Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
and gave him the name above all other names [. . .]
(Philippians 2:9)
Then the LORD told me about the plots my enemies were making against me. I was like a lamb being led to the slaughter. I had no idea that they were planning to kill me! “Let’s destroy this man and all his words,” they said. “Let’s cut him down, so his name will be forgotten forever.”
O LORD of Heaven’s Armies,you make righteous judgments,and you examine the deepest thoughts and secrets.Let me see your vengeance against them,for I have committed my cause to you. (Jeremiah 11:18–20)
Jeremiah was not a popular guy. He was born of priestly lineage, giving him a bit of social standing within the culture of the day. But when God calls him to be the mouthpiece of the Lord to warn his people of the coming danger should they not divert from their wicked ways, Jeremiah is ostracized and imprisoned. There is even a plot to kill him, as we read in today’s passage.
Jeremiah’s offending mistake appears to have been speaking the prophetic truths pressed upon him by God. As a result, his enemies want to make him disappear, erasing his name from history, along with his prophetic words. Jeremiah’s response is to call on the Lord, not for protection but for vengeance. He invokes God to punish them. As a result, God declares, “Their young men will die in battle, and their boys and girls will starve to death. Not one of these plotters from Anathoth will survive” (Jeremiah 11:22–23). And Jeremiah’s name, his reputation and legacy, are not forgotten.
Jesus went through a similar trial. His enemies stood against him because he spoke prophetic truths about the Kingdom of God. Like Jeremiah’s enemies, Jesus’s enemies desired to see his teachings and followers fade from history.
Yet, Jesus’s response is quite different from Jeremiah’s. Rather than calling on God’s vengeance to protect him and harm his enemies, Jesus allows himself to be led to his torture and execution.
The way of Jesus is gentle, not one of wielding power over others or reacting out of anger.
Ultimately, the attempt to erase Jesus and his teachings from the annals of history helped him accomplish the very thing that “gave him the name above all other names.”
There are times when people speak out against us or our faith or our God, and all too often our knee-jerk reaction is similar to that of Jeremiah’s. We want to see them punished in some way.
What would it look like if our automatic response was instead modeled after Jesus – not based on wrath and vengeance but on love and forgiveness?
Michael Benson is the communications director for the North American Baptist Conference.