“The New Covenant”
God made a deal, an arrangement, a covenant with his Old
Testament people. “I will be your God,
and you will be my people.” But there
were stipulations. Commandments must be
kept. Sacrifices must be made. Clean and unclean laws would be
followed. A whole system was given to
Moses and carried out by the Aaronic priesthood. God was merciful in giving them this
sacrificial system, this covenant, to deal with their sin. And so it went for 1500 or so years, from the
Exodus in Egypt up until this very night that we commemorate, Holy Thursday.
On this night, the prophecy of Jeremiah was fulfilled. On this night, a new covenant was made. On this night, the night when he was
betrayed, our Lord Jesus Christ took bread, and when he had given thanks, gave
it to his disciples and said, “take eat, this is my body which is given for
you. This do in remembrance of me.” In the very same way, he also took the cup
after supper, gave thanks, and then said, “drink of it all of you, this cup is
the New Testament (or New Covenant) in my blood, which is shed for you for the
forgiveness of sins. This do as often as
you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
A New Covenant.
Established in an upper room over a quiet meal with 12 disciples. Quite a contrast to the Old Covenant, which
was established at Mount Siani with 12 whole tribes. Although that Old Covenant was also sealed
with a meal, as the elders of the tribes ate and drank on the mountain, saw
God, and lived. So these disciples ate
and drank with the Son of God, and though he would die, they would live.
What was the problem, though, with the Old Covenant? Why did it need replacing? Had it reached the end of its warranty or was
God simply bored of it all?
Jeremiah tells us, “ [it will not be’ like the covenant that
I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them
out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke”
They had turned away from God’s covenant. They had forsaken his forgiveness. At first, turning to other gods, and
incurring his wrath, such that even the temple was destroyed and the ark of the
covenant lost. The people were
exiled. The Davidic line was broken,
because they had broken the covenant.
And yet, God is merciful.
That Old Covenant was good for a time, and it really did deal with sin,
but it was incomplete, insufficient. It
was, ultimately, only a shadow of greater things to come.
One of our great hymns puts it this way:
Not all the blood of beasts,
On Jewish altars
slain,
Could give the guilty conscience peace,
Or wash away its
stain.
But Christ, the heavenly Lamb,
Takes all our sins
away;
A sacrifice of nobler name,
And richer blood
than they.
It’s not that the sacrifices of the Old Testament didn’t DO
anything, they did. They were given for
the forgiveness of sins. They made
atonement for sin. They made the unclean
to be clean, etc. But they didn’t do it in and of themselves. They didn’t do it because there was any
inherent worth or value in the blood of bulls and lambs. They were a shadow, a sign, of greater things
to come.
And now we have in fullness what they received as a
precursor. We have in clarity what they
saw through murky shadows. We have
Christ the very lamb of God, his suffering, his cross, and even his
resurrection. We see him, the very image
of the eternal God, made flesh, like us in every way yet without sin. And we see him fulfilling everything – the
laws we couldn’t and the sacrifice that we can’t. We see him as the one to make atonement for
not just the Israelites, but for all people of all times and places.
The Jews observed the Passover in remembrance of God’s
deliverance from Egypt. It was more than
just a mental exercise of remembering, but more of a re-living, a re-enactment
of the lamb that they sacrificed to avoid the death of the firstborn, and the
hasty escape they would make from slavery.
But Jesus establishes this New Covenant in his blood, the
true Lamb of God, the one greater than Moses, who delivers us not from slavery
in Egypt but from bondage to sin. Not
from oppression by a pharaoh but from the clutches of the devil. His body and blood, given and shed on the
cross, are given to us in the New Covenant as a gift, guarantee, and pledge of
forgiveness, life and salvation. Rescue
from death and the devil. And a promise
of eternal life as our blessed inheritance.
And doing this in remembrance of him is also more than just
a mental exercise, or a ceremony to honor his memory. “In remembrance of me” means this sacrament
is established as an ongoing gift, to be kept and observed long after Jesus’
departure. In so doing, Jesus
establishes this new covenant not only with the 12 in the Upper Room, but with
all his people, even those yet to be born, all Christians of all time and
place.
The covenant at Sinai was only a shadow of what was to
come. What Jesus gave those disciples in
the upper room, and what he there also gives us, is a New Covenant in his
blood. The covenant of Sinai has been
fulfilled in the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the lamb who
once was slain, but now lives forever.
As we receive this precious gift again today, come in
repentance and faith, for God has made his covenant with you, by the blood of
Christ. “I will be your God, and you
will be my forgiven people, redeemed and rescued for eternal life.” Take and eat, take and drink, a believe in
Christ who gives us such precious promises, and such a blessed gift.
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