The Right Man :: Jeremiah 23:5-8
Jeremiah 23:5-8
If you want a job done right, you have to do it yourself. I don’t know about you, but I’ve said that too many times in my life. I can be quite stubborn about it, too. How about you? We love to think highly of ourselves. We live to take pride in what we do and how we do it. We’re great at convincing ourselves that if you want a job done right, you have to do it yourself.
The thing is, it’s not always true.
As my old boss reminded me, we are replaceable, because sometimes, I really am NOT the best man equipped to do a job.
You Chiefs fans know what I mean. Harrison Butker has missed 6 of 38 PATs this year ... that makes him next to last in PAT accuracy this year, a year after leading the NFL in scoring. But I’m sure y’all will be thankful if Andy Reid doesn’t try to save the team 4 million a year by using me to kick PATs for the Chiefs.
But it is still true ... that if you want a job done right, you have to do it yourself.
Sometimes, you really do have the expertise and skill for a particular task that no one else has. Sometimes, you really are the only one to whom this job means the most. Sometimes, you really are the only one who will put in the tender loving care to do it juuuust right.
Proving the point, this morning ...
THE LORD SAYS TO HIS PEOPLE, I WILL, HE WILL, AND YOU WILL ...
GET THE JOB DONE RIGHT.
I. To the shepherds who hadn’t done the job right themselves, the Lord says, I will.
God entrusts many tasks to his people. In ancient Israel, for example, he set kings over his people and called priests to care for the spiritual needs of their precious souls. But these leaders weren’t always faithful. They proved they could be replaced.
So in the 7th and 6th centuries, at a young age, the Lord called Jeremiah to preach a message of repentance because none of the other priests and shepherds in Jerusalem were doing the job right, and no one in the Kingdom of Judah wanted to listen to it. The Lord inspired Jeremiah to pour all of his strength into the task of doing the job right. The result is one of the longest books in the Bible ... 52 chapters ... most of which is pure rebuke for the people to turn from their sin.
Have you already stopped listening to me too?
Or is your mind already on a 3:25 kickoff?
No one likes to be rebuked for failing to heed the word of the Lord. But it is a new church year, and you need to hear it.
Return, faithless Israel, Jeremiah cried out.
Return, O faithless children.
Return O faithless sons. Why won’t you return?
Like Jeremiah, we pastors are broken people too. Sometimes, we fail. Sometimes, the world lashes out at us. Sometimes, we don’t go looking for our peeps fast enough. Sometimes, our people get devoured by the devil who is still prowling around like a lion.
This happens in large part because both you ... and me ... do NOT want to return.
We do NOT want to admit we are sinners who sin. We do NOT want to believe that we aren’t loving God with all of our heart. That we aren’t loving our neighbor.
We do NOT want to hear God’s Word as often as we can. We want to think we can correctly discern the doctrine of those evangelicals on TV.
We do NOT want to admit that we are greedy and selfish.
We do NOT want anyone to know about the things we do in the darkness of our own denials, in the darkness of our bedrooms, in the darkness of our lives.
We do NOT want to receive the Lord’s gifts of Word and sacraments more often.
We think our job is more important than studying God’s Word with each other. And so we skip Bible study. We skip church. We skip the sacraments. We forget the role they play in our lives. And we deny Christ to rule in our lives.
Return, O faithless children. ... The hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed (Rom 13:11).
Do you recognize your own sin?
Do you recognize your need for a savior?
Or have you become so cold and numb to sin in your own life ... your lusts and passions, your ungratefulness, your gossip that murders someone over and over.
In the name of Jesus ... Repent, all of you. That is, recognize what sin is doing to you and to me and to your neighbor. But just as importantly, recognize your God-given faith in Christ, who continues to promise you that ...
II. Even though the world around you doesn’t execute justice and righteousness, the Lord says, He will.
Do you hear the promise?
Jeremiah reminds us that Christ will get this job done right ... for you.
Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and he will execute justice and righteousness.
The promise of a righteous branch shooting up from David is none other than the promise of the Messiah, the Christ, coming to save everyone ... and I mean everyone ... from their bondage to sin death and the devil. Your shepherds can’t do that for you on their own. There is a measure of cooperation in your part. God is reminding you that Christ is coming to deliver ... TO YOU ... the righteousness you long for ... Word and sacrament ... so that ... behold ... you will dwell securely. ... And you will be saved.
This is his good work for you.
This is why we celebrate Advent every year. Advent is a season that reminds us that God gets the job done like no one else. He gets it done in ways that are mysterious to us ... Through word and sacrament. The central focus of this new season is not simply to prepare us for our annual observance of Christmas, that day long ago, when Christ came to us the first time. It is not simply to reintroduce us to the Incarnation of Christ, that God would come to us in the flesh ... born in a manger ... to live with us, to dwell with us, to heal us, to make us whole.
The purpose of advent is to rouse within you ... once again ... the anticipation of the great day of the Lord when he gets the job done right ... revealing how and why the Lord is our righteousness.
As we confessed just a little while ago, God’s only son was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born without sin by the Virgin. Our Lord then executed righteousness in his own life, that is, he lived without sin. This is a job no one else could have done.
This fact is critically important for you to hear and know and believe. Because he is our righteousness, he was able to become the Lamb of God who takes away your sin. He was able to be your savior.
Only God could do that.
He did it by going silently to the cross ... a job none of us could bear ... so that justice could be executed upon him, and the world that fell under the weight of sin could be made right again.
He didn’t deserve to die on a cross. But this Son of David, who at the same time is the Son of God (vv.5-6), bore the iniquity of us all.
As we groan under the weight of our sin, guilt, and shame ... All the things we can't overcome on our own ... Christ came and took these loads upon his own shoulders, doing a job no one would want as God poured out all of his fury and wrath upon Jesus.
In exchange for your sin, Christ gave us his own righteousness, through the baptism that saves you, making him one with you, and you one with him.
III. Therefore, to those of us who ask, who then will be saved? the Lord says, You will.
Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when you will all dwell securely. He will bring you all back into the fold. You will be fruitful and multiply.
As we have sung once already,
All Glory to the son who comes to set us free,
with the Father, Spirit, ever one, through all eternity.
That is to say, when God wants something done right, he doesn’t leave it up to you, he does it himself. He knows that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in him, but he calls us anyway through his Word and sacraments.
God replaces our unjust, unwise, unfaithful leaders with himself, ensuring the job gets done right. He is not just a shepherd ... he is our good shepherd who is constantly looking after you, hearing your prayers, leading you back to the life-giving waters of baptism and the life-giving bread and wine of the Supper.
He is your priest who brings you peace because he has no need, like all other priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for you. He has done this once for all when he offered himself.
More than that, He is our king, the righteous branch of David, who reigns over us ... always wisely, always just, always righteous.
When God the Father says, who will go for us, who will pay the price for these sheep who have followed their faithless leaders and wandered away? Who will suffer everything they deserve? Who will bear the punishment of hell, so that we can make them righteous? ... God’s own Son answers, I will. This is a job for me.
I am your shepherd and king, he says. I have lived for you, died for you, overcome death for you. I continue washing you clean in baptism and raising you to new life. I continue to hear your prayers. I continue to nourish you with my precious gifts of living body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins.
And I will gather you to myself on the last day.
This was a job only he could do.
And he did. And he does. And he will.
And because of it, you will live into eternity.