Martin Luther King Jr. , Malcolm X, Joan of Arc, or Harvey Milk are just a few and very different examples of visionaries who paid the ultimate price for their powerful prophetic visions and claims for change or social justice.
Truth telling is tough and sometimes claims the brave lives of whistleblowers and prophets, with a brutal attempt to silence them and their message. Sometimes those attacks come from within their own communities - resistance to change has many facets. Many such attempts to silence prophets have been sadly successful but thankfully many have not and will not - and even when the killing happens - the message lives on. Sometimes louder.
Jeremiah, speaking truth to power back in 6th century Jerusalem, becomes the target of attack and assassination plots. It’ll get worse as his voice grows louder. Who can the prophet trust? In today’s chapter it appears that he can’t even rely on his family and townspeople. Why do they hate him so much? Jeremiah wants to know too - and in this personal plea he describes the plot against his life, positioning himself as the blameless victim:
“For I was like a docile lamb led to the slaughter; I did not realize that it was against me they planned their plots: ‘Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, Let us cut him off from the land of the living that his name be remembered no more!’
‘Lamb to the slaughter’ or ‘tree to be cut off’ are the images Jeremiah uses to portray himself as a victim of terror. But what’s his role in inciting this rage? What is to be learned here?
Rabbi Benny Lau, who is also known for speaking unpopular truth, probes deeper into the political and the psychological context of Jeremiah’s situation:
“Jeremiah roams the streets of Jerusalem, inundated by frustrating prophecies...As the years pass, and King Josiah's national project of repentance takes hold, Jeremiah's audience comes to despise him. He claims that the sages do not teach Torah, that the priests do not seek God's presence, that the prophets prophesy falsely, and that all shall perish by a vengeful sword — even as the king is purifying the land and serving the God of Israel faithfully and fearfully. Jeremiah's words are therefore most outrageous. In their eyes, he is only stirring up trouble.
Jeremiah is threatened by the residents of his hometown. The people of Anathoth dislike the commotion he is causing. They are solid, salt-of-the-earth men, far from politics and the Temple. Suddenly, they find themselves in the spotlight, for a young prophet from their village is wandering the corridors of the capital, taunting and riling up its inhabitants. The people of Anathoth conspire to put an end to Jeremiah's prophecies and, if necessary, his life: "Let us devise a plan."
Jeremiah's prophecies render him a loner, an outcast, hated, scorned, and scoffed at by all. He begins to curse those who mock him, assuming a posture of violent self-defense. It is painful to read these curses when recalling the great love he expressed for God's people just a few chapters earlier.
Jeremiah begins to reveal himself as a prophet who explodes with rage whenever he catches sight of falsehood. He acquires a reputation as a disturber of the peace, one who threatens to dissipate the joy that envelops the king and his people as they embark upon their reformation.”
Thus the prophet keeps on promising ruin on Judea, riled up by rage and now by threats on his life. No wonder his people want him silenced and no wonder he ends this vision with a threat to his hometown, brought upon by YHWH:
The prophet’s plea for vengeance will one day become a grim reality - but it won’t help him much either. In the coming chapters, Jeremiah’s struggles continue to be woven with his violent visions for his people’s future. The personal meets the political, again and again, as the unpopular truth teller takes a stand against populist leadership and people who just want to live their lives in blissful ignorance and whatever feels like peace.
Image: Ingrid Bergman in the film Joan of Arc, 1948
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