Jesu Juva

“Deliverance”

Text: Jeremiah 11:18-20; Psalm 54

Prophets did not have easy lives. God sent them to preach repentance. To call His people back to Him from their sins and the false gods they had gone after.

But we don’t like to be called to repentance. We like to call out the sins of other people and call them to repentance! But our own sins . . . mind your own business!

Maybe it’s because we like those sins and want to keep doing them.

Maybe it’s because we think we need those sins and so need to keep doing them.

Maybe it’s because we don’t want our sins uncovered and exposed. What we do in secret we want to stay secret.

Maybe it’s because we don’t want the shame and guilt of our sins on us. We’d rather ignore them, rationalize them, forget about them, or pretend they’re okay.

But they’re not okay. And we’re not okay. Not if we want to keep doing our sin. Not if we think we need to keep doing our sin. Not when we have to live with their guilt and shame. For try as hard as we can to forget them, rationalize them, or pretend they’re okay - it doesn’t work. Oh, maybe it does for a while, but the guilt and shame often come back at the worst times, and shatter families, marriages, friendships, and maybe even faith.

So we need to be called to repentance. That’s what we need! For our sin and guilt and shame to be exposed. Not to further shame us! But so it can be taken away. Surgery hurts. But the reason it is done is not to hurt you, but to help you and save you.

And God is the great physician of body and soul. He has diagnosed our problem and sends His prophets, apostles, and pastors to provide the cure - the forgiveness of sins. But the diagnosis has to come first. You won’t go to the doctor, you won’t take the medicine, unless you know something is wrong.

So God sent prophets like Jeremiah, who we heard from tonight. And God’s people plotted against him. They didn’t want the Word of God from Jeremiah - they had false prophets who were telling them what they wanted to hear; that they were fine. We’d like to hear that, too! But it’s a lie. And God won’t lie. Because He wants to save us.

So God sent prophets like Jeremiah to preach repentance, but even more, He sent His Son to take away the sin of the world, to save the world. So the words of Jeremiah that we heard tonight, while true for him, are even more true for Jesus.

So first we heard from Jeremiah tonight that he was like a gentle lamb led to slaughter. But Jesus was the gentle lamb led to slaughter. The Lamb of God.

Jeremiah said he did not know their plots. Jesus did - and came and preached and laid down His life anyway.

Jeremiah wanted to see God’s vengeance upon those who rebelled against and rejected God. But for Jesus, He would see and feel God’s vengeance poured out - on Himself, on the cross.

And then Jeremiah said, for to you I have committed my cause. Which is what Jesus did. In the Garden, in the agony of prayer, saying: not My will, but Yours be done (Luke 22:42). And then again on the cross, saying: Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit (Luke 23:46).

And then the words of the psalm we sang tonight were fulfilled. Jesus was vindicated, which means that His faith, His trust in His Father, was shown to be right. Many mocked Him while He was on the cross about this: He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God’ (Matthew 27:43). Well God did! But He delivered Jesus not from death, but through death. Because through His death and then His resurrection would we be saved. Which is why Jeremiah, and why Jesus.

And with that the words of this psalm become our words, our prayer. Our prayer that God would save us. That God would vindicate us. Save us from our sins and the sins of others. And vindicate us and show that our faith and trust in Him are right. And this we pray not in uncertainty, but in certainty! Knowing that our Father will hear and answer our prayer. Because this is God’s will - to save us, and by vindicating our faith and trust in Him, to glorify His name.

Which is why we can pray the end of this psalm in confidence - even before it happens! Because faith speaks of the future as if it has already happened. That’s how certain we can be. That how true and sure the words and promises of God are. And so we pray:

I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good.
For he has delivered me from every trouble,
and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.

So there will be trouble and enemies. Sometimes we’ll be our own worst enemy! But our loving and gracious heavenly Father, who sent His Son to save, won’t leave us alone, won’t leave us to our sin, won’t leave us to bitter death. He will call us to repentance, and He will work in us through that Word by His Spirit, and He will bring us to the cross and the forgiveness of Jesus won for us there. The spiritual surgery we need. Not to hurt, but to heal and save. And thanks be to God that He does! That we see this Holy Week not only our sin, but even more our Saviour. And rejoice in His steadfast love.