Jeremiah is called to be faithful without promise of ease of
life, prosperity or popularity. In fact
he is called to a life that will be filled with hatred towards him, but he is
not to be a pleaser of men. He calls out
to the Lord to be his defender and the Lord's response is that he is going to
have to suck it up, that is the way it is going to be. It is not Jeremiah that is being rejected,
but the Word of the Lord. He is a
contrarian voice against them and they will have none of it. This is the definition of what Paul is
speaking of when he says to not despise prophecy. The Lord promises to be with Jeremiah and
preserve him if he will be faithful no matter the cost to him in terms of
popularity or persecution. He is to
preach a simple message of repentance to all and sundry whether that message is
popular or not. Is that a popular
message today or is the popular message something else?
Jesus says that the path to glorification passes through
death. The Greeks who come are the spark
for this statement, Jesus knows that word about Him has gone out beyond just
Judaism and so the world is watching. Early
on He told Nicodemus that the Son of Man must be lifted up and now is the time
for that. I wonder how the disciples
processed Jesus' words? I have no doubt
that after the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday and now the world coming to him
that they surely believed they were about to see something truly wonderful in
their eyes and they would ride on His coattails to the top. What, however, was all this about hating your
life and seeds falling to earth and dying?
What has that to do with being king?
It would seem that Jesus was at the height of His popularity and now He
speaks of being glorified so what is the rest of this about?
If it were easy or popular to walk in the Way, Paul would
have had no reason to encourage the Philippians to do so. Jesus had already promised that if we follow
Him it is like taking up your cross, it will be a way of suffering, of
persecution, reviling, etc. If we aren't
arousing opposition or admiration we aren't getting it right. Paul says there are those who are enemies of
the cross, and if we are walking in the way of the cross then we will be their
enemies also. He gives reassurance that
these will find their end so the Philippians need not concern themselves with
these others, they need concern themselves only with getting to the place where
they are truly citizens, heaven. Our call
is to hear and heed one voice alone, the voice of the One who saved us, just
like Jeremiah.
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