A New Covenant - Jeremiah 31:31-34 John 12:20-33

“The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.”

This is an exciting sentence in a marvelous passage.  Though when we reach Hosea it is a recurring theme, Jeremiah is the only prophet in the Old Testament to use the term “new covenant”.  In our Bible we have what we call the Old and New Testaments, but testament is only another word for covenant.  So, we read in the Old Covenant the mention of a new covenant, which when adhered to brings the forgiveness of sin.  This new covenant will last forever.

The Hebrew people are an old covenant people, in relationship with a God who has given them the Law through Moses.  This Law, what we refer to as the Ten Commandments, is the foundation of their faith.  Alas!  The community of faith has not done well in abiding by this covenant, in fact, they have broken it, so God has decided to offer a new way to enter into relationship, and this new covenant “will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt,” because it turned out to be “a covenant that they broke.”

It is worth mentioning here, especially in our current societal atmosphere of antisemitism, that the new covenant did not void the old one.  Yes, in the New Testament there is considerable anger, expressed as antisemitism, or, as it is known today, as supersessionism.  Supersessionism puts forth the belief that the covenant with the Jews no longer exists and has been replaced by the New Covenant.  But God does not break His promises.  The Jews of today are still in covenant relationship with God, the old covenant still stands. We the Church, are the fulfillment of the old covenant, not its replacement. 

Getting back to Jeremiah’s prophecy, in this scroll we find mentioned for the very first time in the Hebrew Bible, that there will be a new relationship between God and His people.  This time, God will not lay down a list of things that are forbidden, but instead, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”  From an external list of “dos and don’ts”, the Law becomes an internal thing, written on our heart.

Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks.

As is always the case, there is a back story to our Gospel reading today.  Jesus has come to Jerusalem after raising Lazarus from the dead, an act, a miracle, that has caused considerable attention to be turned on Him.  His fame has spread far beyond the Jewish community, but it is also this act that has been the final straw, that has caused the Sanhedrin to decide that Jesus must die.

Jesus already knows that He has been sent, not just to the Jews as He first thought, but to “the many”, to all people, and the arrival of the Greeks, these non-Jews who seek Him, is a sign to Him that His life is drawing to its close. 

So, when “Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.  Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.’”  In John’s gospel the word “crucified” is seldom used.  In its place, John uses the word “glorified”.  Jesus recognizes that His Passion, His suffering, is about to begin, and announces that His crucifixion is at hand.

Then He says those very hard words, “Those who love their life will lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.”  

Whoever will follow Him, must be willing to suffer as He must suffer, to take up their cross as He will take up His, and for Love, be willing even to die.  This sounds so unreasonable, that we try to gloss over it in our minds, but make no mistake, Jesus means what He says. “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out.  And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

For John, the Seat of Judgment, and the Throne of Glory is the cross of Jesus crucifixion.  We haven’t lost our reverence for the cross.  The altars in our churches, the embroidery on the altar hangings and vestments, the jewelry around our necks, the symbol of our faith, is the means, the painful, torturous, lingering, horrible means, by which our Lord was crucified. 

When we look at the cross, and upon the crucified Christ, what do know in our hearts?  Do we understand what it all means?  There is mystery here on which we could long meditate, but we are meant to at first, at least, recognize, to be in awe, that this wounded man, who stretches out His arms in love to embrace us, is our God.  That it is only through His suffering that we are saved, and through our suffering that we become holy people. 

But we are human, and the bottom line is, we don’t like suffering.  We ask what good can ever come from suffering.  Because it happened so long ago, pointing to the crucifixion and the salvation it brings often doesn’t help us understand the place of suffering in our faith and in our lives.  But we have very painful, contemporary examples in our world today – examples of great good coming from tremendous suffering.

As war rages in Gaza, as the Ukraine suffers, as violence erupts here in the US, we have all seen on TV or read in the newspapers the stories of families experiencing great suffering, frequently due to the injury or death of a child.  Children these days suffer, from disease, accidents, injuries, violence of all types, and when they are injured or die, hearts break and families are thrown into terrible grief and mourning.  What good could ever come from such suffering? 

All across our country there are children alive today who owe their health and happiness to a child who died, whose family donated their organs to save the lives of other children.  Now that’s something that is happening now, and it is something we can understand.  It is an painful but almost miraculous example of incredible good, coming out of terrible suffering.

“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.” 

Of course, we still prefer to not suffer.  When we are asked to endure sadness or misery, pain or sorrow, sickness, loneliness, or loss, we too cry to God for release.  God always hears us, but this does not mean He will grant our request.  “Although Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.”  The cup of pain did not pass from Jesus’ lips, nor must we expect it to always pass from ours.

The world teaches us that suffering is a bad thing.  Our culture is dedicated to comfort and pleasure. Everything from advertising to tele-evangelism, tells us that what we ought to expect, what we deserve as good, upright people, is a life of ease, security, and comfort.  This, however, is not the Christian way.  Ours is the Way of the Cross.

“Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” 

We are now approaching Palm Sunday and the Via Dolorosa.  The way of sorrow lies ahead.  We, many of whom wear around our neck the symbol of Jesus suffering, need to understand that what isn’t pleasant is not necessarily bad, that the cross is the gift Jesus gives His friends.  When we accept this, many of the unpleasant things in our lives appear different.  We need to look at everything in a new way.  We need to look with our heart.

Remember, God understands pain.  In two weeks we celebrate His making of a New Covenant with His people – with us – by allowing His Child to die, so that we may live. 

Let us pray:

Blessed Savior, you hung upon the cross, stretching out your loving arms; Grant that we may look to you, and without fear or complaint enter into your embrace, share with you whatever suffering you may ask of us, and be saved.  All this we ask for your love and mercy’s sake.  Amen