A Righteous Branch

 Jeremiah 23: 1-6

A Reading for Christ the King Sunday

“A righteous branch … will deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land …The Lord is our righteousness.”

Jeremiah preaches against the people of Israel and Judah in images of human connections; unfaithful spouses, unfaithful children, cheating neighbors, as well as worship of personal idols. We can get lost in the weeds of specific (pet) sins that we find particularly bad, but I don’t think that is the point here. Jeremiah reveals a “core” problem which is reflected in the way people were treating not just God, but each other; how they (we) treated, or ignored, the marginalized and how they (we) tried to take advantage of each other for personal gain. 

The issue is self-interest, me first living. The specific sin is different for each person, but the core problem is the same; tension between God and tension among ourselves created by our self-interest (sin). The problems this kind of living causes are clear throughout the Bible. 

Into this, Jeremiah is moved to proclaim hope. Hope that one will emerge who will be righteous (God-interested and other-interested) One who will not deal with the people (us) in a self-interested way; rather, whose core will be God-interested and other-interested. The righteousness of that one will become our righteousness. A new Adam appears; Christ is our righteousness, our righteous branch.

This Sunday is Christ the King Sunday. We celebrate that we have one who would transform us to people who are God-interested, people who live justice for others and for God’s creation. 

Aside:

I have come to use the term self-interest as synonymous with the term sin because today society doesn’t really think in terms of “sin”, but self-interest is something we all get. It is the bedrock (the idol?) of modern culture; the self-made man, the individual, personal responsibly, personal rights… It is the language of our economics, our politics, our personal relationships. But, self-interest as one’s only or primary guide can lead to all sorts of things, some not so positive. It seemed only logical, then, to continue that motif when talking about our relationship to God, or maybe God’s will for a relationship with us. I have often been heard to comment that Jesus boiled down God’s law to; Love God - Love others. Thus, you will hear me refer to God-interest - Other-interest. I started thinking about this several years ago as a result of a discussion in my Issues in Economics class. We were discussing the concept of self-interest in economics, and a young lady asked the question, “ Would you say that the original sin (Adam and Eve) was self-interest?” Wow, from the mouths of children. I have found this a useful way to look at my life and with which to understand Scripture. I hope you can get some use out of it as well.