Vengeance

​4th Sunday after Pentecost – A (Proper 7)                        LSB #’s 555:1-2, 4-5; 696:1-4; 555:7-10
Text – Jeremiah 20:12
 
O Lord of hosts, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart & the mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you have I committed my cause.
 
VENGEANCE
 
 
Have you noticed the amount of hatred that exists today among people of our nation for our current president?   It’s on public display almost any time you see the latest news.  Is that the kind of attitude people should have – living in constant hatred for a single human being?    Even if president Trump is evil, is that how God calls us to respond? 
Maybe you recall words to this effect: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor & hate your enemy.’  But I say to you, ‘Love your enemies & pray for those who persecute you.’”  (Matthew 5:43-44 ESV)   Then, Jesus shares the motive, “So that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.”  (Matthew 5:45a ESV) 
The point is, if you allow your heart to be filled with hatred for another human being then you are in the process of rejecting your Father who is in heaven.  You’re in the process of choosing not to be His son.  Jesus is stating that it’s a binary choice, either a heart filled with hatred or a heart in relationship to the heavenly Father.   Is that a challenging teaching? 
It’s not unusual for Jesus.  One time a lawyer tried to test Him.  He asked what he must do to inherit eternal life.  “[Jesus] said to him, ‘What is written in the Law?’”  (Luke 10:26a ESV)  The lawyer answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart & with all your soul & with all your strength & with all your mind, & your neighbor as yourself.”  (Luke 10:27 ESV)    
“[Jesus] said to him, ‘You have answered correctly; do this, & you will live.’”  (Luke 10:28 ESV)   In other words, just live a perfect life.  Recognizing the burden of that challenging teaching, the lawyer said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”  (Luke 10:29 ESV)   After hearing Jesus say, “Love your enemies & pray for those who persecute you,” (Matthew 5:43-44 ESV) you & I may recognize the magnitude of that burden & be tempted to ask, “And who is my enemy?”  That is the challenge the prophet Jeremiah was facing & it causes him to pray, “O Lord of hosts… let me see your vengeance upon them…”  (20:12 ESV) 
In light of Jesus’ call to love our enemies & pray for those who persecute us, (Matthew 5:44 ESV) how are we to understand the words of Jeremiah in the sermon text?   Is it legitimate for us to pray that God will take vengeance on our enemies?   Is that what Jesus meant when He said, “Pray for those who persecute you”?    It is tempting to think that. 
We’ll take a closer look at what’s going on in Jeremiah to understand.  He was a prophet during the last years of the nation of Judah.  The northern ten tribes had already been destroyed.  Judah’s turn was coming, & Jeremiah was sent to warn them.   Judgment was on its way because of their idolatry which at times involved sacrificing their children to false gods. 
Yet, Jeremiah loved the people & prayed for them because of their sins.  Still, the people did not want to hear that unfaithfulness to God was bringing judgment.  False prophets were predicting continued peace & prosperity.  Yahweh delayed punishment, hoping they’d repent, & that brought more ridicule to Jeremiah because his prophesied judgment was not arriving. 
Once Babylon attacked, Jeremiah counseled submission to Nebuchadnezzar, since it was Yahweh who sent him to destroy Judah.  That got Jeremiah labeled a traitor.  The chapter before the OT lesson shares some of the words God commanded Jeremiah to speak:
“Because the people have forsaken me & have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods… & because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, & have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind – therefore, behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when this place shall no more be called Topheth… but the Valley of Slaughter…  I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the air & to the beasts of the earth…  And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons & their daughters, & everyone shall eat the flesh of his neighbor…”  (19:4-6, 7b, 9 ESV) 
Imagine if those were God’s words to the people of the United States.   Believers would not receive them well, let alone the unbelievers.  As chapter 20 begins, Jeremiah is beaten & put in the stocks.  When he’s released the next day, God speaks through Jeremiah in Vs. 4-5 ESV:
“And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon.  He shall carry them captive to Babylon, & shall strike them down with the sword.  Moreover, I will give all the wealth of the city, all its gains, all its prized belongings, & all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them & seize them & carry them to Babylon.” 
The people of Judah did not receive those words well.  Which leads Jeremiah to complain of his predicament directly to God:
“O Lord… I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me.  … For I hear many whispering.  Terror is on every side!  ‘Denounce him!  Let us denounce him!’ say all my close friends, watching for my fall.  ‘Perhaps he will be deceived; then we can overcome him     & take our revenge on him.’”  (Jeremiah 20:7, 10 ESV) 
The hatred, the people of Judah had for Jeremiah, was not something personal, like the hatred many Americans have for president Trump.  The people of Judah hated Jeremiah because of the message God sent through him.  It was actually God whom they hated.  Jeremiah seems to understand that & not take it personally.  When he prays for vengeance, listen to his motive:
“…let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you have I committed my cause.”  (Jeremiah 20:12 ESV)  Jeremiah wants to see the will of God be done which means the enemies of God must be thwarted.  Another clue to the legitimacy of Jeremiah’s prayer is what he prefaces it with: “O Lord of hosts, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart & the mind…”  Jeremiah is acknowledging that, unlike himself, or any of us, Yahweh is able to read the human heart.  Our Creator knows our every thought & emotion, pure or unpure. 
Unlike you & me, God is able to judge fairly & accurately every time.   He’s never wrong, so Jeremiah leaves the act of vengeance in God’s hands.  St. Paul picked up on that in his letter to the Romans: “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’”  (12:19 ESV) 
That requires humility on our part.  It’s something that a lot of people who hate president Trump seem to lack, especially as they personally try to destroy him.  If Mr. Trump is truly evil, they’d be far better off leaving it up to his Creator to take vengeance upon him. 
Jeremiah’s call for God’s vengeance was not motivated by selfish retaliation.  Rather, he grieved for the people of Judah & how their leaders were taking them down the path to destruction.  The words God put in Jeremiah’s heart, were breaking his heart for the people who refused to hear.  Their hearts were filled with hatred & no longer in relationship to their Creator. 
Jesus knew what it was to face mockery, hatred, retaliation & vengeance.  He bore the brunt of the world’s evil in order to pay for all the sins of mankind.  Now, our Father can show mercy instead of vengeance & still be a just God.  So, we pray that our enemies would come to know Jesus & lean upon His forgiveness. 
Nevertheless, we can also say with Jeremiah: “But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble; they will not overcome me.  Amen. 
 
Lord, let me win my foes with kindly words & actions, & let me find good friends for council & correction.   Help me, as You have taught, to love both great & small & by Your Spirit’s might to live in peace with all.  Amen.  LSB 696:4.