A BROKEN HEART

Reading: : Jeremiah 18: 11; 18-22

One of the things that causes Jeremiah most pain is that even the prophets and priests of Judah are not being true. They court popularity by telling the people what they want to hear rather than confronting them with the reality of their situation. “They offer superficial treatments for my people’s mortal wound. They give assurances of peace when all is war.” The broken heart of Jeremiah reflects in small part the broken heart of a God who yearns for his people to return to him, but they will not listen. Jeremiah sees that the future for them will be one of destruction if they do not turn from their idolatry and rebellion. Far from causing him any sense of satisfaction or feeling that he has been vindicated for what he has said, these predictions that will almost certainly materialize produce within him deep anguish. Jeremiah has a passionate love for his country and for his people. In his spirit he already hears the weeping of the people and their cry that God has abandoned them. “The harvest is finished and the summer is gone, yet we are not saved.” In Judah there were two phases of harvest; first the grain harvest from April to June and then the fruit harvest later. The hope was that if the first failed, there would still be food from the second. If both failed, the result was famine. This image in the natural is an indication of the disaster that awaits the country. Jeremiah’s anguish at the fate that awaits them is voiced in words that have been immortalized in the old gospel song, “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why is there no healing for the wounds of my people?” Gilead was a region just across the Jordan from Anathoth, Jeremiah’s home village. It was famous for the resin gathered from the styrax tree and used for healing. Much of it was exported. The balm, the healing medicine that was needed was for the people to turn back to God, a God who was waiting, with steadfast love, to receive them. In fact, what Judah, a country in its death throes, needed was revival.

It’s easier to tell people what they want to hear rather than speaking a truth that may cause pain and certainly will result in rejection and suffering for the bearer of the word. There is a temptation to offer people superficial treatment for a mortal wound, communicating the message that all is well when all is not well. There have been times in the Church during the last long years when we have been guilty of that. We have not challenged the divisions, the sectarianism, the lack of forgiveness, the comfort zones of single identity living and worshipping and so much else. Maybe it’s all been too much for us so that we haven’t even allowed ourselves to plumb the depths of our alienation and feel the pain. Until we do that, until we are seized by the passion of a Jeremiah, until our hearts are broken we are not going to fully recognize our desperate need for God and for the transforming power of a revival, a reawakening of faith. Passion is something that captures or seizes us, and is full of intensity and desire. Jesus embodied the passion in the heart of God to bring an orphaned world back home. It cost him everything. His focus was always on the purpose for which he had come and from the cross he was able to shout with his last breath, “It is accomplished!” Whether people recognise it or not, from that point everything has forever changed. “There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole. There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul.”

Reflections in this series