“If I say, ‘I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,’ there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.” Jeremiah 20:9
In 1660, a tinker and lay preacher named John Bunyan was arrested in Bedfordshire, England, for holding a worship service outside the authority of the established church. He was thirty-two years old, married, and the father of four children, including a daughter who was blind. The magistrates offered him a straightforward arrangement: agree to stop preaching and go home. Bunyan refused. He later wrote that he would remain in prison “till the moss grew on his eyelids” rather than agree to silence the gospel. He spent the next twelve years in Bedford jail.
During those years, Bunyan wrote. He preached to fellow prisoners. He made shoelaces to support his family. And he agonized over the cost his faithfulness imposed on his children, particularly his blind daughter Mary. He described the pain of separation as being like “the pulling of flesh from the bones.” He knew what he was losing. He also knew that the word of God was a fire in him that could not be contained. When he was finally released, he returned immediately to preaching, and eventually wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress, which became one of the most widely read books in the English language.
Bunyan’s story follows a pattern that runs through this week’s scripture. Jeremiah discovered that God’s word burned inside him and could not be held in, even when speaking it brought derision and danger. The psalmist bore reproach for God’s sake and cried out for deliverance. Jesus told his disciples to expect persecution and told them three times: do not fear. And Paul explained that believers have already died with Christ and been raised to a life that the threats of the world can no longer reach. The cost of faithfulness is real. The God who sustains the faithful through that cost is the one who sees every sparrow that falls and has numbered every hair on your head.
Jeremiah 20:7–13
The Word That Burns Within
“But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble; they will not overcome me.” (v. 11)
Jeremiah is the most honest prayer in the Old Testament. He tells God exactly what faithfulness has cost him: he is a laughingstock, mocked daily, derided for speaking the word he was given to speak (vv. 7–8). His message of judgment against Jerusalem has made him a target. His friends watch for his fall, hoping he will stumble so they can take revenge (v. 10).
And then comes verse 9. Jeremiah considers quitting. He resolves to stop mentioning God, to stop speaking in his name. And he finds that he cannot. The word of God is a fire shut up in his bones, and he is weary with trying to hold it in. The cost of speaking is suffering. The cost of silence is a fire that will not go out. Jeremiah is caught between the two, and the fire wins. Bunyan understood this. The magistrates offered him his family, his freedom, and his livelihood if he would simply stop preaching. He could not stop, because the word he had been given to speak would not let him rest.
The passage turns from lament to confession: “The Lord is with me as a dread warrior” (v. 11). Jeremiah’s persecutors will stumble. They will be shamed. And the passage ends in praise: “Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers” (v. 13). The lament and the praise sit side by side in the same prayer because the God who calls Jeremiah to speak is the same God who fights for him when speaking costs him his safety. The psalm of the afflicted echoes this posture: “Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy… In the day of my trouble I call upon you, for you answer me” (Psalm 86:1, 7).
Psalm 69:7–10, 16–18
Reproach Borne for God’s Sake
“For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonor has covered my face.” (v. 7)
The psalmist identifies the source of his suffering: it is for God’s sake. The reproach he carries is tied directly to his loyalty to God. He has become a stranger to his own brothers, an alien to his mother’s sons (v. 8). His zeal for God’s house has consumed him, and the reproaches aimed at God have landed on him (v. 9). The suffering is vicarious. The psalmist absorbs hostility that belongs to God.
The New Testament picks up this psalm and applies it to Jesus. John 2:17 quotes verse 9 when Jesus drives the money changers from the temple: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” Romans 15:3 applies the same verse to Christ: “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” Psalm 69 is a messianic psalm, which means the pattern the psalmist describes finds its fulfillment in Christ, who bore reproach for the sake of the Father and cried out for deliverance from the cross. The psalmist’s plea, “Answer me, O Lord, for your steadfast love is good; according to your abundant mercy, turn to me” (v. 16), anticipates the cry of Christ, and it remains the cry of every believer who has suffered for belonging to God.
When Hagar sat in the wilderness watching her son die, she lifted up her voice and wept, and “God heard the voice of the boy” (Genesis 21:17). The God who hears the cry of the cast-out hears the cry of the persecuted. The psalms teach God’s people how to bring that cry to him with honesty and expectation.
Matthew 10:24–39
Do Not Fear
“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.” (v. 29)
Jesus tells his disciples what is coming. If they called the master of the house Beelzebul, the household can expect worse (v. 25). He is preparing them for the experience Jeremiah described and the psalmist sang about. The reproach that fell on Christ will fall on those who belong to him.
And then, three times, Jesus says: do not fear (vv. 26, 28, 31). The first time, the ground is truth: what is hidden will be revealed, so speak in the light what Jesus has told them in the dark (vv. 26–27). The second time, the ground is proportionality: the one who can kill the body holds less authority than the one who governs both body and soul (v. 28). The third time, the ground is the Father’s attentiveness: two sparrows sell for a penny, and yet the Father sees every one that falls. The hairs of their heads are numbered. They are of more value than many sparrows (vv. 29–31).
This is the same God who heard Ishmael’s voice in the wilderness and said to Hagar, “Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is” (Genesis 21:17). The God of the sparrows is the God of the wilderness. He sees, he hears, and he sustains.
Then Jesus raises the stakes. Following him will divide families (vv. 34–37). Loyalty to Christ may set a person against father, mother, son, or daughter. The cross must be taken up (v. 38). And the summary statement redefines how the disciple thinks about survival: “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (v. 39). Bunyan lost twelve years of his daughter’s childhood. Jeremiah lost his social standing. The psalmist lost his place among his brothers. Jesus says the losing is the path to finding, and the finding belongs to those who are willing to lose for Christ’s sake.
Romans 6:1b–11
Already Dead, Already Alive
“So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (v. 11)
Paul provides the theological foundation for the fearlessness Jesus described and Jeremiah modeled. Every believer who has been baptized into Christ Jesus has been baptized into his death (v. 3). The old self was crucified with him (v. 6). And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, believers walk in newness of life (v. 4).
This changes how a believer relates to the threats the world poses. The person who has already died with Christ has passed through the worst the world can do. Death no longer has dominion over the risen Christ (v. 9), and by union with him, it no longer has dominion over the believer either. When Jesus told his disciples to take up their cross and follow him (Matthew 10:38), he was describing an event that Paul says has already happened in baptism. The cross the believer carries is the cross Christ has already carried. The death the believer faces is one Christ has already died to and conquered.
This is why Jeremiah could praise God in the middle of his lament. This is why the psalmist could cry out to God with expectation even while bearing reproach. This is why Jesus could tell his disciples “do not fear” three times in the span of a few sentences. The life that belongs to the believer is a life that has already been through death and come out the other side. Paul tells the Roman church to “consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (v. 11). The word “consider” (logizomai) is an accounting term. It means to reckon, to count, to treat as settled fact. The believer’s death and resurrection with Christ is settled. The threats of the world land on someone who has already been raised.
The Fire and the Fear
Bunyan sat in Bedford jail for twelve years because the fire would not go out. Jeremiah stood before Jerusalem because the word burned in his bones. The psalmist bore reproach because his zeal for God consumed him. Jesus told his followers that the path of discipleship runs through loss, through family conflict, through the taking up of a cross.
Are you willing to let the fire burn? Most of us will never face prison for preaching. Most of us will never stand before magistrates. But all of us face moments when faithfulness to Christ costs something: a relationship, a reputation, a comfortable silence we could maintain if we simply kept quiet. Jeremiah tried keeping quiet. The fire would not go out.
If you are in a season where following Christ is costing you something, the Word of God speaks directly to your situation. The God who was with Jeremiah as a dread warrior, who heard the psalmist’s cry for deliverance, who sees every sparrow that falls, is the same God who raised Christ from the dead and raised you with him. You have already died. You have already been raised. The life you live now is lived to God. Consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus, and let the fire burn.
Points to Ponder
1. Jeremiah tried to stop speaking in God’s name and found the word was a fire he could not contain. Have you experienced a moment where staying silent about your faith felt more costly than speaking up?
2. The psalmist says, “For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach.” How do you distinguish between suffering that comes from your own mistakes and suffering that comes specifically from your faithfulness to God?
3. Jesus says, “Do not fear those who kill the body.” What is the specific fear that most often keeps you from living openly as a follower of Christ? How does the image of the Father who sees every sparrow speak to that fear?
4. Jesus warns that following him may divide families. Have you experienced tension in a relationship because of your commitment to Christ? How did you navigate that tension?
5. Paul says to “consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” What would it look like for you to live this week as someone who has already passed through the worst the world can do?
A Prayer
Father, we thank you for the prophets who spoke your word at great cost, and for the psalmists who taught us to bring our honest cries before your throne. We thank you that your Son Jesus told us plainly what following him would cost, and then told us three times to fear nothing, because you see every sparrow and you have numbered every hair on our heads. We confess that we often choose comfortable silence over costly faithfulness. Forgive us. Light the fire again. Give us the courage of Jeremiah, who could not hold the word in. Give us the honesty of the psalmist, who cried out for deliverance while still trusting your steadfast love. Remind us that we have already died with Christ and been raised to a life that the world’s threats cannot touch. We consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to you in Christ Jesus. Make that reckoning real in how we live this week. Through Jesus Christ, who bore our reproach and was raised for our justification. Amen.
“Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Matthew 10:39
Josh Cehulik 