Tell Out My Soul

Jer 31:31-34

Over the past weeks, most of our Old Testament readings have been from the book of Jeremiah. As we’ve heard, the book of Jeremiah is full of gloom and doom and it condemns the people of Judah for the things they’ve been doing wrong. It foreshadows the destruction of the nation and also the exile to Babylon that would come in 587 BC. I was lucky enough to come across a commentary on Jeremiah by Dennis Olson, retired professor of Old Testament Studies at the Princeton Theological Seminary.
He said that Chapters 30-34 in Jeremiah, are like “a diamond in the rough.” He notes that, “In the midst of this dark valley of despair and judgment in the book of Jeremiah, a dense cluster of promise oracles radiate like a dazzling diamond. They radiate with bright promises of hope, comfort and restoration.” These chapters tell us that after the exile is over, God promises to return his people back to their homeland, back to Judah and restore them as his faithful people once more.

The theme of restoration is present in last Sunday’s reading from Jeremiah because it contains a new covenant passage, “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.” Technically a covenant is literally a contract. In the Bible it’s an agreement between God and his people, in which God makes promises to his people and, usually, requires certain behavour from them. The new covenant is a restoration of the people’s relationship with God.

This new covenant is going to be different to the covenant God made with their ancestors after he led them out of slavery in Egypt. Back then, the Old Covenant consisted of the Ten Commandments; these commands were written on stone and handed down to Moses. Parents were to teach the commandments to their children in faith and with diligence. The Old Covenant was based on these laws and they were adhered to as a way of living as God’s chosen people. The aim was simple, to love God and to love one’s neighbour.

The new Covenant however would not be the same. It would involve a re-writing of the commandments and also a re-writing of the human heart. In the Bible, the heart was the seat of the human intellect and also the seat of human will; it was about knowing what is right and having a desire to do it. The Old Covenant commandments were recorded on stone, and they were there for all to see. But because they were external, out there and not inside, they were looked upon as being a type of outside interference. These laws meant that you weren’t allowed to do your own thing or go your own way, in other words, you couldn’t follow your heart’s desire, if this desire clashed with the commandments laid out in stone.

Jeremiah recognised that the old heart has a deep seated inclination to rebel against God and God’s external law. (Jeremiah 17:1) “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, with a point of diamond it is engraved on the tablet of the heart.” But then he goes on to promise that God is going to replace this deeply flawed heart, this rebellious and willful heart with a new heart. The new heart that God gives his people is one that is engraved with his own handwriting.

And people will obey the laws, not because they’re being told to or out of fear of punishment, they will happily obey God’s laws because they really want to, and because they naturally want to obey. The knowledge of right and wrong will be embedded deep down, and not on stone. Obedience will become second nature, something one does without thinking about it. We will love God and neighbour, often without even realising that we’re doing it. In Matthew 25:34-40, the righteous asked Jesus, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food?” because they didn’t realise that they had been doing it all along; kind and generous acts were something that they did naturally.
So, the new Covenant is really about rewriting the human heart, and it is God himself that is doing the writing. God re-shapes our hearts into the shape of goodness and righteousness, from the inside out, and not with external written laws that operate from the outside in.

Jeremiah goes on to say, “No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.” The new covenant means that indoctrination and dogma will be rendered useless, they will be superfluous. The knowledge of the reality of God will be part of the very nature of his people. In this there is great reason to be hopeful and joyous. And this covenant will be universal, no one will be left out, no matter someone’s age or social standing or intelligence; we will all know what God’s will is for us, what we should and shouldn’t do as children of God, and how to be the faithful servants that God created us to be.

Jeremiah also tells us that in the new Covenant, forgiveness will be an imperative, and it will be the sort of forgiveness that will wipe our slate clean, no matter who we are. “I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.” This means a complete cleansing without limit. Jesus taught forgiveness constantly. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. When he cured the paralytic young man he said, “Go, your sins are forgiven.” And this was one of the things that got him into trouble with the Pharisees; they argued that only God had the power to forgive sins. Peter asked Jesus how many times we should forgive someone who has done wrong to us, is seven times enough? But Jesus said to Peter, “No…seventy times seven”. The new covenant allows for a generous forgiveness extended to all, from the outcast and the wretched to the noble and highly respected. Again, Jeremiah gives us reason to be hopeful.

The New Covenenant, as we know, is played out and established in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and the Ten Commandments are rewritten and remoulded in the person of Jesus himself. The new covenant was all spelled out clearly at the Lord’s Supper. The contract was laid out for all to see. As Professor Wilson says, “The most powerful actualization of Jeremiah 31 is in the person of Jesus and in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Jesus eats the old Passover meal and re-creates it into a new covenant meal. Jesus lifts the Passover cup of wine and proclaims on the eve of his death and eventual resurrection: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sins.”

At the Eucharistic meal we are made one with Christ, and during this Eucharist he breaks down the barriers between us and the Father. Everyone is welcomed and given forgiveness, just as he forgave those disciples who later would betray, deny and abandon him. John 6:56 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood lives in Me and I live in him. It doesn’t get much closer than that. If we agree to this covenant, we will be one with God forever, and nothing can tear us away from him.

How happy are we to have been called to his supper. As Christians, we have signed on the dotted line, we have agreed to the new covenant. God promises us new life, an eternal life in Christ Jesus and forgiveness of sin, and his laws are written on our hearts. I’m sure we don’t need the Ten Commandments written down in front of us to know what’s right and wrong, and we know deep down, that God is present and acting in our lives. But while Jesus fulfilled the new covenant in his life and ministry, the promise of the new covenant is yet to be fully realised.

People continue to battle with their old flawed hearts. We still need to spell out the rules to people. Teachers and preachers are still needed. We struggle to forgive in the way that Jesus exemplified. Nonetheless, this sparkling diamond of restoration and renewal, shines brightly. We can see this happening today, especially when we see youth turning to Jesus in these unsettled times. In the United States, and here in Australia in the eastern states, a revival appears to be happening among the young. Jeremiah’s new covenant remains a hope, but it is a hope that is ongoing, and a hope that is certain to arrive fully in God’s future time. Jeremiah gives us words of encouragement when he boldly tells us, “the days are surely coming, says the LORD, the days are surely coming.”

Ame n