“Two Kinds Of Stubbornness”
Text: Jeremiah 23:16-29
8/14/2022
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen. Do you know anyone who’s stubborn? I realize that’s a loaded question. And I caught a few of you glancing over at your spouse or child or friend with a look that says, “Hey Pastor, if you want to meet the definition of stubborn, they’re sitting right there!” In order to remove that kind of tension, I’ll make this easy for you. If you want to identify a very stubborn person... you’re looking at him. Perhaps it’s my heritage. As I was growing us, my father regularly talked about being a “stubborn old German.” Well, I’m a full-blooded Deutschlander, so I guess that qualifies me as stubborn. But to be fair, regardless of your ethnicity, gender, or skin color, people of all stripes can be, and are, stubborn.
Did you notice, though, that we’re assuming here that being stubborn is a always a bad thing. That’s because our automatic default is to treat stubbornness as a negative attribute. What’s funny and somewhat disingenuous is that some people will speak of stubbornness as a good thing, but only once they’ve relabeled it as “determination.” Rather than play that kind of semantics game I’d suggest that there are two sides to the stubbornness coin: Good and Bad. And really the difference is determined by what you’re being stubborn about.
If you’re unyielding, uncompromising, and refuse to change your mind about something that is petty or flat-out wrong, then that’s a bad kind of stubborn. On the other hand, if you tenaciously hold onto a truth that you believe in and are ready to die for rather than make concessions, then that’s a good kind of stubborn. How about an example of each? To the chagrin of some of you, I’m an unashamed Nebraska Cornhusker fan. (Yes, even when they frustrate the dickens out of me.) But what if I stubbornly insisted that I had to be gone every weekend in the fall so that I could attend the football games? That wouldn’t fly. That would be a bad kind of stubbornness... unless, of course, I became a Cyclone or Hawkeye fan, right? Or consider one of our U.S. soldiers. We want them to stubbornly fight for our freedom and safety, refusing to surrender even when things look hopeless. That’s a good kind of stubborn.
All that is well and good, but it becomes a crucial issue when we’re talking about spiritual matters. And that’s what confronts us in our text from Jeremiah. Here’s the setting: the nation of Israel had already separated into two kingdoms. The northern kingdom had fallen into all kinds of idolatrous practices and rebelled against the Lord. As a result, God allowed them to be conquered and led off into captivity. Sadly, their sister kingdom of Judah was not far behind. God’s prophets repeatedly called them to repentance and at times it seemed like they actually might turn from their rebellious sins. But they didn’t. And so, Jeremiah had the unpleasant duty of telling them that they too would fall and be destroyed. To complicate matters, though, there were false prophets who were saying the exact opposite of Jeremiah. They were telling the king and the people that everything was okay, no need to change. Confidently they claimed that God had told them that no disaster would come upon Judah.
Jeremiah was the lone voice of God’s truth. In verse 17 he says that the people were despising the word of the Lord and stubbornly following their own hearts. That Hebrew word for stubborn appears 10 times in the Old Testament and 8 of them are found in the book of Jeremiah. Unfortunately, it’s always a bad kind of stubbornness because it describes the unyielding disobedience of God’s people. The people of Judah were very stubborn, obstinately persisting in their sins and refusing to listen to God’s truth. At the end of our text, Jeremiah warns them that God will break their stubbornness like a hammer breaking rocks. His holy word would crush the stubborn hardness of their hearts. Why? Because God is very stubborn also, but in a good way. God was determined to show tough love by sending hardships upon them to get them to repent. His mercy and forgiveness won’t be quenched no matter how badly they had rebelled. Due to His stubborn, unrelenting love, He seeks the return of His lost and erring children.
If anyone doubts God’s stubborn love all we need do is look to the rest of the Scriptures. After Israel was crushed and dispersed, it eventually brought their evil, stubborn hearts to repentance. Even though God’s people were destroyed as a nation, in time He sent them (and us) a Savior, Jesus Christ. Not only did He teach us the truth of God and lead His people to obey the Lord, but He also took care of the problem of sin’s grasp on human hearts. Jesus was stubborn too, in a good way. He stubbornly set His face towards Jerusalem where He would be tortured and crucified. He went to the cross and endured the anguish of hell to pay the penalty for our stubborn sinfulness. His unyielding love compelled Him to do it.
God’s stubborn love can still be seen today in the grace that He continues to pour out on His people. In Baptism He snatches you from the devil’s kingdom of darkness and claims you as His own. He refuses to let you go because you are His child. Even when we give into temptation and sin against God, He stubbornly holds out His forgiveness. He has given to the Church the duty of dispensing His means of grace for our forgiveness. Confession and Absolution are God’s stubborn love being shown to you. Your Pastor and the preaching of God’s Word are likewise God’s stubborn love being dispensed for you. And in Holy Communion God gives to you the very body and blood of Christ for the assurance of His unending, unchangeable love for you.
If only that were the end of the story. Unfortunately, as in Jeremiah’s day, our stubborn sinfulness is rampant. False teachers are all around us. They tell us that all is well. God’s Law gets set aside or watered down. Actions that God clearly says are wrong are now labeled as acceptable. Condoning homosexuality, sex before marriage, cohabitation, ordaining women and gays as Pastors, and denying the grace and power of the Sacraments are all examples of how false prophets today have lied to God’s people. And like in Jeremiah’s day, they claim this is the word of the Lord. I pray that you are able to reject those lies by discerning the truth. It’s found in the Holy Scriptures and explained in detail in our Lutheran Confessions. Yes, some people think of us Missouri Synod Lutherans as stubborn, unyielding, and uncompromising. I say: GOOD! Here’s an example of when we ought to be very stubborn. We dare not concede one iota of the truth God has revealed to us. And we ought not be ashamed of it! Yes, God calls us to explain the truth in gentleness and with patience. But we must not compromise the unchangeable truth of God’s Word.
Listen to what our first Synod President, C.F.W. Walther said on this: “When a theologian is asked to yield and make concessions in order that peace may at last be established in the Church, but refuses to do so even in a single point of doctrine, such an action looks to human reason like intolerable stubbornness, yea, like downright malice. That is the reason why such theologians are loved and praised by few men during their lifetime. Most men rather revile them as disturbers of the peace, yea, as destroyers of the kingdom of God. They are regarded as men worthy of contempt. But in the end it becomes manifest that this very determined, inexorable tenacity in clinging to the pure teaching of the divine Word by no means tears down the Church; on the contrary, it is just this which, in the midst of greatest dissension, builds up the Church and ultimately brings about genuine peace.” (The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel )
Let’s be honest. It isn’t just other denominations who have this problem. We also need to do some self-examination. When you were Confirmed you stood before God’s altar and made some solemn promises. One of them was that you’d “suffer all, even death, rather than fall away” from your confession of faith. I have no doubt that most Confirmands were sincere when they spoke those words. Why is it then, that we have members on our church roles who are sporadic and anemic in their attendance? Approximately 80% of our church members don’t worship on any given Sunday. What happened to those stubborn promises to remain faithful? God is asking that, not me, although I’d love to hear the answer.
But even if you are here in worship, you are not exempt from sinful stubbornness. You may hear your Pastor preach on a sin that you don’t particularly find offensive. You may have grown comfortable with gossiping, telling “little white lies”, harboring anger or hatred, refusing to forgive, or arrogantly thinking you’re not as bad as all those “other sinners.” If you tenaciously hold onto such sins and only mouth the words of repentance then there is a sinful stubbornness in you also. And God will keep hammering away at it until He breaks through your hard heart. Why? Because He loves you and wants you to repent so that His free flowing forgiveness through Jesus Christ might be showered upon you.
Contrary to all that bad stubbornness, I pray that you will be, and will remain, stubborn in… a good way. Be stubbornly committed to the truth of God’s Word refusing to compromise. Stubbornly demand pure doctrine. Stubbornly resist our culture’s attempts to lower your moral values. Be stubbornly loyal to your Lutheran faith and identity. Teach your children and grandchildren to be stubborn and uncompromising about their faith in Jesus Christ. Together may we bring honor and glory to our gracious God who has stubbornly loved each one of us. And may the Lord of all mercy continue to bless His Church here on earth as we proclaim that wondrous, unyielding love of God to our lost and dying world. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!