Jesu Juva
“The Doctor Is In”
Text: Jeremiah 26:8-15; Philippians 3:17-4:1; Luke 13:31-35
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
We ignore the warning signs. We disregard the symptoms. Everything is fine. No problems. We don’t want there to be. But there are. That pain in your body, that pang of guilt, that gnawing conscience, that fear, are signs that something’s not right. We can ignore the signs, and often do. But that doesn’t make the problem go away. It’ll clear up by itself, we think. Maybe. We’ll deal with it later. But maybe there won’t be a later. What then? We had a chance. We chose not to take it. The fault is our own. If we’d caught it in the early stages, we could have . . . we might have . . . but now . . .
They people of Israel didn’t go to Dr. Jeremiah. They thought everything was fine. So he made a house call.
Dr. Jeremiah has taken the spiritual temperature of Jerusalem and it is not good. They are sick. He knows the medicine they need, but they do not want it. They do not want to turn from the reckless behaviour that is endangering their lives. Like any good doctor, Jeremiah tells them: quit smoking, eat right, and exercise. Quit smoking incense to foreign gods. Stop eating the food offered to idols. Exercise yourself in repentance. Get healthy spiritually before it is too late. But no, Jeremiah. We’re not going to change. Everything is fine. You need to change your tune!
But everything was not fine. Israel’a denial did not make the problem go away, it made it worse. Their disease progressed. Their false worship, false gods, and wickedness metastasized. The people did not repent. So God kept His Word. The city of Jerusalem was destroyed, the Temple leveled.
So now how about you? What are the warning signs, the symptoms in your life that everything is not alright? Are you bored with God’s Word, think it irrelevant, or disagree with it? Are your prayers infrequent and empty? Are you dissatisfied with God? Are you falling into the same sin over and over? Is it metastasizing in your life? How is it with you? We don’t want to believe there is anything wrong with us physically, we don’t want to believe there is anything wrong with us spiritually. We can ignore the signs and symptoms, deny them, but it is not good to do so. So Dr. Jeremiah is making a house call to us this Lent, and calling us to repent and receive the medicine we need. The medicine our Lord has here for us.
The people of Jerusalem didn’t want to hear it, though. They instead wanted to de-platform Jeremiah, censor him, and ban him. He had to go, and by death, if necessary.
But Jeremiah wouldn’t change his tune to save his life. Instead, he says, I am in your hands. Do with me as seems good and right to you. Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and its inhabitants, for in truth the Lord sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.
Well, turns out, they did not kill Jeremiah. But Jeremiah’s words did come true. For another prophet. One who came after him and was greater than him. They took Him in their hands and did what seemed good and right to them - they crucified Him and brought His innocent blood upon themselves. But what men intend for evil God uses for good. For it is that innocent blood shed by evil men that God now uses to save. That innocent blood on us washes us clean from our death-causing sin. And this is the word now spoken into our ears: that we repent of our role in the shedding of His blood, repent of our sins that put Him there, and believe and rejoice in how His blood now raises us to a new life, with bodies no longer given to sin, but now temples - temples of the Holy Spirit.
To do that . . . that’s the power Paul was talking about in his letter to the Philippian Christians. The power that enables [Jesus] to subdue all things to Himself. The power that will transform our lowly bodies - our sin-diseased and dying bodies - to be like His glorious body. It is the power of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The power of His blood shed on the cross, and now poured on us in Baptism and poured into our mouth in His Supper. That innocent blood on us and in us is the medicine that gives us the healing and new life we need. So that we no longer walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. No longer live just to satisfy our own bellies, urges, and desires. No longer live with our minds just set on earthly things.
If you see that in yourself . . . how what you want, not what God wants, is most important . . . how your mind is set on earthly things, not heavenly things - what doesn’t last instead of what will . . . if what used to ping your conscience and bring you shame does so no longer . . . you can ignore those warning signs, those symptoms . . . but to what end? Paul says, their end is destruction. Just as happened to the people of Jerusalem, when their city was destroyed and the temple was leveled. Dr. Jeremiah warned them. Dr. Paul is warning us. Don’t wait. Repent. Receive the medicine Jesus has for you.
For that’s what Jesus wants. He doesn’t want to ruin your life or deprive you of having any fun. He simply wants to give you life. Life now, free from the oppression of sin and its bondage; free from your urges and desires controlling you; free from having to bend your knee to the world and its agenda; free from having to find your value and acceptance from a fickle and ever-changing world; free from having to prove yourself. For all those things sap you of life, they don’t give you life. They wear you down, not build you up. They don’t heal you of your sickness, but make it worse.
How different Jesus. Who says: you don’t have to prove yourself to me, I know who you are, a dirty, rotten sinner. I came to take those dirty, rotten sins away and set you free from them. That’s how much you’re worth. That’s how valuable you are. I shed My innocent blood for your guilty blood. I trade My life for yours. I die that you may live.
And that’s what Jesus yearned for as He looked over Jerusalem that day, as we heard from St. Luke. He wanted - like a mother hen - to gather them, protect them, shield them, provide for them, give them life. But like Dr. Jeremiah, they don’t like what He says. The Pharisees especially. They’ve been plotting against Him for some time. This day, they invoke King Herod - maybe he’ll spook Jesus! He did imprison and then behead John the Baptist, after all. Your next Jesus! He’s coming for you next!
He wasn’t, really. We read that Herod was perplexed by Jesus, thought maybe He was channeling John or Elijah or one of the prophets of old (Luke 9:7-9). He wanted to see Jesus. And after Jesus was arrested and Pilate sent Him to Herod, Herod was delighted (Luke 23:6-12).
But Jesus wasn’t afraid of him anyway. Or any man. As He said, no one takes His life - He lays it down of his own accord (John 10:18). He would give His life for the life of the world. He knew that day was coming. It’s why He came. And no fox in the henhouse was going to change that or make Him abandon you. He’s going to finish what He started. He’s going to finish His course. He will cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day He will finish. The third day He will rise from death and finish the course He blazed for us through death to life again. For He came to give us life - life now, life from the dead, life forever.
And because of that, as St. Paul said, our citizenship is in heaven. That’s our home. That’s where we belong. Your baptismal certificate your citizenship papers. You belong there. You belong to Him. And so Jesus is coming again to take you there. And when He does, we will see Him and be among those who say Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!
Which, actually, we will say today in the liturgy, because Jesus comes for us today, giving us His forgiveness, speaking to us His Word, and feeding us His Body and Blood. So as He does, and we see Him with the eyes of faith, we welcome Him with those words: Blessed is He! Blessed is He! Blessed is He who cometh in the name of the Lord (The Sanctus). And we eat and drink His forgiveness, life, and salvation. His forgiveness for our sin, His life for our death, and His salvation for our condemnation. He takes the bad from us and gives the good to us. That we can live.
So the season of Lent . . . well, it’s like our yearly spiritual physical. We’re sick with sin. The warning signs and symptoms are there. The doctor has the medicine we need. We can ignore it and die, or we can repent and live.
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! O Saint Athanasius, Saint Athanasius! Find your life and health under the outstretched arms of your Saviour.
In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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