Jeremiah wasn't prepared for the intensity of opposition his
message has brought him. When he was called
as a prophet he likely had some idea that people would listen and heed his
words as they come from the Lord and not from the man himself. Instead he has experienced scorn and even his
closest friends are watching for his downfall as he cries out for repentance
and that judgment is coming. He wants to
no longer prophesy but the word of the Lord is a compulsion to Him, he cannot
but prophesy no matter the consequences.
There have been times in my ministry when all I wanted to do was keep
silent, not preach, especially not words that are hard, and yet I can do
nothing about this call. I am thankful
for the season of Lent although as a preacher I long for it to end because this
message of repentance and judgment is difficult for me. I can't imagine how it must have been for
Jeremiah to do this for such a long season and with so much opposition and no
affirmation.
Jesus prays for the disciples, that the Father protect them
from the evil one. He asks that they be
sanctified in the truth of the word. It is
interesting that He says particularly that He isn't praying for the world but
for these only and then He prays for the recipients of their message but even then
for only those who will believe in Him through their word. He speaks of the one who is lost, the son of
destruction. All these things point to
the reality that not all will believe and so His prayer is not for all but only
for believers. Does that mean we are to
sow the seed only on fertile ground? The
parable of the sower tells us otherwise, as does the reality that Jesus allowed
in Judas to the twelve. His prayer is
that believers would be one in the same way that He and the Father are one, an
intimate oneness. He relies on the love
of the Father from before the foundation of the world, before creation, in this
prayer and it is His one desire, no matter the cost, to glorify the Father,
nothing else matters. Is that your attitude?
What does participation in the Lord's body and blood
mean? It means we participate in His
sufferings for the sake of the world as well as participating in His life, eternal
life. Right at the outset of Lent we see
Jesus going from baptism to temptation in the wilderness. In baptism He identified with us as sinners
yet defeats the temptations of the evil one and in communion we identify with
His death for us as sinners in order that we might take on that righteousness
that persevered to the end. In eating
the bread and drinking the cup in an unworthy manner we bring judgment on
ourselves, it is important that we believe rightly about Jesus, that He did
indeed die as an innocent man. It is
equally important that we believe rightly about ourselves, that His death, His
reproach, was on account of our sins, and He willingly took those on that we
might have life. In our liturgy we
confess as a body our faith in the Nicene Creed and we confess our sins as well
prior to receiving the body and blood in the form of bread and wine. Worthy reception is full identification with
Him and our sins, affirming that Jeremiah was right, we deserve judgment but
that the cross is God's mercy.
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