“THE TRUTH HURTS”
Second Sunday in Lent
February 21, 2016
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
Then the priests and prophets said to the officials and to all the
people, “This man deserves the sentence of death, because he has
prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.”
Jeremiah 26:11 (ESV)
A number of years ago a friend of mine e-mailed me a list of
philosophical questions entitled “Things that Make You Go Hmmm . . .”
I’m sure that most of you have probably received similar lists. The
list that I got included questions like: Why do we drive our cars on
the parkway and park them in a driveway? Why do we spend so much time
and effort teaching our children to walk and talk and then tell them
to sit down and be quiet? Why do people insist on ordering a diet
Coke with their triple bacon cheeseburger and double order of fries?
And why do dogs walk around in circles at least three times before
they lie down? What makes these questions so amusing is that they
point out a lot of truths about common everyday behavior. Reality is
always a lot funnier than anything that any writer could make up. The
truth very often makes us laugh, because it can point out how funny
human and even animal behavior can be.
But sometimes the truth isn’t received as being so funny or amusing.
I guess it all depends on the audience. You see, some people aren’t
too big on the idea of laughing at themselves. They tend to take
themselves a little too seriously. So when they hear the truth spoken
about them, they react not with laughter but with rage. And since
they don’t like the message, they decide to kill the messenger--maybe
not literally in every case, but the fact remains that when people
don’t like what they are being told, they direct their anger at the
person who told them what they don’t want to hear. This was certainly
the experience of the prophet Jeremiah in this morning’s Old Testament
Reading. Being a prophet of God, he faithfully spoke the words of
judgment that God wanted him to speak against the people of Judah who
had gathered for worship at the temple in Jerusalem. But when the
leaders of God’s people heard what their God had to say to them, the
truth hurt. They resolved to silence the message by killing the
messenger, but Jeremiah persisted. So that we might understand what
happened between Jeremiah and the worshipers at the temple and what
happens between us and the messages of truth that we don’t like, let’s
remember that, even though the truth often hurts and makes us angry,
the truth also helps us in the long run.
The truth hurts and makes us angry if it is negative and if it is
about us. Those people at the temple had probably heard Jeremiah
speak God’s judgment many times in the past and they liked what he
said. Everybody likes to see a preacher get all riled up when he’s
talking about sin. Some people might even pay to see it. Yes, the
preaching of the Law and the condemnation of sin is just fine with
most people, just so long as it’s not their sin that is being exposed
and condemned. Similarly, most of us feel very comfortable speaking
about sin in general terms and saying that this is a messed-up world
corrupted by sin, but it becomes a little more difficult for us to be
more specific and say: “I have contributed to messing up this world
by the many sins that I commit and enjoy.” That doesn’t feel so
comfortable, does it? It’s getting a little too personal. And I said
it about me. How would you react if I had said it about you?
But that’s the way that it always has been and that’s the way that it
always will be. One day the prophet Nathan went to King David and
told him a parable about a rich man who had great wealth and his poor
neighbor who had nothing but a little lamb, which he loved dearly.
When the rich man had unexpected dinner guests he stole that poor
man’s lamb and used it as the main course for a banquet that he served
to his guests. David was righteously indignant and promptly condemned
the rich man, but he was caught totally off guard when Nathan said to
him: “You are the man!” (2 Samuel 12:7) and then proceeded to condemn
the king for his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba and his
subsequent murder of her husband in his desperate but futile attempt
to cover up the adultery. The Jews to whom Jesus preached loved to
listen to His condemnation of sin until they realized that what He was
saying applied to them as much as it did to everyone else. Then they
tried to kill Him. Even today many Christians find the condemnation
of sin to be right and appropriate until they find out that they also
stand accused, and then they fly into a rage, offended that anyone
would dare to speak that way against God’s people. The truth has a
remarkable capacity to incite anger, especially when it is addressed
to people who feel that they are so morally superior that they are in
a position to stand in judgment over others.
But no matter how angry it may make us at times, the truth helps us
in the long run. In fact, it is a spiritual necessity. If we
continually try to deal with the unpleasant realities of life (and the
sin that causes them) by denying them, covering them up, justifying
them, or sugar-coating them, they will only get worse. Like a wound
or an illness, our sin first of all has to be exposed. It has to be
recognized for what it is. That’s what this penitential season of
Lent is all about--exposing our sin and unworthiness. It’s not
particularly pleasant (and it isn’t supposed to be), but in the long
run it is helpful to us because it forces us to come to terms with our
sins and shortcomings and to deal with them rather than covering them
up or making excuses for them.
Exposing our sin is good for us because that process, as painful and
humiliating as it may be, primes us for the Savior’s Word of
forgiveness, which He offers to us in the Gospel. Remember what Jesus
said to the Pharisees who criticized Him for eating with “sinners”
(Luke 5:30)? He told them: “Those who are well have no need of a
physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the
righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31, 32). The very first
step in the treating of any disorder is to diagnose what the problem
is. The preaching of Law and condemnation--the kind of preaching that
Jeremiah did against the people of Judah--diagnoses and exposes the
problem of sin so that the sinner can repent and receive the
forgiveness of Christ that He made possible through His suffering and
death on the cross in the sinner’s place. The sinner rarely
appreciates this message at the time that it is spoken, but later he
comes to appreciate it as the first step toward real healing and
growth.
The truth can be humorous at times, but more often than not it
provokes a negative and hostile response. Yes, the truth hurts.
Sometimes it hurts us so badly that we want to silence its message and
destroy its messenger. But God the Holy Spirit uses the painful
message of the Law to destroy sinners’ self-righteousness so that they
might repent and enjoy the blessings of salvation that are offered to
all in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our response to the message of
God’s Law (especially when it addresses our particular sins) need not
be one of anger and defensiveness but should be one of humility,
turning us from our self-destructive attitudes of pride and
complacency to seek the forgiveness of our Savior, who tenderly
invites us: “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
Amen.
May the One who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,
making us kings and priests before His God and Father, lead you to a
life of repentance and trust. May He also be glorified in the lives
of you, His people. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it.
Amen.