Year B

John 12:20-33

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn      

The Heartbeat of the New Covenant

Some of us began this season of Lent with a cross of ashes on our forehead and today we learn the real meaning of those ashes, as we are offered the heart of Lent. The texts today call us to hear that heartbeat: to allow it to become the centering tempo for our lives. Jeremiah looked to a time when the heartbeat would be written within by means of what he called a new covenant known by all Israelites. Each person would know the law within and would be able to live naturally with it. This theme of covenant has been very prominent throughout the readings for this Lent. We saw it on the first Sunday of Lent in the story of the covenant made with Noah and all creation after the flood.

On Lent 2, we read about the covenant made with Abraham and Sarah, and then on Lent 3, the covenant at Sinai through the giving of the Law or ten commandments to Moses. Last week, we read of the grace of God given through Jesus, who is the heartbeat of God’s covenant for all people. This new covenant that is written on the heart is made possible by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God, it seems, never tires of trying to reach out to us, to renew a relationship with us. Jeremiah speaks about a day when a whole new relationship with God will be created, one unlike any other before it. Jesus would later use what Jeremiah says that this new covenant or relationship with God is exactly what his mission is about on earth.

In Jeremiah’s day, the covenant between God and the people had been broken by their sins and unfaithfulness bringing judgment upon them. Based upon the law given through Moses, that covenant had in essence been annulled by the actions of the people. If the relationship was to be restored it would take something new, like a whole new covenant. It seems that God is saying that the relationship had to start all over again, but based on a real and true love for God within the hearts of the people. The problem was not the law but the human heart. The people needed to love and obey God, from within, not because the law tells them to do so but because their heart tells them so. The law or Ten Commandments help provide ways to show that love.

What God truly desires is a depth of intimacy, “I will be their God, and they shall be my people…they shall all know me…for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.” God desires a union of heart and mind, a daily relationship that deepens and grows. Later, Jesus becomes the one who makes God known to us and is the bridge to God. He becomes what the human heart and law could not do because this new covenant cannot just be based on human love but on the grace and forgiveness of God. God reaches out in gracious forgiveness to make this new relationship possible, to write the law on our hearts.

Grace is God’s answer to our sin, a grace that is most fully expressed in the one whom the writer of Hebrews calls our great high priest and who, in the gospel lesson, gives up his life to bring life. In the heart of Jesus, we see that perfect obedience and love for God. And through him we find forgiveness for our failure to love and serve God. Through him we receive new hearts that hunger daily to know, love and serve God. We see the fulfillment in Christ of the hope of the new covenant for which Jeremiah lived. Christ is the one priest, in whose sacrifice we know the highest, deepest meaning of priesthood and servanthood.

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews was apparently trying to help Jewish Christians who were thinking about abandoning their newfound faith. The author writes to convince them that in Christ they have everything they need. He gives reasons for Christ’s superiority. Like all high priests, Christ did not appoint himself to this role but was called by God and this role is unique and special, like that of Melchizedek, but even greater. Some traditions say Melchizedek was both a king and a priest, living in Jerusalem before King David took over that city. The role of the great high priest was to identify with the people and represent his people before God, interceding for them as did Moses. He was to make a sacrifice for the sins of the people on the Day of Atonement.

There was the belief that the Messiah had to be both a king and a priest so like Melchizedek, Jesus was both king and priest but even greater. This passage from Hebrews fits well with the gospel portrayal of Jesus priestly role’ as both one who intercedes with compassion for the people and the source of salvation for all the world.  It seemed all the world was in Jerusalem for the festival of Passover. The crowds including some Greeks have flocked to see Jesus during this last week of his life. The request of the Greeks, seem to be a pivotal moment for Jesus.

It seems like this is a sign that he has been looking for, for he then begins to speak of his death. A powerful statement by him to his disciples regarding not only what is to happen but also what it means. One more time he tries to tell them what his mission is. The Gentiles are beginning to see, to hear, and to seek him. It may be that Jesus knows this cannot continue to bear fruit until he, like a seed, dies, is buried, and then grows to yield a hundred fold and more. It cannot happen as Jesus of Nazareth that the Gentiles come to believe but only after the cross and the resurrected Lord that the message could be planted in the hearts of the Gentiles—just as his own disciples and missionaries like Paul will do and of which we read about in the book of Acts.

By Jesus’ death and resurrection eternal life comes to all who hear and believe, who wish to see him as did those Greeks. And forces are converging to produce the decisive confrontation that will lead to his being lifted up to God allowing all people to be drawn to him, when he is lifted up. These words in John’s gospel take us to the heart of why the cross continues to draw us to Jesus. In him, God takes the burden of our sins from us and our hearts can’t help but melt before God’s forgiveness and grace.

Jesus is our Great High priest, our Mediator acting now through God’s Spirit as a bridge between us and God. We may think we initiate the quest for God but the truth is that God already created a hunger in our hearts to be in covenant with God. Jesus in order for us to have this new relationship with God endured the worst experience in human life to show us God’s love and to save us. And there are no circumstances that can separate us from the love of God in Christ. This is the new covenant the heartbeat of the gospel and God intends for the children of the new covenant to look and act like children of God in a violent world; a world that desperately needs to know God’s love and forgiveness.