Sermon for Holy Thursday

33But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel 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.  Jeremiah 33:33

Remember this line from the Gospel reading for Palm Sunday? We heard this, that the “disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him” (John 12:16). Jesus teaches his disciples, including us, of course, explaining to us why he did what he did. As we, tonight, meditate on that ho ly supper that Jesus instituted on the night he was betrayed, we learn from him “these things that had been written about him and had been done to him.” Receiving the body and blood of Jesus, who has since been glorified is the best way for us to gain understanding and faith in what our Lord did for us on the Cross.

He had promised, back in Jeremiah’s day, that He would make a new covenant with his beloved people. “I will make a new covenant”, he said. Not like the old one the Israel broke in their disobedience and idolatry.

Throughout the Bible, God made covenants with people. He made a covenant with Noah and made the rainbow, promising to keep the world going now, not destroying in it again in that way. God made a covenant with Abraham, telling him to leave your home country and go to a new land I am giving you and I will bless you there and like the stars of the skies, so many shall your offspring be, and all nations of the earth will be blessed by one particular Offspring.

Covenants are sometimes made, man to man. Maybe as a business agreement, or a friendship, an alliance. The marriage of a husband and a wife is a covenant between them, sealed when they make their vows and promises to each other. A covenant from God is like that, but different in some very significant ways.   First of all, it is very one sided with God. In this covenant he is cutting with us, he is the one doing it all. He doesn’t work out an agreement with us as though he needs our contribution or our attention. There is nothing we have that he lacks. He makes a covenant with us simply because he wants to be our God and he wants us to be his people. What’s more, With God, it is an everlasting covenant. We need not fear that he will break it or change it. Even the old Covenant, it wasn’t he that broke it. But Israel, his people did. So he says, “I’ll make a new one.” So just like Israel had 12 tribes, from the 12 sons of Jacob, whom God called Israel, So now Jesus takes 12 apostles and makes a new covenant with the new Israel.

We who believe, are brought into that new covenant and it makes us new. Here’s what God does to us with this new covenant: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.” The law of the Lord is, simply put, love. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your strength. And love your neighbor as yourself. On the night our Lord instituted the Holy Supper, he told his disciples, “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another” (John 13:34). That’s why this is called Maundy Thursday, because of that commandment or mandate, all related words.

An essential result of the New Covenant, written on the heart, is a new love for God and a new love for others.

With his death on the cross, our Lord Jesus did what it took, to pay for all the sins of all the world. By his death on the cross, he redeemed all the world. Now, because of that he is ready and able to make a new covenant with you. On the cross it’s for all. In the cup, it’s for you. He says, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”

Jesus serves you his body to eat and his blood to drink, because he wants to make this new covenant with you. He wants to assure you that He is your God, and you are His people.

Amen.