Sermon for Pentecost 6, June 30, 2024
Lamentations 3:22-33 22By
the mercies of the Lord we are not consumed, for his compassions do not
fail. 23They are new every
morning. Great is your
faithfulness. 24My soul says,
“The Lord is my portion. Therefore, I
will hope in him.” 25The Lord
is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. 26It is good to hope quietly for
the salvation of the Lord. 27It is good for a man that he bears a yoke early in his
life. 28Let him sit alone and
be silent, because the Lord has laid this upon him. 29Let him stick his face in
the dust. Perhaps there still is
hope. 30Let him turn his
cheek toward the one who strikes him.
Let him be filled with disgrace. 31For
the Lord will not push us away forever. 32Even
though he brings grief, he will show compassion on the basis of his great
mercy. 33Certainly, it is not
what his heart desires when he causes affliction, when he brings grief to the
children of men. (EHV)
The
Lord’s compassions do not fail.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus,
Many
people, especially those who do not believe in the Lord, find certain truths
very hard to accept. They refuse to
believe that all people are born sinners.
Many refuse to believe that God created the world and everything in it,
and still provides for it. More than
that, they want to blame God rather than appreciate His loving providence, and
particularly, they hate to accept His loving discipline.
Just as we can say these things truthfully
about our day, it was no different in Jeremiah’s time. As God sent His prophet to the people of
Judah to deliver a warning of God’s coming wrath over her rebellion, idolatry,
and disobedience, the leaders of Judah rejected the message and abused God’s
prophet. In the midst of the abuse and
deprivation he suffered and while watching God’s judgment fall upon unbelieving
people, Jeremiah sang this tribute of praise, so that you and I would know that
The Lord’s compassions do not fail.
As God had warned, by the time of this lament, Judah
had been overrun by its enemies, Jerusalem lay in ruins, the temple was
destroyed, many people had died, many others had been carted off into exile, and
the remaining people were facing famine, disease, and hardship. It’s hard to imagine a worse time for any
nation—that is—until you see pictures of the destruction in Ukraine and Gaza
and other places were war rages. Wars
come and go. Pandemics do likewise. Famines and floods trouble vast areas at
times. Death always comes at some
point. It can be hard to recognize the
goodness of God when we are suffering through those trials. It is only by faith that anyone stands firm.
Jeremiah had true faith and trust in the God
who gave him his message. In his life, Jeremiah
continually faced one hardship after another primarily because he refused to
turn aside from the truth of God’s Word.
We should welcome his response as a foreshadowing of how our Savior
would live, because this message of hope shows us much about our Savior.
Jeremiah wrote, “By the mercies of the Lord
we are not consumed, for his compassions do not fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.” The Holy Spirit tells us through St. Paul’s
letter, “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23) Therefore, what every person who has ever
lived truly deserved is only death. Still,
because God is so consistently good at providing for us, we often imagine that
we are good. Yet, it is only God who is
truly good and righteous in all things.
He created the world and everything in it, and He continues to provide
all things for our good. What mankind
deserved is immediate judgment, but in His compassion, God gives people the
opportunity to come to faith in His Son and be saved. God moves everything in this world toward
that goal, and The Lord’s compassions do not fail.
Now, we might argue that God seems to do, or to
allow, many things that harm us. Yet,
that is only because in our sinful nature we don’t see the method behind His
goals. Jeremiah understood that God was
bringing judgment upon the Judeans because they continually rejected God as
Lord. Jeremiah also understood that
these harsh afflictions were intended to turn God’s chosen ones back to the
Lord. Therefore, the prophet could
confidently say, My soul says, “The Lord is my portion. Therefore, I will hope in him.” Through all the multitude of hardships
inflicted upon Jeremiah because the Judean people didn’t like the message he
brought, and while watching the destruction the people experienced in their
foolish rebellion against God, Jeremiah stayed faithful. He never enjoyed peace and blessing in this
life for his faithfulness, but his eternal reward is everlasting glory and
peace.
Jeremaih trusted that “The Lord is good to
those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good to hope quietly for the salvation
of the Lord.” We might say this
summarizes the whole of the gospel of our Savior. Since mankind fell into sin and the world has
been made to suffer under the curse of sin, God has offered a sure and certain
hope of forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life in heaven to all who trust in
His Son. The apostle, Peter, testifying
before the Jewish authorities who wanted to condemn him for preaching about
Jesus, declared by the power of the Holy Spirit, “There is salvation in no
one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we
must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
One of the worst sins mankind has ever fallen
into is the idea that we can somehow save ourselves. Yet, from birth we are sinners. Before we even know we are guilty, we have already
been sinning against God. The very
existence we inherit from our parents, body and soul, is corrupted by sin. On our own we can do nothing that will
satisfy the Judge of the world. However,
Jeremiah had no delusions about himself.
He had no delusions about Israel saving itself by correcting their
faults. From the beginning, God has made
it clear that we need a Rescuer. That’s
the truth God was teaching the people when He commanded all those sacrifices at
the temple. Those countless lambs slaughtered
through the centuries pointed to the sacrifice of one Lamb who would take away
the sins of the world. That one perfect
Lamb is the Son only God could give, our Lord Jesus, born of the virgin, Mary,
and conceived in her by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus told His disciples, “Blessed are your
eyes because they see and your ears because they hear. Amen I tell you: Many prophets and righteous
people longed to see what you are seeing, but they did not see it. They longed to hear what you are hearing, but
they did not hear it.” (Matthew 13:16-17)
Jeremiah’s message, here, foreshadows Jesus living in this world for you
and me and all sinners. The prophet
wrote, “Let him turn his cheek toward the one who strikes him. Let him be filled with disgrace. For the Lord will not push us away forever.” Jeremiah likely didn’t fully understand what
he was writing here, but he trusted that God had a plan to save him, if not
from his earthly troubles, then certainly from the despair of a faithless death
that would lead to eternal darkness in hell.
Whether Jeremiah fully understood this part of the prophecy or not, he
trusted in the coming Savior, and therefore he has life everlasting before the
throne of our God.
Still, the prophecy strikes us with how accurately
it displays what Jesus would live for you and me. When Jesus was put under the judgment of men,
He was condemned for blasphemy because He claimed to be the Son of God, even
though every bit of evidence proves that He indeed is. Jesus bore the disgrace that is ours as He
carried our sins before Pilate, then to the cross to suffer the cruel death
that we all deserved. While He was
falsely accused, and while the soldiers and other enemies flagrantly beat Him,
punched Him in the face, and laid the blows of staffs to His head and whips to
His body, Jesus never turned away from bearing the awful load that would save
you and me.
Even the very condemnation of being separated
from God was borne by Jesus without complaint that Good Friday on the cross,
all so that you and I can be counted holy in His Father’s, now our Father’s,
eyes. Jeremiah also foreshadows our
Savior a bit. He wrote, “It is good
for a man that he bears a yoke early in his life. Let him sit alone and be silent, because the
Lord has laid this upon him.” The
prophet considered it good for his own benefit that he was chosen to suffer so much
for the blessing of having God give him the words of truth to carry to the
Judean people. Those words brought
salvation for Jeremiah, too. At the same
time, we see the fulfilment of the prophecy in God choosing His own dear Son to
bear the burden of our guilt and shame—all alone with no one to help Him—who
even from infancy lived perfect trust in His heavenly Father, all so that we
might be counted righteous for Jesus’ sake and be granted forgiveness of all
sins and life everlasting.
Finally, Jeremiah understood the same thing
Paul would write about centuries later to the Roman congregation. Paul wrote, “We know that all things work
together for the good of those who love God, for those who are called according
to his purpose, because those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed
to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many
brothers.” (Romans 8:28-29) In the
same vein, Jeremiah had written, “Even though he brings grief, he will show
compassion on the basis of his great mercy.
Certainly, it is not what his heart desires when he causes affliction,
when he brings grief to the children of men.”
In this world, and in each of our lives, there
are certainly many troubles and many hardships.
Sometimes, we face great grief and sorrow. Yet, God doesn’t punish us for sin, because
He already punished His beloved Son for the sins of the world. Furthermore, as the prophet pointed out, it
isn’t in God’s heart to cause us grief.
He wants only that we should turn to Him in repentance and believe, so
that by that faith, our Savior will grant to us forgiveness and everlasting
life with Him in heaven.
Therefore, dear friends, take heart through
good times and bad, through joys and riches, or heartache or poverty, because
through it all, God is working to bring you back to the Paradise He has
prepared for all His children. Be
confident in His promises, because The Lord’s compassions do not fail. Amen.
Glory
be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the
beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment