Jeremiah 27:12 – Catalyzing a Culture of Surrender
12 I also spoke to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, “Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live! Jeremiah 27:12, New King James Version
Based partly on its repetition on HBO when my brain was at its most supple, Superman II's scenes are at ready recall. In one of them, three of Krypton's criminals come crashing through the skylight into the Oval Office. Impervious to his usually imposing surroundings, the leader of the three ambitious aliens demands surrender. When an underling claiming to be the President of the United States kneels, Gen. Zod isn't buying. "No one who leads so many," he dismisses, "could possibly surrender so quickly."
The link to Jeremiah 27:12 isn't in a quick surrender. Jeremiah has been announcing the ascendancy of the Babylonians for most of the Bible's book that bears his name, and Jeremiah's audience, including Judah's King Zedekiah, has been resistant to the point of treating Jeremiah as a traitor. But Gen. Zod still tutors us in the full implications of surrender at stake in this verse. Zedekiah, like the real president, represents a culture. What he does, in submitted faith or resistant rebellion, has implications beyond mere ceremony.
Jeremiah knows it. He knows Zedekiah to be, in Malcolm Gladwell's phrase, a tipping point for his culture. Perhaps that's why he goes before the king again. The words Jeremiah recalls for us show the echoing impact of what Zedekiah decides to do. The man Zedekiah only has, like Nathan Hale, one life to give for his country. He only has one neck. Yet, knowing this, Jeremiah stands before his monarch facing impending siege and says, bring your NECKS under the yoke of the king of Babylon.
Were Zedekiah to submit his own neck to the Lord's will which isn't pleasant and will not enhance his own power and prestige in the moment, he would be an example for his people to do so. Seeing their monarch in a new setting, an unnerving posture, would force those he leads to reconsider their own choices, their own sense of entitlement and control.
Making sure that the king understands the ripple effect of his decision, Jeremiah presents surrender as more than a ritual nod between crowned heads. Necks are called to go under Babylon's yoke, meaning Zedekiah is to submit not just to domineering Nebuchadnezzar. Zedekiah, Jeremiah says, is to serve Nebuchadnezzar AND his people.
The Christian squirms at similar choices, but we have a perfect Example Who goes before us. Christ came to serve and not to be served, ultimately to make Himself a ransom for many. Each encounter He had was an opportunity to show what willing submission of just prerogatives looked like.
He was not Marie Antoinette, merely PLAYING simple peasant, condescending for variety's sake. He emptied Himself of the honors owed His station, served His Father by serving the people to whom He was drawn, from disabled pariahs on the margins of society to those, like Pilate, temporarily exercising power over Him given from above.
To Christ's own, then, subordination and service is a lifestyle. We have a yoke to put our necks under, much as Zedekiah was challenged to do. We will influence others in our decision. Knowing that because of Christ's completed, perfectly demonstrated righteousness, our yoke for training in His likeness is easy and light, will we, with Joshua resolve that we and our houses will serve the Lord? Or, in the moment, will the residual, reptilian power of our stubborn sense of self dominate?
Each encounter, then, is an opportunity to serve the Lord by serving the work, as Tim Keller puts it in Every Good Endeavor, or to pamper the doomed ego. Spurgeon narrates the battle. “Sin has sprung from a royal though evil stock," he reminds, "and if it be in the heart, it will struggle for the throne.”
Will that throne be Christ's's altogether? Will His supremacy be demonstrated in reckoning others greater than ourselves? Will we use our influence pointing others toward the servant way rather than toward the immediate aggrandizement of self? If not, we miss the purpose for our earthly crowns or their modern equivalent. Christ has given us blessings and influence that they be laid at His feet for the watching world to see.
Based partly on its repetition on HBO when my brain was at its most supple, Superman II's scenes are at ready recall. In one of them, three of Krypton's criminals come crashing through the skylight into the Oval Office. Impervious to his usually imposing surroundings, the leader of the three ambitious aliens demands surrender. When an underling claiming to be the President of the United States kneels, Gen. Zod isn't buying. "No one who leads so many," he dismisses, "could possibly surrender so quickly."
The link to Jeremiah 27:12 isn't in a quick surrender. Jeremiah has been announcing the ascendancy of the Babylonians for most of the Bible's book that bears his name, and Jeremiah's audience, including Judah's King Zedekiah, has been resistant to the point of treating Jeremiah as a traitor. But Gen. Zod still tutors us in the full implications of surrender at stake in this verse. Zedekiah, like the real president, represents a culture. What he does, in submitted faith or resistant rebellion, has implications beyond mere ceremony.
Jeremiah knows it. He knows Zedekiah to be, in Malcolm Gladwell's phrase, a tipping point for his culture. Perhaps that's why he goes before the king again. The words Jeremiah recalls for us show the echoing impact of what Zedekiah decides to do. The man Zedekiah only has, like Nathan Hale, one life to give for his country. He only has one neck. Yet, knowing this, Jeremiah stands before his monarch facing impending siege and says, bring your NECKS under the yoke of the king of Babylon.
Were Zedekiah to submit his own neck to the Lord's will which isn't pleasant and will not enhance his own power and prestige in the moment, he would be an example for his people to do so. Seeing their monarch in a new setting, an unnerving posture, would force those he leads to reconsider their own choices, their own sense of entitlement and control.
Making sure that the king understands the ripple effect of his decision, Jeremiah presents surrender as more than a ritual nod between crowned heads. Necks are called to go under Babylon's yoke, meaning Zedekiah is to submit not just to domineering Nebuchadnezzar. Zedekiah, Jeremiah says, is to serve Nebuchadnezzar AND his people.
The Christian squirms at similar choices, but we have a perfect Example Who goes before us. Christ came to serve and not to be served, ultimately to make Himself a ransom for many. Each encounter He had was an opportunity to show what willing submission of just prerogatives looked like.
He was not Marie Antoinette, merely PLAYING simple peasant, condescending for variety's sake. He emptied Himself of the honors owed His station, served His Father by serving the people to whom He was drawn, from disabled pariahs on the margins of society to those, like Pilate, temporarily exercising power over Him given from above.
To Christ's own, then, subordination and service is a lifestyle. We have a yoke to put our necks under, much as Zedekiah was challenged to do. We will influence others in our decision. Knowing that because of Christ's completed, perfectly demonstrated righteousness, our yoke for training in His likeness is easy and light, will we, with Joshua resolve that we and our houses will serve the Lord? Or, in the moment, will the residual, reptilian power of our stubborn sense of self dominate?
Each encounter, then, is an opportunity to serve the Lord by serving the work, as Tim Keller puts it in Every Good Endeavor, or to pamper the doomed ego. Spurgeon narrates the battle. “Sin has sprung from a royal though evil stock," he reminds, "and if it be in the heart, it will struggle for the throne.”
Will that throne be Christ's's altogether? Will His supremacy be demonstrated in reckoning others greater than ourselves? Will we use our influence pointing others toward the servant way rather than toward the immediate aggrandizement of self? If not, we miss the purpose for our earthly crowns or their modern equivalent. Christ has given us blessings and influence that they be laid at His feet for the watching world to see.
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