Jeremiah 31:31-34 (Good News Translation)
31 The Lord says, “The time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.
32 It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. Although I was like a husband to them, they did not keep that covenant.
33 The new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel will be this: I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
34 None of them will have to teach a neighbour to know the Lord, because all will know me, from the least to the greatest. I will forgive their sins and I will no longer remember their wrongs. I, the Lord, have spoken.”
Mark 10:17-31 (NIV)
17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honour your father and mother.’”
20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”
21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”
24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
26 The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”
27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”
28 Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”
29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.
31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
31 The Lord says, “The time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.
32 It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. Although I was like a husband to them, they did not keep that covenant.
33 The new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel will be this: I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
34 None of them will have to teach a neighbour to know the Lord, because all will know me, from the least to the greatest. I will forgive their sins and I will no longer remember their wrongs. I, the Lord, have spoken.”
Mark 10:17-31 (NIV)
17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honour your father and mother.’”
20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”
21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”
24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
26 The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”
27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”
28 Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”
29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.
31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
Reflection
Lent is a period of time when we are given a space of time to think, to reflect, to ponder those things which we usually dismiss. You know things like sin, regret, times when we refrained from acting or speaking, all those things we should have done, I don’t know about you, but it is beginning to dawn on me, that as I get older the less I feel I should interfere, intrude, and the more I am aware that I should. It’s a conundrum!
I’m kind of like the rich young man without the rich part. I want to do good, to do the right thing, I want to have a close relationship with God but….I’m not willing to give up anything – not possessions, not ideas, not friends, not anything! and that is exactly what Jesus tells the rich young man to do. Give it all up: status, money, houses, parties, friends, family, good restaurants, for who knows what following Jesus. The rich young man didn’t even stick around to hear what else Jesus had to say about the impediment riches can be because of our attachment to them or hear Peter, one of Jesus’ own disciples, worry about his future.
Peter, along with his brother, Andrew, were fishermen and the first two disciples called by Jesus and as Peter explains; they left everything and everyone to follow Jesus. They were the first two people who put their faith in this man, Jesus. They did the right thing, he did the right thing; and now Jesus is telling them getting into the Kingdom of God is no easy thing and even harder for the rich.
Does it surprise you? Ah, probably not, you’ve heard this scripture passage before and we hardly ever associate ourselves with the rich young man; we’re not rich enough, we wouldn’t have turned our backs on Jesus and walked away, probably a good thing we weren’t there and Jesus isn’t telling us what to do to have eternal life.
But I don’t think it is any easier for us today, separated by all these centuries, if anything, as a society, we seem to confer more respect and wisdom on rich people than they deserve. Thinking that if they have been able to amass riches then they must be doing something right, if they have been able to gain fame and fortune they must have some secret formula and if we could just get it, then, we too will be respected and wise – oh yeah, and rich. What is it about stuff and money that claims our hearts and minds and impoverishes our souls?
What do we truly desire? There always seems to be something on my list and usually the Kingdom of God or eternal life is not at the top. And yet for the disciples, especially Peter, it is a burning question: “Who then can be saved?”, “We have left everything to follow you!”
Today, we live in what we call a secular age, a time when we cannot take for granted that religious questions are important, or at least important in the way they were up until about 500 years ago. And yet, I think some of the questions (and answers) still linger: What gives my life meaning and purpose? What is real? What is important? What is the difference between right and wrong? What is right and wrong based on? What happens when I die? Well, there’s always lots of questions. And who we are, what we believe helps frame the answers.
Being a Christian helps make some of those answers easier, at least, I have some frame of reference for the answers, I have scriptures to lean into and study, I have practices that help me listen for God’s word for my life, I have companions on the way – that’s you by the way, and I have Jesus as a guide.
My quest might not be for eternal life like the rich young man, but I yearn for that deeper, richer life I know is available in Christ. Jesus’ experience of God as “Abba” paves the way for us to have a relationship with God. When Jesus announces the arrival of the new covenant as he breaks the bread and pours the wine at the Last Supper (Luke 22:19-20) he echoes the passage we heard from Jeremiah this morning:
33 The new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel will be this:
I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
34 None of them will have to teach a neighbour to know the Lord, because all
will know me, from the least to the greatest. I will forgive their sins and
I will no longer remember their wrongs. I, the Lord, have spoken.”
The old covenant, the Mosaic laws and the 613 laws in Deuteronomy were superseded, when in Matt. 5:17 Jesus says: “I have not come to abolish the Law (of Moses) or the Prophets but to fulfill them”. This new covenant was always waiting in the wings from the time of Jeremiah, Jesus was the longed for and long awaited Messiah ushering in the Kingdom of God and a new vision of Israel’s relationship with God.
The Old Covenant had been a blessing for the Israelites. It provided them with laws to govern their behaviour. It promised them spiritual and material and even military blessings if they obeyed that law and remained true to the covenant. God even instituted in that covenant the office of high priest so that the people would have someone to offer sacrifices on their behalf and represent them in the presence of God. That old covenant provided a sacrificial system in which the blood of bulls and goats at least temporarily enabled them to remain in fellowship with God. The Old Covenant under Moses was filled with grace, mercy, and love.
Jesus carries this tradition forward, in Mark 14:22-24, at the Passover meal with his disciples,
22 While they were eating, Jesus took bread,
and when he had given thanks, he broke it
and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it;
this is my body.”
23 Then he took a cup, and when he had given
thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank
from it.
24 “This is my blood of the new covenant,
which is poured out for many,”
The New Covenant is filled with grace, mercy and love and a direct relationship with God. That maybe didn’t sound like such a big thing when Jesus was around with the disciples and the Temple stood as sacred ground for all the Jews. But by 70 CE, about 35-40 years after the death of Jesus, the Temple is totally destroyed by the Romans and the Jews dispersed or put to death. The Temple system is gone, and the rabbinic-synagogue system remains in place to this day.
There is still a place within Judaism for Jesus but his words and example, Jesus the Messiah, prophet and teacher spread much wider into the Gentile world. His followers in the first two hundred years after his death became known by and called themselves many names: the Way, Brothers and Sisters, Enslaved of God, the Body of the Anointed, most were people who identified with the traditions of Israel and often thought of themselves as Paul says: a branch grafted onto the root of Israel.
They all identified themselves as followers of Jesus the Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah, they all saw themselves as part of the New Covenant, and they all understood themselves to be children of the One Holy God of Israel, who says in Jeremiah: "I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people."
As Christians, this Word is for us; from a loving God, full of grace and compassion. We are people of the New Covenant, followers of Jesus, giving life to the Good News of the gospel in a world that needs our witness and our prayers.
May it be so. Amen
Lent is a period of time when we are given a space of time to think, to reflect, to ponder those things which we usually dismiss. You know things like sin, regret, times when we refrained from acting or speaking, all those things we should have done, I don’t know about you, but it is beginning to dawn on me, that as I get older the less I feel I should interfere, intrude, and the more I am aware that I should. It’s a conundrum!
I’m kind of like the rich young man without the rich part. I want to do good, to do the right thing, I want to have a close relationship with God but….I’m not willing to give up anything – not possessions, not ideas, not friends, not anything! and that is exactly what Jesus tells the rich young man to do. Give it all up: status, money, houses, parties, friends, family, good restaurants, for who knows what following Jesus. The rich young man didn’t even stick around to hear what else Jesus had to say about the impediment riches can be because of our attachment to them or hear Peter, one of Jesus’ own disciples, worry about his future.
Peter, along with his brother, Andrew, were fishermen and the first two disciples called by Jesus and as Peter explains; they left everything and everyone to follow Jesus. They were the first two people who put their faith in this man, Jesus. They did the right thing, he did the right thing; and now Jesus is telling them getting into the Kingdom of God is no easy thing and even harder for the rich.
Does it surprise you? Ah, probably not, you’ve heard this scripture passage before and we hardly ever associate ourselves with the rich young man; we’re not rich enough, we wouldn’t have turned our backs on Jesus and walked away, probably a good thing we weren’t there and Jesus isn’t telling us what to do to have eternal life.
But I don’t think it is any easier for us today, separated by all these centuries, if anything, as a society, we seem to confer more respect and wisdom on rich people than they deserve. Thinking that if they have been able to amass riches then they must be doing something right, if they have been able to gain fame and fortune they must have some secret formula and if we could just get it, then, we too will be respected and wise – oh yeah, and rich. What is it about stuff and money that claims our hearts and minds and impoverishes our souls?
What do we truly desire? There always seems to be something on my list and usually the Kingdom of God or eternal life is not at the top. And yet for the disciples, especially Peter, it is a burning question: “Who then can be saved?”, “We have left everything to follow you!”
Today, we live in what we call a secular age, a time when we cannot take for granted that religious questions are important, or at least important in the way they were up until about 500 years ago. And yet, I think some of the questions (and answers) still linger: What gives my life meaning and purpose? What is real? What is important? What is the difference between right and wrong? What is right and wrong based on? What happens when I die? Well, there’s always lots of questions. And who we are, what we believe helps frame the answers.
Being a Christian helps make some of those answers easier, at least, I have some frame of reference for the answers, I have scriptures to lean into and study, I have practices that help me listen for God’s word for my life, I have companions on the way – that’s you by the way, and I have Jesus as a guide.
My quest might not be for eternal life like the rich young man, but I yearn for that deeper, richer life I know is available in Christ. Jesus’ experience of God as “Abba” paves the way for us to have a relationship with God. When Jesus announces the arrival of the new covenant as he breaks the bread and pours the wine at the Last Supper (Luke 22:19-20) he echoes the passage we heard from Jeremiah this morning:
33 The new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel will be this:
I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
34 None of them will have to teach a neighbour to know the Lord, because all
will know me, from the least to the greatest. I will forgive their sins and
I will no longer remember their wrongs. I, the Lord, have spoken.”
The old covenant, the Mosaic laws and the 613 laws in Deuteronomy were superseded, when in Matt. 5:17 Jesus says: “I have not come to abolish the Law (of Moses) or the Prophets but to fulfill them”. This new covenant was always waiting in the wings from the time of Jeremiah, Jesus was the longed for and long awaited Messiah ushering in the Kingdom of God and a new vision of Israel’s relationship with God.
The Old Covenant had been a blessing for the Israelites. It provided them with laws to govern their behaviour. It promised them spiritual and material and even military blessings if they obeyed that law and remained true to the covenant. God even instituted in that covenant the office of high priest so that the people would have someone to offer sacrifices on their behalf and represent them in the presence of God. That old covenant provided a sacrificial system in which the blood of bulls and goats at least temporarily enabled them to remain in fellowship with God. The Old Covenant under Moses was filled with grace, mercy, and love.
Jesus carries this tradition forward, in Mark 14:22-24, at the Passover meal with his disciples,
22 While they were eating, Jesus took bread,
and when he had given thanks, he broke it
and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it;
this is my body.”
23 Then he took a cup, and when he had given
thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank
from it.
24 “This is my blood of the new covenant,
which is poured out for many,”
The New Covenant is filled with grace, mercy and love and a direct relationship with God. That maybe didn’t sound like such a big thing when Jesus was around with the disciples and the Temple stood as sacred ground for all the Jews. But by 70 CE, about 35-40 years after the death of Jesus, the Temple is totally destroyed by the Romans and the Jews dispersed or put to death. The Temple system is gone, and the rabbinic-synagogue system remains in place to this day.
There is still a place within Judaism for Jesus but his words and example, Jesus the Messiah, prophet and teacher spread much wider into the Gentile world. His followers in the first two hundred years after his death became known by and called themselves many names: the Way, Brothers and Sisters, Enslaved of God, the Body of the Anointed, most were people who identified with the traditions of Israel and often thought of themselves as Paul says: a branch grafted onto the root of Israel.
They all identified themselves as followers of Jesus the Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah, they all saw themselves as part of the New Covenant, and they all understood themselves to be children of the One Holy God of Israel, who says in Jeremiah: "I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people."
As Christians, this Word is for us; from a loving God, full of grace and compassion. We are people of the New Covenant, followers of Jesus, giving life to the Good News of the gospel in a world that needs our witness and our prayers.
May it be so. Amen
