“Don’t Shoot The Messenger”
Text: Jeremiah 26:8-15
3-13-2022
In the name of Jesus, dear friends in Christ. Back when I was on the Omaha Police Department, we’d occasionally get called upon to deliver a death notice. Why in the world would they send the cops for a job that doesn’t seem like a law enforcement issue? It’s simple. Sometimes when people get bad news, they literally want to shoot the messenger. I remember having to break the news to a 9-year-old boy that his brother had drowned. If he had had a gun, he would have used it. Instead, he tried to tear us apart with his bare hands. Telling people bad news was not a fun part of the job. Come to think of it, it was rare that we got sent to share good news with people. I think the closest we came was telling someone that their lost child had been located.
When I went off to become a Pastor, I thought all that had changed. I mean, what a great job! I get to tell people day after day and week after week the good news that their sins are forgiven. Oh, sure, we need to talk about our sins but I figured that most every church member would be happy to listen to the Law knowing that Pastor was also going to share the good news of the Gospel. After 25 years in the ministry, I’ve discovered that it ain’t always so. Sometimes when I have to tell people the bad news about their own personal sins, they want to shoot the messenger. Not literally perhaps, even though I’ve been threatened with bodily harm before. You may find it hard to believe but in the past I actually had a member who yelled at me in my office using just about every 4-letter word imaginable. Why? Because I had confronted his sin and that infuriated him.
Now please, don’t think I’m asking for sympathy. Those naïve notions that I started in the ministry with are long gone. In fact, they never should have been there. Our readings for today make it clear that God’s messengers who dare to speak both Gospel and Law are not always liked or popular. But it’s necessary to tell people the bad news about their sin because without it, you can never hear the good news of the Gospel. Unfortunately, though, sometimes the response to God’s convicting word about our sin is to shoot the messenger.
Just consider the prophet Jeremiah to start with. God called him to preach to the people of the southern kingdom of Judah in 628 B.C. For nearly 40 years he warned them that God’s wrath was coming because of their unrepentant sinning. They thought they could dabble in worshiping the gods of their pagan neighbors and actually blend that together with their worship of the true God. Along with that, they were ignoring the commandments of the Lord. Sexual sins and adultery were rampant. Judges could be bribed. Lying and stealing were a finely tuned art. When Jeremiah rebuked their sins, they blew off his call to repent. He warned them that God was going to destroy their cities and even their Temple. That really ticked them off. They were hiding behind the false notion that God would never let anything happen to His house so they felt safe… no matter how badly they were behaving. As you heard in our text they were looking to shoot the messenger because they didn’t like Jeremiah telling them what they didn’t want to hear.
You’ve got to give Jeremiah credit. He didn’t back down in the face of these threats. His response was gutsy and reveals his total trust in God. I’ll paraphrase his reply: “Look, you guys. The Lord sent me and told me what to say. Your beef is with Him, not me. If you want to shoot the messenger, go ahead. You’ll have innocent blood on your hands. But if you’ll repent of your sins, God promises to prevent this impending disaster.” The good news is that some level-headed people stepped up to rescue Jeremiah. His life wasn’t pleasant after this but at least he wasn’t murdered. Plus, in the end he was vindicated because the destruction he had foretold happened in 586 B.C. But don’t miss something very important. Jeremiah’s heart was breaking for his people. Even though some hated his guts, were gunning for him, and refused to listen to God’s message, his love and compassion didn’t end. He was undeterred by the threats and uncomfortable circumstances because he knew who had called him into the ministry. He knew God was faithful. He trusted that the Lord would vindicate him even though things looked pretty dismal. He kept preaching the truth of God’s convicting Law so that the healing Gospel could be applied.
In the Epistle lesson, St. Paul uses a negative example to make the same point. If you know even a little bit about Paul’s ministry then you’ll know it was no cakewalk. Like Jeremiah, he was despised, arrested, abused, beaten, and was constantly under the threat of death. And yet, Paul happily and boldly kept preaching God’s Law and Gospel wherever he went. Sadly, though, he knew of ministers who had taken the easy route. Rather than take the chance of offending people, these guys were people-pleasers. They wouldn’t dare preach the Law and risk making someone mad. Why take a chance that they’ll shoot the messenger? They were quite popular and made a very comfortable wage telling people what they wanted to hear. But Paul calls them “enemies of the cross of Christ.” Why? Because until you tell sinners to repent of their grievous offenses against God, then the Gospel is ineffective. And if the Gospel is ineffective then Christ’s death on the cross was empty and meaningless.
Last, let’s look at the reading from Luke 13. At first glance you may think those Pharisees were trying to protect Jesus by warning Him about King Herod. After all, he had just killed John the Baptist for daring to call the king to repent. So naturally Jesus would be next on the list since He also condemned the adulterous, evil things Herod was doing. Actually, Herod wasn’t gunning for Jesus. With this story the Pharisees were just hoping to scare Christ away and get Him out of their hair. Jesus didn’t fall for it. Instead, He boldly stood up to the challenge and refused to be deterred from His mission. But I would also ask you to note the tender heart of our Lord. Even though many of the Jews in Jerusalem rejected Him, He still lamented their rebellious attitude. Like Jeremiah’s warning, there was death and destruction in their future if they didn’t repent. More importantly, there was eternal death and destruction ahead if they rejected Him as their Savior. It saddened the heart of our loving Lord to see them head down that road. And yet, He didn’t compromise or back down. He was not deterred even though they would indeed kill the messenger of God’s love and forgiveness by nailing Him to a cross for our sins. He willingly suffered that punishment so that all who would repent and believe in Him would be saved.
Now, you may not think that the messengers of God face threats and persecutions like this today, at least not in America. And you’d be wrong. Not long ago we were shaking our heads at the laws in Canada that made it illegal for a minister to preach about homosexuality as a sin. That could never happen here in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Think again. Just recently the city council in Lincoln, Nebraska passed a similar ordinance that would heavily fine any organization, even a church, for speaking about LGBTQ lifestyles as a sin.
That may seem like a pretty obvious threat, but there are plenty more subtle ones. And the source of these might surprise you. It comes from within the Christian Church. Have you noticed the rapidly decreasing pool of Pastors who are available to serve our churches in the LCMS? Yes, it’s true that there are a large number of them who are eligible for retirement. But there are more and more men who are thinking of leaving the ministry, or already have, before they reach retirement age. Do you know why? They’re tired of being shot at simply because they’re God’s messenger of Law and Gospel. They refuse to compromise on God’s Word and the Lutheran Confessions which they vowed to abide by. I personally know of at least 5 close friends in the ministry who have seriously thought of quitting in recent years. When a Pastor is left to stand alone against unfair and unsubstantiated attacks, it’s easy to get discouraged. This has to stop. If we don’t there won’t be any young men left who are willing to go into the ministry… just so they can be shot at.
To be fair, there are Pastors who have created their own problems. And maybe some of them should have never gone into the ministry in the first place. But they aren’t the ones I’m talking about. These are good Pastors who were simply doing what they were called to do. But when they told people what they didn’t want to hear they were attacked.
Look, I may have been naïve when I got into the ministry but not anymore. When I accepted this call to Zion I fully expected that the day would come when someone got upset with me because they didn’t like what they heard. That day has come and gone long ago. It comes with the territory. That doesn’t make it right but I’m also not surprised by it. Just be aware that I cannot and will not compromise on my convictions which are based on the Bible and our Lutheran Confessions. That includes the touchy subjects of living together before marriage, sexual relations outside of marriage, Open Communion, or a hit and miss approach to attending worship. If it’s wrong I have to warn you about it. You or others may not like hearing it. But like Jeremiah, all I can say is, “The Lord sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.” If that offends you, your argument is with God not me. Don’t misunderstand. I’m not whining or complaining. And I’m certainly not disheartened. There isn’t some dramatic incident that happened to me that inspired these words. No, it was the 3 Scripture readings that begged for this issue to be addressed.
Like Jeremiah and Jesus, my heart breaks when God’s people refuse to listen to His call to repentance. But I must remain undeterred by uncomfortable circumstances caused by speaking the truth. God is faithful even when things look dismal. His Law must be preached so that the healing Gospel can be applied.
Like any Pastor, I’m still human and I make sinful mistakes. That means I also need to hear God’s call to repent of my sinful ways. You, me, all of us need to let His Word of Law convict our hearts. Jesus longs to forgive us and gather us under the protection of the wings of His eternal security. So together, let’s humble our hearts before the Lord. By the power of the Holy Spirit, let’s pledge to “not despise preaching and His Word, but gladly hear and learn it.” That way we’ll be prepared to hear His precious Word of Gospel and the joy of our salvation. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!