Author: Brad
Company: Toshiba

Jeremiah 28:5-9			Romans 7:1-13			Matthew 10:34-42

Jesus said: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  (Luke 4:18-19)

Jesus said: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)

Jesus said: “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”  (Matthew 10:34)  

Wait… That doesn’t sound like Jesus.  Isn’t he the Prince of Peace?  Isn’t he the One who heals?  And yet, in today’s gospel reading, Jesus talks about families tearing apart and having to choose between God and your loved ones.  Why?

What Jesus is talking about is sin.  Sin contaminates everything in our world.  We Christians know this because God helps us see what the problem is.  In today’s reading in Romans 7:7, Paul says: “I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law.”

The Law is what helps us recognize the problem.  It’s the boundary we come crashing up against over and over again.  This side of heaven, the Law will always be that line we shouldn’t cross – that rule of action and consequence.  

Some people who know better choose to disregard the Law, pretending that nothing is wrong.  It’s a great temptation particularly for Christians.  Once we know Jesus, once we hear about God’s unlimited patience and boundless love, we may want to forget completely about sin.  We may even want to believe that Christians never sin.  

I remember listening to a call-in radio show where a new Christian was asking the host for advice, because as hard as he tried, he could not control his actions, much less his thoughts.  He had faith in his heart, but he continued to sin.  What should he do?  The host said the caller didn’t have faith, because a true Christian never sins.  

Apparently, the host wasn’t remembering Ecclesiastes 7:20
Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins.

…or Romans 3:22-23
There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

All humans have a problem with sin… even Christians  …especially Christians – we should know better.  Paul discusses this in today’s reading from Romans.  

God gives his Law to us as instructions for a happy life, but in our sinfulness, we turn away from these good instructions, and bring trouble on ourselves – even death.  Romans 7:10-11 says:
I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death.

The problem isn’t God’s Law.  The problem is sin.  In today’s Old Testament reading, Hananiah was in denial about the sinfulness of God’s people.  God had already pronounced judgment on their sin – they would be under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar.  They were living under this punishment when Hananiah made a false pronouncement that Nebuchadnezzar’s rule would end within two years.  In today’s reading, Jeremiah responds to that prediction like this: 
“Amen! May the Lord do so! May the Lord fulfill the words you have prophesied by bringing the articles of the Lord’s house and all the exiles back to this place from Babylon.”  (Jeremiah 28:6)

But then Jeremiah goes on to warn Hananiah – and all those listening – that Hananiah’s prediction would only come true if it came from God.  

In fact, Hananiah’s prediction did not come true.  Quite the opposite.  Here is the end of Jeremiah chapter 28.  Verses 14-17:
[Jeremiah said] This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I will put an iron yoke on the necks of all these nations to make them serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they will serve him. I will even give him control over the wild animals.’”
Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, “Listen, Hananiah! The Lord has not sent you, yet you have persuaded this nation to trust in lies. Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. This very year you are going to die, because you have preached rebellion against the Lord.’”
In the seventh month of that same year, Hananiah the prophet died.

Sin is serious.  It has serious consequences.  Jesus talks about the seriousness of sin even in regard to him and his ministry on earth.  Because of sin, Jesus’ message of love and reconciliation brings conflict.  In Matthew 10:35-36 he says:
For I have come to turn“‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law — a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’
 
Sin would even twist the gospel message of God’s love into a reason for hate.  

And now that we have a context for Jesus’ words, they don’t sound so weird.  Human sinfulness can turn even the best blessings in life into something harmful.  Even our loved ones can become a stumbling block.

So far, the readings for today sound awful: 
	People dying because of false prophecy
	Believers in denial about sin
	Knowing the good Law of God, but turning our backs on it anyway
	Blessings becoming harmful roadblocks to faith

If that were the end of the story, we’d be in bad shape.  But that isn’t the end of the story.  Jesus changes everything.  In Romans 7:1-6, Paul uses a beautiful illustration to help us understand what changes in us when we know Jesus:
Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.
So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

When we understand what Jesus has done for us by taking our sin on himself, when we trust in God’s forgiveness, it’s as if our old sinful self dies, and a new kind of person is created.  Through the Holy Spirit, this new person has the power to understand how good God’s Law is.  God’s Law is directions for the best life possible on this sin-corrupted earth.  Now we “serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.”  

Jesus sums up this new way of the Spirit like this:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Luke 10:27

In our Old Testament reading, Jeremiah shows an example of life by the Spirit.  When Hananiah made his false prediction, Jeremiah knew it was false, but instead of angry condemnation, he said that he hoped the nice words Hananiah said would come true, then he gave a warning against Hananiah’s sinful deceit of the people.  

Such warnings against sin can be among our greatest acts of love.  Galatians 6:1 says it like this:
Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 

Sin is a burden, and helping people see it in themselves, or helping people bear up under a particular temptation fulfils the law of Christ.  What is that law?  Jesus says it in John 15:12
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

But note the instruction in Galatians 6 – “restore that person gently”.  Jeremiah did not angrily call Hananiah a liar.  He left that to God.  And when Hananiah did not turn from his lie, he faced a consequence.  But it wasn’t a consequence from Jeremiah.  It was from God.

This is exactly what Jesus is talking about in Matthew 7:1, when he says: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.”  We don’t stand in the place of God, pronouncing condemnation on people.  But like Jeremiah, we can warn people in love.  And as Galatians says, we can work to “restore that person gently”

But living this new life isn’t always about brave acts of calling people on their sin.  In today’s gospel reading, Jesus says even the smallest act can be an act of love.  Matthew 10:42
“And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”

This side of heaven, our transformation from living under the law to living life by the Spirit is never complete, but we have the most powerful help from God.  And with God’s help, we can live a life of love.

Romans 13:8-10
Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

May God grant this life to us all, for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.