Jeremiah 31:31-34
We are living under the New Covenant. The old one was legalistic. You had to obey every one of the rules or you would be lost. We still have the rules and laws, but they should be planted in our hearts and minds. We should obey them not to earn anything, but because we want to respond to God’s love.
This might be a very controversial law of man, but it can illustrate the New and Old Covenants. The National Rifle Association (NRA) is always fighting to preserve the Second Amendment, which gives everyone the right to carry a gun. That can be literally true, but if we put it in our heart, we find that the welfare of others should come first. We are even supposed to love our enemies! We would rather be killed than to kill! Yes, there are some times when we might use our gun to save someone else! We hope that would be the only reason. Even so, we still might need forgiveness.
It is interesting that the analogy here is that we are a bride to the Lord. In other places, we are children to the Lord.
Poor Habakkuk married a prostitute so he could know how God felt when we were unfaithful and deserted him. Jesus is the bridegroom, and his church is his bride. We are one bride, and not a collection of denominational brides. I always wondered why God couldn’t just make statements and laws rather than have us live through an experience to learn how he feels. It would be so much simpler.
It may not be simpler in real life. I had to grow up with good parents to correct me and get me on the right track. It wasn’t until I had children of my own that I realized what God had been doing through them back then. And it is important that I knew my folks did it out of love. Everything that God does to us, he does out of love.
When God is in our hearts, we no longer need to memorize laws. We will live by them automatically.
There is a distinction between knowing God and knowing about God. Going through seminary gives us all kinds of information about God -- not that it is not important! But the assumption is that we would not be there if we did not know God. When someone knows God, you feel it in the way they live. If they lead a caring, loving life, we can see it and we can feel God working in them and through them.
Our goal must be to let God into our hearts as well as our minds, so that we can be good brides and children of his.
Bob O.
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Dr. Stan Toler wrote that in 1932, Aldous Huxley looked into the future and saw the terrifying vision of an insane society. Described in the novel Brave New World, it was a vision that has in many ways come to life.
Some 2,500 years earlier, the prophet Jeremiah also looked into the future. He too presented a radically different vision of reality. But Jeremiah’s vision was as bright as it was brave -- and as sacred as it was sane. He pictured a day in which the old ways of thinking about right and wrong, love and duty, sin and forgiveness would give way to a fresh touch of mercy and grace. He saw a Brave New Covenant, a new deal that God would make with his people through Jesus Christ.
And that vision has definitely come to life. It is a brave and blessed new day for those who have the faith to accept it. Dr. Toler said that this brave new covenant was: First: A covenant of relationships, and not rules. Second: A covenant of desire, not duty. Third: A covenant of forgiveness, not fear.
Toler concludes: “The future is now. Jeremiah, living some 600 years before the time of Christ, could only dream of the day when God would enter the hearts of people and live there. We can experience it. It’s a brave new world because of a brave new covenant. God extends the hand of mercy and restoration through faith in Jesus Christ. Now it’s your move. Are you willing to enter the brave new covenant?”
(From the sermon “Brave New Covenant” by Stan Toler; used by permission)
Derl K.
Jeremiah 31:31-34
“The difference, therefore, between the old and the new covenants consists in this, that in the old the law was laid down before the people that they might accept it and follow it, receiving it into their hearts, as the copy of what God not merely required of men, but offered and vouchsafed to them for their happiness; while in the new it is put within, implanted into the heart and soul by the Spirit of God, and becomes the animating life-principle (2 Corinthians 3:3).... [T]he difference between the two consists merely in this, that the will of God as expressed in the law under the old covenant was presented externally to the people, while under the new covenant it is to become an internal principle of life” (C.F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, The Prophecies of Jeremiah [Volume II],translated by James Kennedy, p. 38).
Frank R.
Hebrews 5:5-10
No matter who, the greatest critics of Christianity of the last 2,000 years have expressed great admiration for Jesus. Famed British author and atheist H.G. Wells called him “easily the most dominant figure in all history.” But though you would think that Christians like us would lead the pack in saying how great Jesus is, sometimes it seems that we do not give him all the credit we should. We fail to give him credit for being a man who walked in our shoes.
John Calvin nicely explains this characteristic of Jesus in explaining why he is said in the lesson (vv. 7-8) to have offered up prayers to avoid suffering: “...He said this that no one might think that Christ had an iron heart which felt nothing; for we ought always to consider why a thing is said. Had Christ not been touched by no sorrow, no consolation could arise to us from His sufferings; but when we hear that He also endured the bitterest agonies of mind, the likeness becomes then evident to us” (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol. XXII/1, pp. 120-121).
Elaborating on this point, Martin Luther claims that “Therefore we exult and rejoice that... God died, and bore our sins on the Cross in His own body” (Luther’s Works, Vol. 15, p. 343). This is good news, the Reformer adds: “Therefore a Christian, as a child of God, must always rejoice, always sing, fear nothing, always be free from care, and always glory in God” (Luther’s Works, Vol. 29, p. 177).
Mark E.
Hebrews 5:5-10
It is worthwhile to summarize the characteristic note in which (5th-century writer and theologian) Primasius enumerates three main points in which the high-priesthood of Christ was, like that of Melchizedek, contrasted with the high-priesthood of Aaron:
(1) It was not the fulfillment of legal sacrifices, sacrifices of bulls and goats; but for the offering of bread and wine, answering to Christ’s Body and Blood. Animal offerings have ceased: these remain.
(2) Melchizedek combined the kingly with the priestly dignity: he was anointed not with oil but with the Holy Spirit.
(3) Melchizedek appeared once: so Christ offered himself once.
Two features in Melchizedek’s priesthood appear to be specially present to the mind of the writer: (1) that it was connected to the kingly office, and (2) that it was not made dependent on any fleshly descent, or limited by conditions of time. Melchizedek had no recorded ancestry and no privileged line of descendants. He represented... a universal priesthood (Brook Foss Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews: The Greek Text with Notes and Essays, p. 123).
Frank R.
John 12:20-33
Servanthood is a much needed commodity in our society of “getting ahead... of you, them, and everyone!” The essence of being a servant is full consecration and sanctification. Minimally, it is taking up the cross and following Jesus. We take up the cross so that we can follow him, be like him, and share him with others.
Saint Francis of Assisi expressed it correctly:
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon,
Where there is doubt, faith,
Where there is despair, hope,
Where there is sadness, joy,
Where there is darkness, light.
O Divine Master:
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Let’s covenant together to become servants in this world of desperate need!
Derl K.
John 12:20-33
It sounds like Philip wants some backup from other disciples to tell Jesus. They didn’t even bring the seekers directly to Jesus. Was it because they were Greeks? Gentiles? They still weren’t quite sure how far Jesus’ love went.
The implication seems to be that now the hour had come when his message was going to all the world.
Jesus loves farming illustrations. We presume that most of his listeners were farmers. But even his disciples were puzzled. I don’t recall if Jesus had any farmers in his gang. Besides being mostly fishermen, they had other occupations. Most of the people in the pews today might not be farmers, so we will need an explanation since Jesus is talking about seeds falling to the ground.
The farmer drops the seed into the ground. It is interesting to know that the seed has to die before it can produce more seeds. The implication here is not that we have to die in order to serve our Lord, but that we have to die to ourselves -- to our own interests! This passage is very difficult to take too literally!
This does not mean that we have to hate our job or our family or our friends or our hobbies or other activities or entertainments. It is not even against God’s law to watch TV -- just as long as it doesn’t become the center of our lives! Yes, there are times when we can hate our life, but Jesus means that we should hate anything that will pull us away from him.
The opportunity to follow Jesus is a great privilege, but we have to be aware where it can lead. He is thinking of the cross as he prays that it may pass from him. No, he is not looking forward to it -- but if it is the will of his Father, he must obey. I think his humanity is showing through. He can understand our thoughts also, as we may dread the price we might have to pay for following him.
I appreciate that Jesus has human fears and desires like I have, but he did not sin. If he knew it was the will of his Father, then he must obey. He feared for the cross, as any thinking person would. He might have thought of a pleasant life, married to one of the Marys and doing carpentry work to support them. If he was not attracted to Mary, then he couldn’t understand the temptations we all have. But he resisted, knowing what lay before him.
Only through him can the prince of darkness be driven out.
Bob O.
