Readings: Exodus 12:1-14 | 1 Corinthians 11:23-32 | John 12:1-15, 34-35
Text: Jeremiah 31:31-34
Jesus, being a God-fearing Jew, celebrated the Lord’s Passover every year—as a child and as an adult. But on the night in which He was betrayed, something fundamental was on the verge of changing. He was ending the covenant which God had ratified on Sinai with the blood of bulls.
The old covenant, to which the Passover belongs, was perfect. It was holy. It promised eternal life, as the Lord says in Leviticus 18:5: “If a person does my statutes and rules, he shall live by them. I am the Lord.” The problem for Israel is the same problem for us: the old covenant can only give life through perfect obedience.
Not a single one of Moses’ hearers could do this, even if they eagerly replied, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.”[1] No matter how willing the spirit was, the flesh was too weak to do it. No matter how severe the curses for disobedience, it could not conjure up the required obedience of the heart which was demanded. No matter how much blood was spilled in circumcision, the sons of Adam were not capable of putting off their sinful flesh.
The result of this was widespread death: “just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned…death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam.”[2] Because the power to obey the Law was not in us, all the old covenant could do was expose sin upon sin. So, the Lord was right when He said that His people continually broke His covenant.
Therefore, He continued, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.”[3] This new covenant does for sinners what the old one never could. Like the old, it relies on works. But it doesn’t rely on the corrupt works of the sons of Adam. The new covenant is founded on the work of God’s Righteous One. And it is given to those sinners, dead through the Law, as a complete gift.
The Righteous One was the only one who could bring this new covenant, because He is also the only One who could satisfy the requirements of the old. All of the statutes and rules which God commanded Israel, down to the last jot and tittle, He did. And He lived by them. But, He didn’t stop there! He also answered for the death earned by all those under the old covenant. The Law said, “If you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God…then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.” As St. Paul later wrote, “He redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.’”[4]
The new covenant became a blessing , not only to Jesus for His obedience, but even more for all who are united to Him through faith. It meant that not only are the covenant-breakers counted righteous, but they are brought into even closer union with their God:
“After those days, declares the Lord, I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.”
The new covenant brought more than head knowledge, or an outward obedience. It brought a knowing of the Lord in the biblical sense—an intimate bond forged between the Heavenly Bridegroom, Christ, and His bride. The old covenant was bound by the flesh of bulls and goats, but the new covenant becomes a one-flesh union through the shedding of the Bridegroom’s blood for His beloved.
And that union continues to be stronger than head knowledge. It continues to this day to be a one-flesh union, even though we await our Bridegroom’s return from heaven. He continues with us by giving us the tokens of this new covenant—“This is My Body, given for you; this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.”[5]
The result of this is the closer union to our God, not one of obedient slaves, but one of family. God has adopted you as flesh and blood children through the flesh and blood of Jesus. You are righteous before God, and all your sins are forgiven. You have eternal life through the death and resurrection of your Savior. You share in that union tonight, as we celebrate the night when Jesus changed everything and moved us into this new covenant.
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
[1] Exodus 24:3
[2] Romans 5:12, 14
[3] Jeremiah 31:31
[4] Galatians 3:13, Deuteronomy 21:23
[5] Luke 22
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