BLESSED IS THE ONE WHO TRUSTS IN THE LORD.
In
the name + of Jesus.
Our Lord is very blunt about a place in his kingdom. You are either in or out, blessed or cursed. There is no middle ground. If you believe in Jesus Christ, you are blessed. Only with Jesus is there forgiveness for your sins. If you do not believe, you are cursed because your sins remain upon you. Whoever does not believe in Jesus stands under judgment for his sins. He faces death and damnation. That is not what God wants. He wants all to be saved. But there is no salvation outside of Jesus. If you believe in Jesus, you have been delivered from judgment because Jesus has taken that judgment for you. He died a cursed death on behalf of sinners. If you believe in Jesus, you benefit from his life, death, and resurrection. You have God’s love, God’s favor, and God’s promise of a resurrection to eternal life. Scripture consistently repeats these truths. “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:16). Redeemed or damned. Blessed or cursed. In or out. There is no middle ground.
You are probably grieved that anyone would
be cursed. Like our Lord, we want all
people to be saved. But do not blame God
that many will perish. Understand that
our Lord does not kick people out of his kingdom, as if everyone was doing okay
and then God got ticked off and ejected people from his kingdom. Everyone enters this world a sinner. All are outside of God’s kingdom from the
get-go. All begin under the curse of sin. Therefore, if anyone is to be saved, God must
do the work to save. And he does. Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord.
By
his own gracious will, God the Father sent his Son into the world to deliver
people from sin and death. By his
innocent, sacrificial death, God the Son has paid for the sins of the
world. Through the word, God the Holy
Spirit calls sinners to repent of their sins and produces faith to believe the
good news about Jesus. Through baptism,
the triune God purifies sinners and marks them as his redeemed people. The Lord rescues sinners from the curse and
bestows blessing and salvation upon them.
If you are saved, it is because God is gracious. If anyone remains under the curse, it is due
to his own stubborn unbelief of God’s word or his insistence that he is good enough. Rather than put his trust in the Lord, he
trusts in his own flesh, that is, in his own goodness, niceness, wisdom, or
strength. But no one has to remain
under the curse. God wants his word to
be preached to all the world to deliver people from the curse to his blessing,
because God wants all people to be saved.
Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord; and
you are blessed by Jesus. You do not have
to wait until Judgment Day to benefit from your blessed status. Jeremiah reminds you of the benefits: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. 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” (Jeremiah 17:7-8).
Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord;
for you thrive when you trust in him.
This is not to say that life will be easy, happy, and prosperous. What it does mean is that Jesus continually
satisfies your heart and mind with words of peace and encouragement. You have the confidence that, no matter how
your life goes, God’s favor remains upon you.
You have joy that sustains you even in the day of grief. God’s promises are never nullified by bad
news, by a loss of friends, by a shriveled body, or by death. For that matter, neither are God’s promises
improved by wealth, health, or popularity.
Whether your situation in life is hard or happy, Jesus remains your
Savior. God remains your good and
merciful Father. The Holy Spirit continues
to dwell in you and intercede for you.
Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord.
We might struggle with what God says
versus what we see and experience. In
tough times, God’s people don’t feel like they are thriving. By contrast, those who don’t care about God’s
word seem to be just fine, perhaps even happier than we are. Jeremiah wrote: “Thus
says the Lord: ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his
strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. 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’” (Jeremiah
17:5-6).
It sounds
like people who do not believe in Jesus should suffer a life of poverty,
misery, and hardship. But that does not
match what we see. Granted, some people make
wicked choices and suffer much because of them.
But we also observe people who are devoted to their own pride, their own
pleasure, and to their own prosperity, and they seem to benefit immensely. Even Christians become deceived by this and
turn away from the Lord. How enticing to
pursue all that the world has to offer!
Wealth is seductive; money can make the world a very comfortable place you
would never want to leave. Popularity is
intoxicating. The more followers you
have on Instagram and Twitter, the better you feel about yourself. Pride always enjoys having us exalt ourselves. It makes us feel important. There seems to be no drawback. It is hard to believe what the Lord says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man… He … shall not see any good come’” (Jeremiah
17:5-6). It seems like it is
all good; but it is deceptive.
Let
me tell you about two different men. Tell
me which one you would rather be. They
both lived about the same time. They
even crossed paths a couple of times.
The first man was a man of influence.
He was ambitious enough to marry the daughter of one of the most influential
people in the country. He was rich and powerful. Eventually, he assumed the height of authority,
which only increased his wealth, prestige, and power. After many years of honor, he died and was buried
in a lavish tomb.
The other man came from humble stock. He was a man of action, often speaking or
acting before thinking. That got him
into trouble. In fact, he was brought
before the first man and ordered to shut up or he would suffer something worse. Eventually, he did suffer worse. He was whipped. Later he was imprisoned. But he remained the same brash, bold individual
he had always been. Later he left the
country. But his mouth got him into trouble
with authorities again. He was arrested
and imprisoned. This time he was
executed publicly, and many rejoiced at his death.
So, which man would you rather be? Who had the better life? Which one was like a tree planted by water which
always was lush and fruitful, and which was like a desert plant, malnourished
and unproductive? Based on what we see, we
would call the first man blessed and the second man cursed.
The first man was Caiaphas, the high
priest who plotted the crucifixion of the Christ. He trusted in his own wisdom, wit, power, and
pride. No matter what worldly blessings
Caiaphas enjoyed throughout his life, he was always under the curse. He despised Jesus and, therefore, he did not benefit
from anything Jesus did.
The second man was Simon Peter, the apostle
who preached Christ crucified. Peter trusted
in the Lord. Despite the fact that Peter
was vilified, beaten, jailed, exiled, and finally executed, Peter was always
blessed. Since Peter trusted in Jesus,
he was always under God’s favor. His Savior
was always with him; and not even death could change that. Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord.
Jeremiah repeated what had already been
spoken by King David in Psalm 1. Speaking
of the one who trusts in the Lord, David wrote, “He is like a tree planted
by streams of water that yields is fruit in its season, and its leaf does not
wither. In all that he does, he prospers”
(Psalm 1:3). Did it sound like Peter
prospered? Does it feel like you are
prospering “when heat comes” or “in the year of drought” (Jeremiah
17:8)? I guess it depends on how you
measure prosperity and a fruitful life.
Consider Caiaphas’ prosperity. Caiaphas enjoyed much worldly success. This is also what mattered to him, and he
fought hard to preserve it. That’s why he
orchestrated the death of Jesus. He saw
Jesus as a threat to his status. Caiaphas
trusted in the flesh. He prized his
pride, possession, power, and prestige for his life and for happiness. But when his life came to an end, Caiaphas
lost everything that mattered to him. At
his death, he learned just how useless his prosperity was. Whatever good deeds he might have taken pride
in did not save him and did not please God.
Caiaphas died outside the kingdom of God, and he perished.
Blessed is the one who trusts in the
Lord. If your desire is for peace for
your conscience, comfort for your heart, and assurance of your salvation, then
Jesus will guarantee you a prosperous and fruitful life. The Water of Life will continually refresh and
replenish you. You will benefit from Jesus’
forgiveness, comfort, peace, and joy throughout your whole life, no matter what
is going on. Jesus brings a joy that is
never soured by anything. Understand
that joy and happiness are two different things. Happiness comes and goes. I suspect that Peter was not happy when he
was arrested and whipped by Caiaphas, when he was imprisoned by King Herod, and
when he was led to a cross for his execution.
But none of those things ruined his joy. Peter was continually blessed with strength,
courage, and confidence to live for Jesus and his kingdom. Having Jesus’ promises was more important to Peter
than anything in this world, including his body and life. When Peter died, he lost none of the things
that mattered to him. He still lives and
thrives with the Lord and always will.
Blessed is the one who trusts in the
Lord. You have the same joy, confidence,
and courage at Simon Peter. Nothing nullifies
God’s promises—not poverty, not loneliness, not a hospital bed, or a casket. Nothing erases God’s mercy. No suffering takes away Jesus’ sufferings and
death for your forgiveness. No death destroys
Jesus’ resurrection which assures you of your resurrection to life everlasting. The joy you have remains constant because God
remains faithful to his promises and constant in his mercy.
Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord. He is the Water of Life which sustains your life, which makes you joyful and fruitful, and which makes you thrive even in the worst of times. Blessed are you who trust in the Lord. You will never be put to shame or lose God’s favor.
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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