18th Sunday after Pentecost “He Has Our Blindside”
September 23, 2018 Jeremiah 11:18-20
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Dear brothers & sisters in Christ,
‘But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. I did not know it was against ME they devised schemes, saying, ‘Let us destroy the tree with its fruit…’ from Jeremiah 11.
Again today, a certain scenario will be played out 100s of times: The center snaps the ball; the quarterback drops back, with mere seconds to scan the field & find the open receiver, while defensive linemen are closing in fast. The ‘pocket’ is a precarious place. A quarterback can see the moving bodies in front of him, but he can’t see behind. This is why, when the quarterback is right-handed, the left tackle is one of the highest-paid players on an NFL team = he’s paid to protect the quarterback’s blind side.
Usually, only real fans of the game would know the names of those few stand-out left tackles. But then there was the 2009 movie starring Sandra Bullock titled ‘The Blind Side.’
It dramatized the life-story of one NFL left tackle named Michael Oher. Michael grew up homeless in Tennessee. After being rescued by the Tuohy family, he entered a Christian school where he learned to play football, and ultimately received a scholarship to play for the University of Mississippi. His NFL career includes playing for the Ravens, the Titans, & the Panthers. Now, Oher was tough & strong; but one main point of the movie was that Michael was loyal. He’d do anything humanly possible to protect his quarterback’s blind side.
When the prophets were called upon to deliver God’s Word, there were times when they wondered if someone was watching their blind side.
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In the gospel reading today from Mark 9, this is the second time that Jesus teaches His disciples of His upcoming Passion: ‘The Son of man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.’ Our assigned OT reading today matches with that. It foreshadows the promised Messiah with the words: ‘I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter.’ And it foresees the wicked scheme of the pharisees & teachers of the law with the words: ‘let us cut him off from the land of the living.’
Of course, this messianic prophecy is the most important application of Jeremiah 11.
However, as with many of the OT prophecies, the words also had a more immediate
application to the life of the prophet himself.
Church history has labeled Jeremiah ‘the weeping prophet,’ because, while he preaches God’s judgment of impending doom to rebellious Judah, he deeply loves the people – and continually weeps over their waywardness. He’s one of them; one of God’s people-of-promise, who were to trust God’s covenant with them, & walk according to the holy commandments, statutes, & teachings. Yet, Jeremiah see’s the people’s rebellion: where the leaders were trusting in alliances with godless nations to keep their safety, instead of trusting God; where the priests were mixing in the false doctrines & practices of pagan religions in order to make God’s ways more palatable to the people; where the people themselves were more interested in having worldly pleasures than standing firm in the truths that turn us away from sin, and guide us into that eternal kingdom.
So, Jeremiah loves Judah & its people; unfortunately, the people of Judah mostly don’t love him back. Jeremiah experienced one of the biggest blindsides in all of the Old Testament. In these three verses, we learn about a deadly plot against Jeremiah and how he was almost killed. We also learn that God -the loyal one- was playing ‘left tackle,’ & watching out for him.
Since the start of April, our Thursday morning men’s bible study, have been reading thru the Book of Jeremiah; it’s been a challenge because, while scholars say that the Hebrew language in the book is difficult, to translate it into English doesn’t help much. It alternates between narrative, & poetry, & prophecy – without warning. Sometimes it is Jeremiah speaking his thoughts, sometimes the Lord is speaking His thoughts, & sometimes the Lord is saying what the hidden thoughts of the people of Judah are.
Our three verses this morning is even something else: it’s called an ‘aside.’ It’s like in a movie, those times when the character turns away from the action, and speaks directly to the audience. In previous verses, Jeremiah is speaking the Word of the Lord to the people; but then it’s like he turns away from doing that, and turns aside to the reader and describes this plot against him. “But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; I did not know it was against me they devised schemes.” (v 19a).
Many OT prophets knew that -when they brought God’s Word to the people- that the people wouldn’t like it, and would ignore them, argue or complain. We might think about Noah and Moses. So, Jeremiah was sent with God’s Word and Judah didn’t like it; and mostly they argued, criticized him, & ignored him.
But this time, they were also working behind the scenes to silence him. And this is not just any attack; Jeremiah says his attackers were wanting to “destroy the tree with its fruit, …cut him off from the land of the living;” (execution). “that his name be remembered no more.”
This is an extermination that makes the following generations afraid to bring up his name anymore, so that he would be totally forgotten. How did this prophet not see this coming? He didn’t, until God told him about it. He said: ‘the Lord made it known to me and I knew; then you showed me their deeds.’ Unaware, he was like ‘a tender lamb’ without a clue as to the slaughter that was about to happen. He would be blindsided.
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As a result of our fallen, sinful natures, we all have a blind side; which can cause us troubles, even problems dangerous to our faith. For me, high school was a long time ago. But these verses brought to mind something from one of my social studies classes. It’s called ‘the Johari window.’ Two psychologists came up with a way to help a person identify their blind side. (1955, J Luft and H Ingham) It was a way to identify those things we don’t know about ourselves, but others know. If others are loving & loyal enough to share our weaknesses with us, this can help us mature & grow. This protects us from our blind side. (Do you know those things that make you gullible/naïve?)
Why did Jeremiah get caught with a blind side? He doesn’t say; but we might guess a little. As a ‘hometown boy’, he might’ve assumed that his listeners had a camaraderie with him. They were all raised under the same instruction of the Mosaic covenant, with the same God of Abraham/Isaac/Jacob. And, in fact, at this time in history, they had all witnessed the fall of Israel because of unfaithfulness to the Lord & His Word = surely Judah would not follow in Israel’s same mistakes.
Also, Jeremiah loved the people; surely they could see his concern for the truth & for faithfulness to God. And even if they didn’t like God’s message of warning & scolding, they wouldn’t punish the messenger, would they? == since he was subject to the very same Word of the Lord. He could not imagine any reason why anyone would plot against him. Those were some good assumptions; but sin & wickedness often doesn’t follow a reasonable, logical path. He didn’t see it coming.
We all deal with blind sides. Especially when we imagine we don’t have any = that’s when others can take advantage of us, or when our old nature will sneak up on us, & tackle us down again,…& again.
We don’t know our blind sides,…until God points them out to us. They are one or more of the weaknesses common to all people, just as the 10 Commandments list out. We covet in selfishness, /we steal in greed, /we despise others in jealousy, /we lust after pleasure, /we hate others by holding grudges, /we ruin someone reputation by our negative gossip, /we don’t value God’s input in our lives — so we avoid His Word, & Lordship, & worship, & prayer.
What are your blind sides? We can’t step outside ourselves & look around to see what we’re missing, or what’s being done behind our back. It’s only afterward that we might look back to see the signals of why something happened to us, or why we fell into something bad. That’s why we have that familiar saying: ‘hindsight is 20/20.’ We live with unknowns; so we need someone ‘watching our back.’
Why do we fall prey to attacks from our blind side = whether they’re attacks of others or attacks of our own sin? Mostly from two reasons: One, we are prone to think more highly of our abilities & strength than we should. We think we know ourselves better than others; we trust our own instincts. But honestly, we don’t really keep track of how often our instincts are wrong.
And that brings in the second reason we often get tackled from behind: because we often do not listen & follow the Word of the Lord, in what we think & do. We should know from experience, and from Scripture, that the human nature is corrupted by sin, and can’t be trusted. We often think we know ourselves well enough to guide ourselves; but God informs us that He knows us far better; He can see our blind spot. So, the question is: will we trust Him to protect us, & follow His words & ways? So that we will trust Him, He has promised, in 1Cor.10:13: 3 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. +
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In his life & work, Jeremiah weeps and he suffers; but overall, his story ends well = because God takes the position of left tackle and protects him. After God reveals the heinous plot against him, the slaughter is prevented, and Jeremiah is saved. In some later verses, Jeremiah writes that God turned the tables & punished his potential attackers.
To conclude this little ‘aside’ to us – readers, in v 20 Jeremiah turns back & sings the praise of God: “But, O Lord of hosts, who judges righteously, who tests the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you have I committed my cause.”
Even tho Jeremiah would weep over Judah, and truly wish all of them would be turned by God’s word & Spirit in repentance – so that they could then receive God’s word & Spirit of grace & saving forgiveness, he praises the holy God who rightly judges the wicked who oppose Him, and God graciously protects those who trust in Him.
Jeremiah is not rejoicing in vengeance, but he is rejoicing in the omnipotent God, who is able to see the whole picture, and is both holy & gracious – to judge with flawless righteousness. That’s the God who can be fully trusted to ‘watch our backs.’ As the prophet Isaiah said in chpt.52:12, for the Lord will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard.
That’s the God who is never blindsided, and will protect his people. When he looks at us, He sees the weaknesses we ignore or are still unknown to us. He sees the dangers long before we ever do, because the idea of ‘unknown’ is completely foreign to Him. He is the God of only the ‘known.’ God expressed this to Jeremiah, not only to comfort him when life felt bad, but also to give him courage to keep living forward each day into the unknown & future plots against him. God told him: I know the plans I have for you,… plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (29:11)
What ‘hope and future’? When this knowing-God called Adam & Eve out of hiding & spoke to them, He already saw the full deadly impact of our sinful nature, and He knew what needed to be done to restore us to Him. The Triune God, working as One, would be our Savior. God-the-Father would send God-the-Son into the world, anointed with God-the-Holy-Spirit to redeem us from the deadly error of trusting in our own instincts, and being cut-off because of our blind spots.
Jesus came to us as one of us = a hometown boy. Better than Jeremiah, Jesus had a perfect compassion, not only for those around Him back then, but He continues in compassion with us today, and will continue it for our children & grandchildren. Jesus spoke God’s truth back then, and continues today & tomorrow. Jesus’ listeners back then plotted to kill Him; their blind spot was big enough to drive a semi thru.
His enemies thought they were doing the world a big favor. And like with a gentle lamb, they succeeded, having Him nailed to a cross. But not knowing & trusting the Scripture, their scheme was foiled. After atoning for the sin of the world, once & for all, Jesus broke the chains of death & hell. And rising from the grave, He has set us free from our enemies = inside & out. Jesus’ death & resurrection have delivered us from the sins we know, and even the ones we don’t.
We have a blind side; but He speaks truth to us so that we are not distressed or paranoid. With His Spirit, we are able to live with our unknowns, trusting our God – because He is willing & able to ‘watch our six’, and protect us under His grace. The Lord of Hosts, who judges righteously, guarded Jesus in His work, protected Jeremiah in his life, and is the loyal left tackle for all His people == including you.
Amen.