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Epiphany 6 2025
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Hamilton, Ohio
Pastor Kevin Jud
February 16, 2025
Jeremiah 17:5-8, 1 Corinthians 15:12-20, Luke 6:17-26
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Jeannette and I recently were able to travel to the Big Island of Hawaii and stay with a pastor there who provides a free apartment and car for church workers as a part of his ministry. The place we stayed was in Waikoloa Village about 10 miles uphill from the ocean on the Northwest side of the Big Island. Near where we stayed was a special evacuation route leading down the hill toward the ocean. We were confused. In beach towns and in Florida, evacuation routes lead away from the water. When I asked, I discovered up there on the side of a volcano the danger is not from water, but fire. The area around the village is scrub brush and grass trying to grow on the old lava fields. It is a sharp contrast against the beautiful, green, flowering, lush landscaping in the village. What makes the difference? Water. In the village everything is watered. An hour drive north over a mountain brought us into a lush rainforest area of the island with magnificent waterfalls. One area of the island is basically a desert, 30 miles away… a rainforest, what is the difference? Water.
In our Old Testament reading from Jeremiah we have curses and blessings. Jeremiah is a prophet of God during the final days of Jerusalem before its fall to the Babylonians in 586 BC. Jeremiah gives advice to King Zedekiah who was made king by the Babylonia king Nebuchadnezzar. But despite being under the control of Babylon, Zedekiah rejects Jeremiah’s advice to repent, trust God, and endure the time under Babylonian control. Instead, Zedekiah allies Judah with Egypt and rebels against Babylon which leads to a brutal 30 month siege of Jerusalem and the complete destruction of the city and temple.
Zedekiah refuses to repent of worshipping false Gods…of trusting in Egypt…of trusting in his own strength. The curses in our reading today are directed toward Zedekiah. Jeremiah 17:5 (ESV) 5 Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.”
The curse continues. Jeremiah 17:6 (ESV) 6 He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.” The desert shrub is spiritually brittle. Heat and drought can kill it because it has no reserves. It is tinder dry and is very susceptible to fire.
In contrast, Jeremiah 17:7–8 (ESV) 7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. 8 He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
What a contrast; a dry shrub barely holding on in the parched, barren desert, or a flourishing evergreen tree that does not fear heat or drought and produces good fruit. What is the difference? Water.
Which would you rather be? A dried up shrub on the verge of death, or a lush evergreen? What is the difference? The Lord, YHWH. Do you delight in ways of man, or do you delight in ways of God?
You, baptized child of God, are a lush evergreen. You are rooted to the living waters of God through Jesus Christ. You have the living water of Jesus flowing through you.
You are a lush evergreen, but this was not always the case. You were born a desert shrub, brittle and vulnerable. The great gardener came to you and washed you with the waters of baptism and took you out of the parched desert and transplanted you next to the water so your roots are in the stream. He separated you from the multitude of unbelievers and keeps you safe and secure and well-watered in the holy ark of the Christian Church. Through the Church you are connected to the living water of God and this makes you spiritually resilient. You trust in God. You trust in God’s law. You bear the fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5:22 (ESV) 22 … love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness…”
Jeremiah teaches about the great divide in the world. There are those who trust in man and those who trust in God. In baptism you renounce the devil and all his works and all his ways. You fear, love and trust in God instead of the devil, the world and your own sinful desires.
We learn more about this in Psalm 1 (ESV) 1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. 4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; 6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.”
There is even more given in our reading from Luke 6 where Jesus teaches that those who are focused on spiritual things and live in anticipation of eternal life with the Lord are blessed. Woe to those whose delight is in the things of this world and who are loved by the world because they practice the ways of the world. Luke 6:22 (ESV) 22 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Luke 6:26 (ESV) 26 “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.”
Blessing or woe? Given the contrast, why would anyone think that being a desert shrub is better than being a lush evergreen? The devil lies to make it seem attractive to be a desert shrub. “Oh! The freedom, the fun, the excitement. You don’t want to be tied down to the living water of eternal life when you could be living your best life now. Why submit to God, when you can be like God?”
The devil is ruler of this world and he applies great pressure to adopt and celebrate the ways of the world; to trust in people instead of God so you can be celebrated by the other desert shrubs because you are one of them. If you find that you starting to fit in to the world, and are well loved by the world, that is a sign that you need to get back to the water of life. You need to trust in God rather than man.
The devil uses the same lies to try to “liberate” you from “slavery” to the Living Water of God that he used against Adam and Eve to “liberate” them from “slavery” in the Garden of Eden. “Did God really say?”
What does it mean to trust in God and trust in God’s law? It means you trust that God loves you and wants the best for you and that God’s law is good for you. Be a rebel, follow the Ten Commandments. It is quite counter cultural to delight in the will of God and walk in His ways. It offends the desert shrubs. The brittle, dry bushes are greatly offended by God and by God’s law. They reject God and want to silence anyone talking about Him. Or even more deviously they will create a self-serving idol that celebrates sin. They call the idol “God” and they pretend they are still Christians while rejecting God’s law.
The devil and the world look at being an evergreen… planted by living water… forgiven in the blood of Jesus… destined for eternal life with God…as slavery. Those who trust in man promote liberation; intellectual liberation, economic liberation, political liberation, sexual liberation, gender liberation, liberation from the authority of the Bible. They proclaim liberation but they are slaves to the devil and his lies. They are dried up shrubs in the desert.
The devil uses the same lies to try to “liberate” you from “slavery” to the Living Water of God that he used against Adam and Eve to “liberate” them from “slavery” in the Garden of Eden. “Did God really say?”
Even while planted by the streams of living water you still struggle with sin and temptation. You struggle, but you are connected to the living water which is the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. No one trusts perfectly, no one obeys perfectly, no one except Jesus and He gives His perfection to you. His grace flows into you through His Word and His Sacraments. You will face heat and drought in this life. Hard times will come. You will face hardship and grief and injury and sickness and death. But you will endure. You will spiritually thrive even in hard times of heat and drought. You will not dry up or be burned up because you have the living water of the truth of God. Jeremiah 17:7 (ESV) 7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. Amen.