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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Whether or not we have read them (and, probably more often than not, we have not read them), we are probably familiar with at least the existence of service providers’ “terms and conditions”, to which “terms and conditions” we must agree, usually by a simple click, if we want to use the providers’ service. These “terms of service”, or “terms of use”, often are written in such a way that objective standards rate them to be, by the average consumer, un-readable. And violations of such terms of service agreements have been the subject of notable lawsuits involving companies such as America Online, Sony, and Instagram. (Wikipedia.)
Such “terms and conditions” in some ways are both similar and dissimilar to Biblical covenants—covenants like that “new covenant” referred to in all three of the appointed Readings for Holy (or Maundy) Thursday. We might say that they are similar in that service providers’ “terms and conditions” and the “new covenant” are both set forth as they are, for us either to take as they are or to leave. We might say that they are dissimilar in that the “terms of service” agreement is used mainly by companies for the purposes of legal enforcement and the “new covenant” is used by God to forgive sins. Considering especially the Gospel Reading tonight, we realize that key elements of the “new covenant” are “Christ’s Body and Blood for you”.
Far more than a “terms of use” agreement or any other sort of contract, Biblical covenants are God’s free declarations of His will related to our salvation. Such covenants usually included signs (signs like the rainbow or circumcision), sacrifices (sacrifices that were often cut in two), oaths (oaths that were sealed with blessings and curses), and meals (meals that were shared between both parties to the covenant). Each successive Biblical covenant looked forward to the last “new covenant” that would fulfill and surpass all the covenants that had preceded it. And, in tonight’s Gospel Reading, the Divinely‑inspired St. Luke among the evangelists uniquely records Jesus’s making clear that the cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in His blood (confer 1 Corinthians 11:25), recalling, among others the prophecy of Jeremiah in tonight’s Old Testament Reading (Jeremiah 31:31-34), which prophecy is itself expounded in tonight’s Epistle Reading (Hebrews 10:15-25).
In that prophecy of Jeremiah, God refers to His people’s breaking the covenant that He made with their fathers when He took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt, and we rightly think especially of the “terms and conditions” of the Ten Commandments that God gave through Moses on Mt. Sinai. Yet, even before that covenant, as before the first covenant with Noah, the wickedness of people was great in the earth, every intention of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually (Genesis 6:5). You and I are no exception! We are that sinful by nature, and our sinful nature leads us to commit all kinds of actual sins: voluntary and involuntary sins; sins against God and sins against our neighbors, including ourselves; thoughts, words, and deeds; omitted and committed; some sins that leave believers in their state of grace and other sins that drive the Holy Spirit from believers, requiring their re‑conversion in order for them to be forgiven. Of course, our sinful nature and any one of our actual sins by itself warrants both death here and now and torment in hell for eternity, apart from our repenting of our sin and our trusting God to forgive our sin, as He enables us to repent and trust. On our own, we have nothing to contribute to any covenant: we can only receive what God gives us out of His great love, mercy, and grace for Jesus’s sake.
Such generosity of God is seen in the Gospel Reading, for example, as Jesus, true God in human flesh, Who had no place in the guest room when He was born (Luke 2:7), and Who otherwise had nowhere to lay His head (Luke 9:58), miraculously provided a place for Him and His disciples to eat the Passover. Such generosity of God is seen as Jesus not only fulfilled the “terms and conditions” of all the previous covenants but also on the cross bore the curses human kind deserved for breaking them. Such generosity of God is seen as Jesus startlingly distributed bread and gave His Body and poured out a cup that was the new covenant in His Blood. Christ’s Body given and His Blood shed is not only for His disciples but also for all the people of Israel and for all the people of every nation, from the least of them to the greatest. “Christ’s Body and Blood for you”! For, as you repent and trust in Christ’s death on the cross for you, the Lord forgives your iniquity and remembers your sin no more. As the Epistle Reading makes clear, so effectively and completely does God forgive you that no additional sacrifice for sin is needed, ever.
With respect to God, Christ pours out His Blood as the cost of your forgiveness, and, with respect to you, Christ pours out His Blood as the means of your receiving that forgiveness. As Christ’s disciples had a role in instituting the Holy Supper of His Body and His Blood, so their successors are ministers of the new covenant and preach His Gospel and administer the Sacrament of the Altar and His other Sacraments (2 Corinthians 3:6)—Holy Baptism and Holy Absoluton—for those are the ways that God chooses to deal with us. As described in the Epistle Reading, we draw near to Him, where He is present, with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. We hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He Who promised is faithful. And, we consider how to stir one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
As the Lord forgives your iniquity and remembers your sin no more, He puts His law within your minds and on your hearts. Already with the old covenant mediated by Moses, God’s deliverance at least ideally was to lead His people to love and good works, or, more specifically, to keep His Commandments. The old covenant said as much: He was the Lord Your God, Who brought You out of the land of Egypt, and so you will have no other gods before Him, not take His name in vain, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, and the like (Exodus 20:2-17). The new covenant mediated by Christ couples God’s forgiveness with not only such an external guide for good works, namely God’s Word, but also with an internal guide for good works, namely the law within your minds and on your hearts. So, He is our God, and we are His people, a people He has purified for Himself for His own possession who at least try to be zealous for such good works (Titus 2:14). We believe in Him and confess our relationship with Him, including confessing the sins that we still continue to commit and for which sins, with daily contrition and faith, we continue to seek His forgiveness, including by seeking and receiving “Christ’s Body and Blood for you”.
The new covenant includes the “mandate” for us to “do this in remembrance” of Him, but really He is doing it all for us, enabling us to participate in, or commune with, His Body and Blood (1 Corinthians 10:16-17). Here is the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Here is the basis for our being content and joyful, no matter the trials that He in His wisdom permits us to face. Here is peace with God, and so from here we can depart in peace, until we eat and drink with Him at the marriage supper of the Lamb in His Kingdom that has no end (Revelation 19:9).
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +