Cut Through the Clutter

You use strong words when you’re bound and determined to do something. Stubborn, Steadfast, Staunch, Unbendable, Unwavering, Unyielding, Resolute!  You probably didn’t use words like this when you made your New Year’s resolution, or when you wanted a recipe to turn out, or find the right dressing to put on your salad.  But, when you bought your new TV and wanted to watch the big game on the big screen you were going to get it working, or open the pickle jar, or learn to drive a stick shift car, or thread the needle, or get an A on your assignment and said something like, “I’m gonna do this even if it kills me!”

Being resolute and determined isn’t easy.  Think of one of those shows where people have to walk across a narrow beam over water.  They can be super determined to make to the other side but it’s hard because of the cheering crowd or the six over-sized padded sledgehammers that are swinging back and forth along the way.  Now compare this to the narrow path that leads to heaven. It isn’t easy to stay on that path because of the sledgehammers of temptations and distractions from the devil, the world and our own sinful flesh.  How can we do it?  How can we be more resolute and stay focused on the path?  Today Jeremiah will encourage us by his call to

Cut Through The Clutter

Even When Surrounded and Squeezed

   We know the difficult time Jeremiah often had in his ministry to God’s people.  Have you ever wondered how long you would have lasted? Family members plotted to kill him.  The Temple leaders hear him preach and ordered that he be beaten and put into stocks. He was put into jail for preaching about the coming judgment of God—and not just jail but into a dungeon for a long time.  Once he got out the king’s officials made a plan to spread rumors about Jeremiah and got the king’s ok to put Jeremiah into a muddy cistern.  So, what we hear in Jeremiah’s account today isn’t an isolated incident.  Jeremiah was being surrounded and squeezed by the enemies of God all the time. “⁸ When Jeremiah had finished saying everything the Lord had commanded him to say to all the people, then the priests, the prophets, and all the people seized him and said, “You must die! ⁹ Why do you prophesy in the name of the Lord that this house will be like Shiloh and that this city will be desolate with no one living here?” All the people crowded around Jeremiah in the House of the Lord….¹¹ Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, “This man deserves the sentence of death because he has been prophesying against this city, as you heard with your own ears.”  The people surrounding Jeremiah loved their life and hated Jeremiah for telling them God was going to bring judgment on them.  The sledgehammers were swinging at Jeremiah as he was surrounded and squeezed.  How could he Cut Through The Clutter and remain resolute on the path God gave to him?  The solution was the same solution Jesus depended on.

From the start Satan was trying his hardest to knock Jesus off his path.  He used Herod to try and kill the infant Christ-child. For 40 days he intensely tempted Jesus.  Satan surrounded and squeezed Jesus throughout his ministry from his neighbors in Nazareth who tried to throw him off a cliff for claiming he was the Son of God to visiting Jerusalem on the Sabbath he healed the sick and invalid and the Bible says, “¹⁸ This is why the Jews tried all the more to kill him, because he was not merely breaking the Sabbath, but was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God” (John 5:18).  The threats became so intense that after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead “⁵³ So from that day on they plotted to kill him. ⁵⁴ Therefore Jesus no longer walked about openly among the Jews” (John 11:53,54).  You can easily picture Jesus working to stay on the path given to him by his Father in heaven with the crowds shouting, “Crucify him!” to soldiers beating him, and Satan throwing every sledgehammer at Jesus he could think of.  Jesus was surrounded and squeezed.  How could he Cut Through The Clutter and stay on the path?

I don’t think anyone here would care to offer up their life in comparison to either Jeremiah or Jesus and say, “You think YOU had it bad.  Let me tell you what I had to go through!”  Or maybe you could.  Satan has also Surrounded and Squeezed you with sledgehammers.  I know your distractions.  Sometimes it’s a small sledgehammer like a bruised fingernail, or sometimes it’s major surgery.  Maybe it’s the distractions of your schedule when you think, “I can’t squeeze one more thing into this week!” or maybe it’s the lack of activity and haunting loneliness that surrounds you.  Maybe someone isn’t activity hunting you down to throw you into a cistern, but Satan knows your address and can dream up some cunning sins to have delivered to your house by Amazon, Uber Eats or even your grocery bags.  Can you see the sledgehammers surrounding and squeezing you?   They target your desires and attitudes and try to knock you off the path.  How are we going to Cut Through the Clutter and remain steadfast on the path even when surrounded and squeezed by the devil and his friends?  Jeremiah tells us.

Stand on God’s Truth

 Can you imagine how many times Jeremiah had to Cut Through the Clutter and keep his head and heart focused of the words the Lord God told him at the beginning? Where did Jeremiah turn for his strength and determination? “⁸ Do not be afraid of them, because I am with you, and I will rescue you, declares the Lord.” ⁹ Then the Lord stretched out his hand and touched my mouth. The Lord said to me: There! I have now placed my words in your mouth” (Jer 1:8-9). Jeremiah stood firm on God’s promises.  Jeremiah didn’t make anything up.  He spoke only what the Lord told him to say.  Jeremiah trusted in the truth spoken by the Lord who had his back.  There was no one stronger and more reliable than the Lord God.  No, this wasn’t easy.  It was not pleasant to say what the people needed to hear, even if it meant putting his life as risk.  Jeremiah knew the truth of God’s Word and spoke the truth of God’s Word. “¹² Then Jeremiah said to all the officials and to all the people, “The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the things that you have heard. ¹³ Now reform your ways and your actions, and obey the Lord your God. Then the Lord will relent and not bring about the disaster he has pronounced against you. ¹⁴ But as for me, look, I am in your hands. Do with me whatever seems good and right in your eyes. ¹⁵ But you can be certain of this. If you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and on those who live here, for it is true that the Lord has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing.”  Jeremiah was surrounded and squeezed but he Cut Through the Clutter and Remained Steadfast on the Truth of God’s Word. The eternal life of his listeners was in the balance.  He could not preach what they wanted to hear.  He preached what they needed to hear.

The Gospel writers have recorded the difficult path Jesus walked to the cross.  All along the way, from the beginning of his ministry, the middle and the end, we see Jesus’ purpose:  do for us what we can not do for ourselves.  He relied on the promises of his Father.  He used the Word of God to defeat Satan perfectly for you and for me.  Even while the sledgehammers were being used by Satan to distract Jesus—the clingy disciples, the miracle-seeking crowds, the attacks of the Pharisees and enemies of Jesus, even Pilate who was about to pronounce his death sentence dared Jesus to speak it, and he did.  Jesus stood firm and spoke the truth.  Remember, Jesus didn’t do this so he would better at it than Jeremiah, nor was he simply giving us a model to follow.  Jesus stood firm on the Truth and Cut through the Clutter for one reason.  His love for you.  It was Jesus’ love for you that caused him to Cut Through the Clutter to die on the cross to forgive all your sins.

Last week James was wearing the plastic helmet and holding the plastic sword from Kingdom Kids.  It is a part of the items that remind us what Jesus has given to us to be resolute and Cut through the Clutter. Jesus is your full armor of God.  Listen to St. Paul describe it for us. “¹⁴ Stand, then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness fastened in place, ¹⁵ and with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace tied to your feet like sandals. ¹⁶ At all times hold up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the Evil One. ¹⁷ Also take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph 6). The evil of this world will not stop surrounding you and squeezing you.  Jesus’ love for you crushed sin, death and the devil.  This makes you Stubborn, Steadfast, Staunch, Unbendable, Unwavering, Unyielding, and Resolute.  As the Lord’s dearly redeemed children fully dressed in the full armor of God let us Stand Firm on God’s Truth and join Jeremiah to Cut Through the Clutter on the path to heaven.  Let’s be staunch, steadfast, stubborn, unbendable, unwavering, unyielding and resolute to Cut Through The Clutter by the power of Jesus Christ.  Amen.