“Messiah and New Covenant”

Jeremiah 33:14-18; 31:31-34

^33:14 “The day will come, says the Lord, when I will do for Israel and Judah all the good things I have promised them.

¹⁵ “In those days and at that time
I will raise up a righteous descendant from King David’s line.
He will do what is just and right throughout the land.
¹⁶ In that day Judah will be saved,
and Jerusalem will live in safety.
And this will be its name:
‘The Lord Is Our Righteousness.’

¹⁷ For this is what the Lord says: David will have a descendant sitting on the throne of Israel forever. ¹⁸ And there will always be Levitical priests to offer burnt offerings and grain offerings and sacrifices to me.”

^31:31 “The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. ³² This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brou+ght them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the Lord.

³³ “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. ³⁴ And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already,” says the Lord. “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”

This morning’s reading reminds me of the one about a ten-year-old boy who was failing math. His parents tried everything, from tutors to hypnosis, but to no avail. Finally, at the insistence of a family friend, they decided to enroll their son in a private Lutheran school. After the first day, the boy’s parents were surprised when he walked in after school with a stern, focused, and very determined expression on his face, and went right past them straight to his room, where he quietly closed the door. For nearly two hours he toiled away in his room – with math books strewn about his desk and the surrounding floor. He emerged long enough to eat, and after quickly cleaning his plate, went straight back to his room, closed the door, and worked feverishly at his studies until bedtime. This pattern continued ceaselessly until it was time for the first quarter report card. The boy walked in with his report card — unopened — laid it on the dinner table and went straight to his room. Cautiously, his mother opened it, and to her amazement, she saw a bright red “A” under the subject of MATH. Overjoyed, she and her husband rushed into their son’s room, thrilled at his remarkable progress. “Was it the pastors that did it?” the father asked. The boy only shook his head and said, “No.” “Was it the one-on-one tutoring? The peer-mentoring?” “No.” “The textbooks? The teachers? The curriculum?” “Nope,” said the son. “On that first day, when I walked in the front door and saw that guy they nailed to the ‘plus sign,’ I just knew they meant business!”

And that one is for all those who hate math! With the right motivation, even you can overcome your hatred of math! But I sometimes wonder what all the fuss is over math. It’s not that it’s a subject that can trick you or is open to a variety of interpretations. Math is a very straightforward subject. The numbers and equations don’t lie and there is a universal order to them. I suppose wrapping your brain around why the numbers behave the way they do can be difficult but again, they’re simply adhering to a universal order. Once you understand the order then you understand the behavior. There’s an elegance to math that should be appreciated even if it isn’t understood. If you want to get truly frustrated, try theology or philosophy! But even beneath these subjects there is a universal order. Indeed, there is a universal order beneath ALL subjects that can be revealed with a little hard work and perseverance. Why? Because we exist in God’s world and our God is a God of order. There is even an order to chaos that only God fully understands…for now. We’re slowly unraveling chaos though; it’s only a matter of time.

So what does any of this have to do with our reading for today? We’re closing out our series on the book of Jeremiah and from the sounds of it, the prophet lived in a time of great chaos and upheaval. The leaders weren’t leading well, the people weren’t behaving well, and Jeremiah was called to speak both words of judgment and encouragement to the leaders and people alike. And they weren’t his own words. They were the words of God meant to establish order yet again. They were words meant to reveal the love of God. Whether they were actually heard as loving words wasn’t necessarily God’s problem. God spoke his words from a place of love. Our God is a loving God! Now then, our God sees us struggle with his order, with obeying the laws and commandments he establishes for our well-being and flourishment. Our God sees us continuously struggle and what does he do? Annihilate us? Start anew with a new creation? No, He simply finds new ways to communicate his love for us. He uses people like Jeremiah to get the leaders to change their ways; to get the people to change their ways. When they fail to change, they suffer the consequences. They’re ousted from their leadership roles. They’re cast into 70-year exiles away from home. They suffer. But they’re never alone in their suffering. God is with them all along, helping them to grow and change into the people God wants them to be. Remember from last week…the two things God expects from us: trust and growth? Through the prophet, Jeremiah, God helped his beloved people both grow and come to trust him again. God encouraged the exiled people to build homes, plant gardens, raise families in their exiled home. God had Jeremiah buy land in their homeland to give them hope and assure them they would have something to come home to. God told the exiled people that He has a plan for them, a plan for their welfare and not harm. In other words, God has an ORDER!

In the reading for this morning, Jeremiah reminds us of God’s covenants. First, the covenant God made with David for his bloodline to always remain on the throne. Then, the so-called new covenant where God etches his love and order on our hearts. God is forever in our hearts through Jesus Christ. Incidentally, do you remember the other three key covenants God makes with us in scripture? The covenant God made with Noah never to try and destroy us. The covenant God made with Abraham to make him the father of many nations and blessed. The covenant God made with Moses through the law and establishing us as his chosen people. All five covenants reveal not only that our God is a God of promise and fulfillment but also that He is a God of order. Friends, there IS steadfast order in this world whether we believe it or not. Lamentations tell us, “The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.” (3:22-23) And through the prophet Malachi, we hear, “I am the Lord, and I do not change. That is why you descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed.” (3:6) Our God is consistent, unchanging, always faithful, always loving. The exiled people of Jeremiah’s time needed to hear this just as we need to hear it. Our God is a loving God! We can sing as David sang in his 36^th psalm, “Your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds.” (vs. 5)

We are no better than the people of Jeremiah’s time. We need God’s mercies and love just as much as they did. Lucky for us, God graciously bestows them upon us each and every day. So let us graciously and steadfastly give thanks. Thanks be to God!

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.