Bible Passage: Jeremiah 31:31-34
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: April 17, 2025

Bulletin – Maundy Thursday

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

At the center of our meditation tonight is one word:  “covenant.”  “Covenant” is a very important word in the Bible.  In fact, the Bible itself is divided into two main divisions, the Old Covenant (or more commonly called the Old Testament) and the New Covenant (or more commonly referred to as the New Testament).  A “covenant” (or testament) is a formal, many times legally-binding, agreement between parties.

The Thursday night before Jesus died, Maundy Thursday, this night, is pivotal when it comes to “covenant-talk” in our Bible.  Maundy Thursday is the hinge-point between the “old” and the “new” covenants.  It is this transition from the old to the new covenant that Jeremiah puts before us tonight in our text.

The prophet Jeremiah writes at perhaps the low-point in Israel’s history.  Jeremiah writes at the time when Jerusalem would be ransacked by the Babylonian army and God’s people in Judah were carried off into exile in Babylon.  Why?  How had things gotten so bad?  Why had things gotten to this point?

Things were not working out between Israel and God.  And it wasn’t God’s fault.  It never is!  It was Israel’s.  They had broken their end of a “covenant.”  That is why our text begins, Yes, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.  It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers, when I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt.  They broke that covenant of mine, although I was a husband to them. (v. 31-32)  The LORD had made a covenant with their fathers at the time he led Israel out of Egypt under Moses.  The LORD took them by the hand and led them to Mt. Sinai.  And there he made a covenant with them.  There he said to the people, “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.  Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation”…So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all the words the LORD had commanded him to speak.  The people all responded together,  “We will do everything the LORD has said!” (Exodus 19:5-8)

Almost sounds like they got married, doesn’t it?  They did!  The LORD took Israel as his bride.  He promised his faithfulness.  He said, “I will!”  Israel promised her faithfulness.  She said, “I will!”  A match made in heaven!  But she broke her promise.  They broke that covenant of mine, although I was a husband to them. (v. 32)  Israel committed spiritual adultery.  Her head was turned by other gods.  She flirted with them.  She fornicated with them. Like a woman unfaithful to her husband, so you, Israel, have been unfaithful to me,” declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 3:20)   Israel broke that old covenant.  So the LORD said, I will make a new covenant. (v. 31)

In the second half of our text the LORD describes how the new covenant will differ from the old.  The old covenant of Sinai was a covenant of external rules.  People needed to be taught the laws.   It all came at him from the “outside.”  The new covenant is described this way, I will put my law in their minds, and I will write it on their hearts.  I will be their God and they will be my people.  No longer will each one teach his neighbor, or each one teach his brother, saying, Know the LORD,” because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. (v. 33-34)  The new covenant is not “external,” but “internal.”  It is not a covenant that comes at you from outside, but it is a covenant that “gets inside you.”  A covenant of heart and mind.

What is it?  What is this “new covenant”?  The LORD tells us at the end of our text:  I will forgive their guilt, and I will remember their sins no more. (v. 34)  There is the “new covenant”!  Forgiveness!  Notice, this one is all the LORD!  He says, “I will forgive…I will not remember!”  Nowhere do we promise, “We will…”   This is a one-sided covenant.  He puts himself on the hook!  He promises to do something!  He obligates himself!  He asks for nothing from us!

All of this helps us understand what Jesus did in the upper room on that first Maundy Thursday.  While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”  Then he took the cup, gave thanks, and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you.  This is my blood of the new covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:26-28)  Tonight is the eve of the new covenant.  On Friday Jesus will pour out his blood for the forgiveness of our sins.  The new covenant will be put into effect.  It is the treaty written with irrevocable blood.  Tonight Jesus gives us a meal that conveys the blessing of the new covenant.  A meal that gives us himself, his true body and blood.  A meal that gives us forgiveness.  It demands nothing; it gives everything.

It is the covenant where God says, “I will remember your sins no more!”  Think about that in a few moments when you come to the Lord’s Table.  We come as penitents, remembering our many sins and offenses.  The memories are often fresh and nervy and painful!  But here Jesus will meet you and remind you of a new contract between you and God. “Take and eat, this is my body given for you.  Take, drink.  This is my blood of the new covenant poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins.”  It is body and blood that makes God forget!  It makes him forget your sin!  Jesus’ body and blood are all God can think about when he looks at you.  This is the essence of the new covenant!

He that drinks shall live forever, ‘Tis a soul-renewing flood.

God is faithful; God will never, Break his covenant of blood,

Signed when our Redeemer died, Sealed when he was glorified!  (CW 106:4)

Amen.