The sweetness has turned bitter. Jeremiah has grown bitter and resentful. Listen to how deeply he is hurt. He says to the God who has called him to be a prophet, “I never sat in the company of revelers, never made merry with them; I sat alone because your hand was on me and you had filled me with indignation.” Jeremiah has only done what God has asked him to do. He is confused. Listen to his questions. He asks, “Why is my pain unending and my wound grievous and incurable? Will you be to me like a deceptive brook, like a spring that fails?”

To understand the reason for Jeremiah’s bitterness, let’s walk in his shoes a bit. God has called Jeremiah to a particularly difficult ministry. Listen to what God tells Jeremiah about his calling. God says, “I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their fathers have been in revolt against me to this very day.” Jeremiah is called by God to show the Israelites their sin, and then to call them to repentance. That wasn’t an easy task. At every turn Jeremiah is foiled by the enemies of God. When Jeremiah talks about the sins which the Israelites have committed, he is branded a troublemaker. Because he is faithful to his calling Jeremiah is treated as a social outcast. When he calls the people to repentance, he is accused of being an enemy of the state.

Who hasn’t been there? Haven’t we all at times done the same? Aren’t we guilty of the very same thing? Under the pressures of everyday living we grow so frustrated that we lash out in anger at God. If God loves us, how could he allow such a thing to happen? If God really cares about us, how can we be so lonely? How can things be so out of control? How can life be so complicated? How can I be so miserable? It has to be God’s fault, or so we think. But it isn’t God’s fault. It’s never God’s fault. Remember what St. James writes in his Epistle. James says, “Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”

Only good things come to us from God. Only the best things come from God. Look at what our God has done for us. Look to the cross. Look at the sacrifice that takes place there on that cross. St. Paul tells the Roman believers, “He …did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all.” Elsewhere Paul tells the Corinthians, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” The Prophet Isaiah tells us that our Lord Jesus was “pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

It is Jesus on the cross instead of us. It is Jesus’ blood shed there instead of ours. He is there in our place; suffering our punishment, shedding his blood for our forgiveness. Jesus was there suffering in our place, shedding his blood so that we might go live and not die. That’s our blessing for us every day. Look at what God continues to do for us every day. Everyday we enjoy our God’s favor. Every day we are blessed by God’s love. Later on in this book God tells Jeremiah and the people of Israel, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.” Everyday we benefit from our God’s forgiveness. Every day because of the death of His Son on the cross, God chooses not to remember our sins. He tells the Prophet Jeremiah, “I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”