When God's message is offensive

 This week's verses are Jeremiah 6:9-12:

This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies said to me:

“Those who remain in Israel will be
like the grapes thoroughly gleaned from a vine.
So go over them again, as though you were a grape harvester
passing your hand over the branches one last time.”

I answered,

“Who would listen
if I spoke to them and warned them?
Their ears are so closed
that they cannot hear!
Indeed, the Lord’s message is offensive to them.
They do not like it at all.
I am as full of anger as you are, Lord,
I am tired of trying to hold it in.”

The Lord answered,

“Vent it, then, on the children who play in the street
and on the young men who are gathered together.
Husbands and wives are to be included,
as well as the old and those who are advanced in years.
Their houses will be turned over to others
as will their fields and their wives.
For I will unleash my power
against those who live in this land,”
says the Lord.

 

The prophet Jeremiah is suffering a bit like Cassandra from Greek mythology. Like Cassandra, Jeremiah knows what is going to happen, and is trying to warn people but nobody believes him. Even worse, they react in anger and hatred as he tries to help them.

But God asks him to try again, like he's harvesting grapes, like he's just checking the branch one last time to make sure he didn't miss any. But Jeremiah's had about all he can take. He snaps. We probably would too, if we'd suffered that much, seemingly for nothing, only to be told to do it again.

God hears him out and tells him to channel his frustration and anger into his work. Warn everyone from children to old people, husbands and wives, not just the folks who might have influence. Not just the 20-somethings with social media accounts who might be able to support you when you retire and pay your ministry expenses in the meantime, or the comfortable people in the same station of life as you. Everyone.

Evangelism can be thankless work. Any kind of holy discourse can be, in this day and age, when people are bathed in fake news and taught to attack when they hear certain keywords or "dog whistles" in someone's speech. Like Jeremiah, we burn out, and get fed up.

We see how people are living, how they are being deceived, and no matter what we say, it makes no difference. They ignore the truth and keep on barreling down the path to hell. Do you just let them go? Fuel up their car and wish them a pleasant journey?

God doesn't condemn Jeremiah for having these feelings. It's surprising, because the Church does. When people get cynical about sharing the gospel, or about the world we live in, they're told they're not serious enough, that they don't care enough about people, that they just want to get fed and not contribute to the church. But that's not how Jeremiah was, and God recognized his heart. God was gentle and patient and understanding, like none of us ever are.

The truth can be offensive to people, and we're not wired to handle things well that conflict with our existing belief systems. It takes a strong person to be able to weather this backlash and not be affected somehow. Jeremiah wasn't superman. So God turns his focus back to the people and their inevitable doom, not their bad behaviors and bad choices. These people will all be condemned if nobody reaches them. 

It's just amazing to me how egalitarian God's description of the damned is. If it was just a kind of awareness campaign, the plan should have been to target political leaders and heads of households, elders and influencers. But God sends Jeremiah to children and wives too, neither of which had a whole lot of power or external exposure. They're all in the same boat.

If the heads of households and leaders didn't turn away from their sin, it's not like the wives and children wouldn't suffer. In the invasion to come, the children would lose their inheritance to the invaders, and the wives would be carted off as slaves and worse by the conquering army. They deserve to have a vote too in which path they will choose.

So, if we speak the truth, we will offend people. They will not be nice to us. And even the people who are nice to us will probably not listen. We will burn out, and get bitter and discouraged, and we will be angry at the path people have chosen, and be tempted to let them follow it to its grisly end. If you find yourself giving up like that, like Jonah, or Elijah, or Jeremiah, stop and think of the people themselves as individuals.

One of the reasons we remember Jeremiah is that he ultimately persevered. People treated him horribly and had no respect for him at all, but he continued to try to help people avoid God's wrath and choose a healthy course for their lives. If you want to be like that, ask God for strength not to be offended by the people you're meant to love, strength to endure until the last grapes are picked from the vine.