon. Every now and then I even get a “good sermon pastor.” Jeremiah preaches and has faith in the Lord’s Words. He tells his congregation, “As for me, behold I am in your hands. Do with me as seems good and right to you.”
Do with me as seems good and right to you – right there Jeremiah nails the problem in Jerusalem and Saint Cloud. We want our religion and worship in a way that seems good and right to us. Jerusalem was fine with the Lord as long as the Lord would let them fool around with false gods and didn’t cut into their pleasurable pastimes at the other temples around Jerusalem.
When I was working on my sermon this week, in the early stages of my studying I came up with a sermon title – Either you die or the Lord dies. That is what Jeremiah and Jesus both preach. The Lord’s call to repentance is a call to die to yourself – to die to everything you imagine you deserve or are owed or entitled to for your life. That might be the false worship of a good gift of creation – like your health or family or your pastimes. It might be a sin you love to commit. And if you don’t want to die – well then the Lord must die. Jerusalem thought by killing Jeremiah they could muffle the Lord’s voice. The Pharisees were hoping once Jesus died the Lord’s Word would be silenced. I don’t know of any Missouri Synod pastor who was ever removed form the pulpit and stoned to death or thrown in a well to die because of his preaching. According to the Biblical pattern it looks like our preaching needs some work. Either God’s Word brings you to repentance and faith or you silence God’s Word by doing in the preacher. It’s either the Lord’s death or your death – one of you must die.
But there is twist to that title, “Either you die or the Lord dies.” There’s actually some good news hidden under those words. Why do you think Moses faced death for his preaching? And Elijah? And Jeremiah? And John the Baptist? Why was Jerusalem known in the days of Jesus as the city that “kills the prophets and stones those sent to her”? Well, one reason certainly is our rebellion and unwillingness to listen to God’s Word, but there is another reason hidden under the broken bones and bloodied bodies of the God’s OT preachers.
They were pointing to Jesus. Every prophet that was killed by the people of Jerusalem was pointing ahead to the final Word of God. Jesus isn’t going to run from Herod or be maneuvered by the Pharisees – “I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.”
Jerusalem would kill Jesus, like it had every other prophet whom the Lord sent, but hidden under man’s rejection, was God’s salvation. Hidden under man’s betrayal, was God’s loyalty. Hidden under man’s divorce from God, was God’s faithful marriage to man. Hidden under the death of Jesus is life for the world.
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it. How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not? How often would I have gathered you and you would not. That’s what Jesus will do in Jerusalem, fulfill God’s desire to gather you to Himself by dying for your sin on the cross.
It’s not a difficult picture to grasp – there’s a fox in the hen house. Name your fox – cunning Satan, sneaking sin, wily world – all against you and given an opening they’ll take your life and you’re no match for them – little chicks against a fox. But the chicks are not alone – the hen is there. She doesn’t look like much – no fangs, no claws, no rippling muscles. It appears she’s no match either. Christ let Himself be dragged off by your sin, to hell and death. But in the shedding of His blood He atones for sin. In the giving up of His Spirit death died. The old fox bit off more than he could chew – and by the death of Jesus your sin is forgiven, death is dead, and Satan is bound.
Either you die or the Lord dies and the mystery is that He dies willingly. He dies your death for your sin. This is the sermon behind all those dead preachers in the pages of the Old Testament – their very deaths preached Christ. Every time a prophet’s body ended up dead outside of Jerusalem they preached Jesus’ bodily death outside of Jerusalem for you. Because He died you live.
This morning William and Mary faced a simple choice – it was either Elizabeth or the Lord. So they baptized their Elizabeth into Christ’s death so that just as Christ was raised from the dead their Elizabeth might live a new life. By the gift and working of God in Holy Baptism Elizabeth died with Christ and now lives with Him. Either you die or the Lord dies for you, so don’t be surprised if you don’t always like your preacher’s sermons. He might be preaching you to death so that you live by the death, life, and in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
20 February 2016 anno Domini