This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

–Jeremiah 29.1, 4-7a, 10-11 (NIV)

“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” “Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”

–John 11.21-27 (NIV)

If some of the branches [unfaithful Israel] have been broken off, and you [Gentiles], though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root [Israel], do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.

–Romans 11.17-22 (NIV)

As the season of Lent draws to a close, culminating next week in the Passion, death, and burial of our Lord, now is an especially appropriate time to heed Paul’s advice above to consider the kindness and sternness of God. We see both illustrated in today’s OT and Gospel passages, as well as Paul’s narrative about the fate of his people, the Jews.

In the passage from Jeremiah, one of my favorite OT passages, especially verse 11, I have often tried to imagine the incredulity of those Jews living in forced exile in Babylon as they heard the Lord tell them to settle down and pray for their captors, something unheard of in ancient times. Why would God tell them to do this? Because he knew the plans he had for them, plans for their welfare and not for their harm, to give them a future with hope.

Say what?

I mean, this all sounds really good until we consider the fact that God is telling this to people who are captives and in exile. It just wouldn’t have made much sense to Jeremiah’s audience because everything around them suggested otherwise. They were prisoners of a foreign people. That had been carried off from their beloved promised land. They were living the consequences of being people of a stern God!

But it was precisely during their darkest hour–just as it was precisely during Martha’s darkest hour when she cried out to her Lord in grief and despair over her brother’s death–that God’s people also discover the kindness of God. As God essentially told the exiles, “I have punished you because of your unfaithfulness but I am also a God of mercy and the plans I have for you will give you a future and a hope, your only real hope, a hope based on me and my faithfulness to you. I do this for my sake and my glory, not yours. So wake up and smell the roses. Make the best of your situation because you are in my hands and I am with you in any and every circumstance of life–good, bad, and ugly.”

And then, like Jesus did when he asked Martha if she believed that he is the resurrection and the life, we can almost hear God ask his people in exile the same question. “I’m telling you the Good News,” says God to his broken and hurting people. “You have discovered my sternness (my holiness that cannot countenance evil in any form let alone a life lived in a pattern of willful disobedience to me–I am not talking about you missing the mark on occasion). Now you are going to discover my mercy if you have any semblance of faith in you. Do you believe this?” And so it goes. We too are confronted with the same issues and questions today and we too must give answer to God’s question.

This is why Lent is such an appropriate season to consider the kindness and sternness of God. If we only consider the sternness (holiness) of God, we are confronted with a pitiless tyrant who will not tolerate a single mistake we make and who is ready and even eager to punish us for our disobedience. But that is not God nor is this a god worthy or our love and admiration. After all, who can really love a heartless tyrant?

But if we consider only God’s mercy and neglect his sternness (holiness), we turn God into some doting old Father who really doesn’t care what his children do. He’s just a kind old fellow who wouldn’t hurt a flea and has life in perspective so that he doesn’t make a big deal over our rebellion and disobedience because it’s all going to turn out well in the end. But neither is this God. After all, how can we love and admire someone we really don’t respect?

No, we have to take our sin seriously. We have to be aware of its consequences–separation from our very Source of life that inevitably leads to death. We have to acknowledge that the God we worship is a holy God, a God who cannot and will not tolerate evil of any kind because God is wholly good. And if we think about it, this should make us glad, especially if we want to live directly in his Presence for all eternity. After all, do you really want to experience evil, hurt, and brokenness in heaven and the New Creation? If you don’t want that to happen, there simply cannot be any form of evil present; otherwise, all the dark side of life would again be present to rear its ugly head and that could not possibly be heaven.

Yet if we are to believe the Good News of Jesus Christ, we must also acknowledge that God loves us and created us to have a relationship with him, not to destroy us. That is why he became human and suffered and died for us on the cross so that he could bear the consequences of his judgment on us himself. In other words, the God we love and worship is also a loving and merciful God. He has satisfied his holy love himself and we will focus on this especially during Holy Week next week. So God is both kind and stern and we should be thankful that he is both.

Of course, during Lent we consider all this. During Lent we submit to a ruthless self-examination of our lives and motives, and we resolve, with God’s help, to put to death everything in us that keeps us hostile toward and alienated from God. We confess the wrongs we have done to God and our neighbors and we resolve, again only by God’s help, to turn away from doing these things, i.e., we repent. We pray and fast so as to help us deny our fallen self and make us ready to take up our cross and follow Jesus.

And this is where our knowledge of God’s kindness and sternness can also help us. We remember God’s sternness so as to develop a healthy fear (respect) of God. We remember God’s kindness to help us develop a heart and mind to love him in thankful gratitude for his great and undeserved mercy and kindness toward us manifested in Jesus. You don’t develop a real relationship based on fear. Neither do you develop a real relationship based on disrespect. Hence, if we are to develop a real relationship with God in Christ, we must always remember God’s kindness and sternness because we always remember our human condition and our utter hopelessness without the cross of Christ. Lent is the season in which we focus on these very issues.

If you have been observing this season of Lent (and even if you haven’t), now is an especially good time to take heart and hope. You are dead in your sins because your sins separate you from your Source of life–God. But God does not want to leave you there and next week as you work your way through Holy Week and end up on Calvary with your crucified Lord, you will have a powerful visual reminder of the kindness of God. As you come in sorrow and contrition to the foot of his cross, you will also have a thankful heart because you know that God in Christ is taking your sins from you and bearing your just punishment himself so that you will not have to. And suddenly Jesus’ words to Martha in today’s Gospel passage will have new and life-giving meaning to you because you realize that here at Jesus’ cross is your ticket to real life, both on this earth and forever with Jesus in the New Creation he inaugurated by his death and resurrection.

Remember the kindness and sternness of God and give thanks to God that he is both. It will get you ready to observe Holy Week in an appropriate and reverential manner.