“Scroll Burned and Rewritten”

Jeremiah 36:1-8, 21-23, 27-31

¹During the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king in Judah, the Lord gave this message to Jeremiah: ² “Get a scroll, and write down all my messages against Israel, Judah, and the other nations. Begin with the first message back in the days of Josiah, and write down every message, right up to the present time. ³ Perhaps the people of Judah will repent when they hear again all the terrible things I have planned for them. Then I will be able to forgive their sins and wrongdoings.”

⁴ So Jeremiah sent for Baruch son of Neriah, and as Jeremiah dictated all the prophecies that the Lord had given him, Baruch wrote them on a scroll. ⁵ Then Jeremiah said to Baruch, “I am a prisoner here and unable to go to the Temple. ⁶ So you go to the Temple on the next day of fasting, and read the messages from the Lord that I have had you write on this scroll. Read them so the people who are there from all over Judah will hear them. ⁷ Perhaps even yet they will turn from their evil ways and ask the Lord’s forgiveness before it is too late. For the Lord has threatened them with his terrible anger.”

⁸ Baruch did as Jeremiah told him and read these messages from the Lord to the people at the Temple.

²¹ The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll. Jehudi brought it from Elishama’s room and read it to the king as all his officials stood by. ²² It was late autumn, and the king was in a winterized part of the palace, sitting in front of a fire to keep warm. ²³ Each time Jehudi finished reading three or four columns, the king took a knife and cut off that section of the scroll. He then threw it into the fire, section by section, until the whole scroll was burned up.

²⁷ After the king had burned the scroll on which Baruch had written Jeremiah’s words, the Lord gave Jeremiah another message. He said, ²⁸ “Get another scroll, and write everything again just as you did on the scroll King Jehoiakim burned. ²⁹ Then say to the king, ‘This is what the Lord says: You burned the scroll because it said the king of Babylon would destroy this land and empty it of people and animals. ³⁰ Now this is what the Lord says about King Jehoiakim of Judah: He will have no heirs to sit on the throne of David. His dead body will be thrown out to lie unburied—exposed to the heat of the day and the frost of the night. ³¹ I will punish him and his family and his attendants for their sins. I will pour out on them and on all the people of Jerusalem and Judah all the disasters I promised, for they would not listen to my warnings.’”

This morning’s reading reminds me of the one about a young monk who arrived for work at a monastery one day where scrolls were copied from prior scrolls by hand. After some time, he noticed that they were copying from copies. Humbly, he pointed out to the master monk that an error could be introduced and then copied and recopied via this process. The master reassured the youngster that they were very careful to faithfully copy the text, and it was unlikely that something like that could occur. Still, after the young monk went back to work the master monk was bothered by this revelation. To satisfy his mind about something, he went down deep into the cellar. A little while later a scream was heard by all the monks, and they all ran down into the cellar thinking that their master had hurt himself in dark. They found him sobbing on the floor and holding a very old scroll. “What’s wrong?” they asked in unison. The master responded, through sobs, “It says, ‘CELEBRATE,’ not ‘CELIBATE!’”

Oh, what a difference an ‘R’ makes, eh?! Again, not a whole lotta jokes out there concerning scrolls…this is the best I could come up with. Plenty of ‘em about scrolling, very few about scrolls themselves. And understandably so. Scrolls were an ancient form of communication that eventually became obsolete with the printing press. We no longer had to rely on the painstaking process of hand-copying written texts, not to mention the inevitable mistakes that resulted. Not that typos can’t, on occasion, sneak their way in but the human error is greatly reduced. Of course, fraternal communities are particularly vulnerable to catastrophes like the one in that joke because of their rigid routines and traditions. It gets written as “celibate” and it’ll no doubt get copied that way for many years to come!

Well, unfortunately Baruch couldn’t use the excuse of mishearing Jeremiah or misspelling certain words when the king got ahold of his scroll. No, everything was written down exactly as God had spoken to the prophet, Jeremiah. The king just didn’t like what he heard, and, in his anger, he foolishly burned up the scroll page by page until nothing was left. If only God’s Word could be so easily dismissed! Believe it or not, our God is not easily dismissed. Many have tried to dismiss him and his Word throughout the years only to come to regret it. Our God is not easily dismissed nor ignored. We are fools to believe otherwise. Our God chooses his words wisely and they come from a place of love. You hear me, week in and week out, remind us how God wants nothing but the best for us; how He wants us to thrive and grow in this world. When we get in a rut, behaving and believing in destructive ways, He will intervene and try to steer us back to the right path. Our God wants us on the right path. Our God wants us on the path of life and love. Our God wants us to be righteous. But we just have this strong inclination to stray from the path. We think we know a better path, a quicker path. We think we know what’s best for us, not God, so we foolishly stray from his path. And it doesn’t take long before the path we’ve strayed on turns into multiple paths and pretty soon we can’t see his path anymore. We get deeper and deeper into the forest, further and further away. God knows this inclination of ours to stray from the path. And He doesn’t love us any less for it. He follows us down whatever path we take in life, interested in seeing just how far we’ll go. Eventually all those paths lead to death. There is only one path to life and freedom…his path through Jesus!

Now then, how do we distinguish his path from all the other paths? Well, his path is conveniently lined with curbs on either side. Curbs comprised of his laws and commandments. Think back to those confirmation days when we heard Luther teach us there are 3 uses to the law. The first use of the law is to serve as a mirror to reflect our sinfulness back onto us. We see just how much we need to be saved from ourselves; how much we need God’s grace and forgiveness. The second use of the law is to serve as a guide to righteous living. It points us towards God and his way of life and love. The third us of the law is to serve as a curb that keeps out the chaos of the world. His path keeps out the sin and death of this world thanks to the curbs of his law.

The prophet, Jeremiah, was tasked with getting the king and all his wayward people back on God’s path. The king foolishly believed he could dismiss God’s Word and what did he get? God has his Word rewritten on another scroll and woefully condemns the king and his descendants: “He will have no heirs to sit on the throne of David. His dead body will be thrown out to lie unburied—exposed to the heat of the day and the frost of the night. I will punish him and his family and his attendants for their sins.” Yikes! He should have listened to God’s Word the first time it was written on a scroll! But kings are kings and are susceptible to pride and vanity. We are not kings and thus easily susceptible. What a blessing! What a blessing we can listen and obey the true king who said, “If you love me, obey my commandments.” (John 14:15) What a blessing to be like Peter and the apostles who boldly proclaimed, “We must obey God rather than any human being.” (Acts 5:29) What a blessing to be assured by the words of Isaiah, “If you will only obey me, you will have plenty to eat.” (1:19) Friends, we are blessed in ways King Jehoiakim was not. We know our God and are known by him. Let us eagerly heed his commandments and seek his path of righteousness. And, of course, give thanks for it! Thanks be to God!

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.