Fire in the Bones

August 31, 2014
Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
First Reading: Jer 20:7-9
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/083114.cfm

Have you ever prayed to God in a moment of desperation, the kind of desperation that makes everything you think and say seem markedly confused? This Sunday’s first reading from Jeremiah (20:7-9) finds the prophet in a similar state. An exasperated prophet speaks befuddling words to God and we get to overhear.

Context

God entrusted the prophet Jeremiah with the burdensome task of announcing the final destruction of the kingdom of Judah by the Babylonians (2 Kgs 25). At this point in his story, he has just prophesied the bad news to the priests at the Temple. Instead of responding with repentance and conversion, they beat him up and put him in the stocks. Jeremiah has to spend all night locked in the stocks and when they finally release him, he offers another sorrowful prophetic word. The first reading includes just the first three verses of Jeremiah’s 12-verse poetic prayer. He is in a moment of crisis, depression, discouragement, and yet underlying mission. The prayer itself seems bipolar—Jeremiah complains of the Lord deceiving him (20:7), mentions his supporting presence (v. 11), says “sing to the Lord” (v. 13) and curses the day he was born (v. 14). Jeremiah is racked by powerful and confusing emotions that shake him to the core and prompt his heartfelt, if puzzling, prayer.

Does the Lord Deceive?

In the first line of the reading, Jeremiah accuses the Lord of “duping,” “deceiving,” or “seducing” him. While one could interpret this idea along a hundred paths, Jeremiah is alluding to something we see in 1 Kings 22. In that text, the Lord sends a “lying spirit” to inhabit the prophets and lead King Ahab into a battle that he will surely lose (1 Kgs 22:6, 20-23). The only faithful prophet in that story, Micaiah, accurately forecasts disaster, but is imprisoned because of his harsh prediction (22:27). Jeremiah frames his own troubles along the lines of Micaiah. On the one hand, he preserves his iron-clad fidelity to the Lord, but on the other hand, he views himself as betrayed by the Lord. He has been led into a cul-de-sac of disaster and sees no way out. Though Jeremiah’s message is true, it is sorrowful. He would almost prefer to be one of the prophets possessed by a “lying spirit” so that his dire predictions would not come to pass. He was “duped” by the Lord into proclaiming the truth despite the consequences, even against his own personal interests.

A Harsh Message to Deliver

Jeremiah’s harsh message is summed up just a few verses before our reading: “And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon; he shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall strike them down with the sword” (Jer 20:4 RSV). National disaster is not a cheery prospect, but that is the message that the Lord gives his prophet to deliver. The kingdom of Judah will fall; the Temple will be destroyed; the nobles and priests will be exiled. Jeremiah’s message is accurate, but heavy. He is God’s messenger, but he is not bringing good news. Rather, he proclaims, “Violence and destruction!” (Jer 20:8).The judgment of God is about to come and Jeremiah’s vocation is to proclaim it.

Fire in the Bones

The trouble is no one believes Jeremiah. The powerful people to whom he proclaims God’s judgment don’t just ignore him, but persecute him, imprison him, publicly mock him. The prophet says, “the word of the LORD has become for me a reproach and derision all day long” (Jer 20:8 RSV). God’s word brings human shame on Jeremiah, not because it is false, but because it is truly severe. People hate him for speaking the truth. So why doesn’t he quit? If people aren’t listening, why not just stop talking? Jeremiah wishes that he could stop preaching, prophesying and igniting a backlash of powerful people, but he can’t! Every time he tries to hold it in, the word of God bursts forth. He says the prophetic word becomes like a “burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot” (Jer 20:9 RSV). The message is so urgent that God repeatedly gives it to Jeremiah. And Jeremiah is so open to the Lord that he is willing to proclaim the harsh message even if it brings suffering and persecution down on his own head.

Are we like Jeremiah?

Christians like to identify with Jeremiah since we too have a message to proclaim and persecution to face. Even the Lectionary promotes this identification by pairing this reading with Matthew 16, where Jesus tells us to take up our crosses and follow him. Following Jesus includes suffering, persecution, opposition, loss of worldly values, but of course, also joy, peace, blessings, and eternal life. Christians, like Jeremiah, must preach a message that will be opposed by many—a message of repentance, truth, and salvation. The difference between Jeremiah’s message and ours is that his had no escape hatch. God sent Jeremiah to announce a judgment that was final and could not be avoided. Jesus sends out his disciples to preach the truth about “sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8), but also to announce deliverance from sin, salvation in Christ and “the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom 8:21). Jeremiah’s news was bad, but our news is truly good news. His news was that judgment was unavoidable, our point is that it is.

We hear the prophet speak out of a desperate place in the human heart. He is persecuted, beaten, discouraged, and troubled. His baffling prayer shows how disturbed he was. When we face persecution, opposition, or just plain suffering, we might find ourselves in a similar place, simultaneously praising God and blaming him. That might be a good time to turn to Jeremiah 20 and reflect on how to pray in such a state. As much as we can identify with Jeremiah, it is important to remember that unlike him we are called to proclaim good news. The message of Jesus and his followers is not a discouraging report, but a refreshing one.

image: jorisvo / Shutterstock.com

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Mark Giszczak (“geese-check”) was born and raised in Ann Arbor, MI. He studied philosophy and theology at Ave Maria College in Ypsilanti, MI and Sacred Scripture at the Augustine Institute of Denver, CO. He recently received his Ph. D. in Biblical Studies at the Catholic University of America. He currently teaches courses in Scripture at the Augustine Institute, where he has been on faculty since 2010. Dr. Giszczak has participated in many evangelization projects and is the author of the CatholicBibleStudent.com blog. He has written introductions to every book of the Bible that are hosted at CatholicNewsAgency.com. Dr. Giszczak, his wife and their daughter, live in Colorado where they enjoy camping and hiking in the Rocky Mountains.

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