Fifth Sunday Of Lent
The context of this Sunday’s first reading is the ministry of the Prophet Jeremiah in Jerusalem sometime between the city’s first fall to the Babylonians in 597 B.C., and the final destruction of the city by the Babylonian army in 587 B.C. This excerpt from the oracles of Jeremiah is known as “the New Covenant Oracle.” Jeremiah’s predecessor, the Prophet Hosea, 745-722 B.C., described the covenant between the Lord God and the nation of Israel as a marriage contract based on love. When the Israelites repeatedly fell into idolatry, Hosea described idolatry as adultery. During Jeremiah’s prophetic ministry, 626-587, there were times of reform, especially under King Josiah, died 609, then recurring relapses into idolatry.
In the last ten years of his ministry, Jeremiah seems to have given up on any human effort or help to obliterate Israel’s idolatry. The covenant, the contract, the marriage between God and Israel made so many centuries ago at Sinai was so broken in Jeremiah’s opinion, that something entire-ly new had to be created. Therefore the concept of a “new covenant,” to replace or perfect the Covenant between God and Israel. “The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” This covenant would be the Lord’s action in the hearts of the people. Instead of being written on stone, as was the old covenant, this one would be written on the flesh of the hearts of his people. Jeremiah’s oracle includes a remarkable saying, “No longer will they have need to teach their friends and relatives how to know the Lord. All from the least to the greatest shall know me.” In case anyone thinks that Jeremiah was too idealistic, he was not. He recognizes that sin will not disappear, but “I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.”
Jeremiah’s New Covenant Oracle is the only instance of the use of the term “new covenant” in the Old Testament. The prophet seems to have envisioned new laws something like the Torah (laws, teaching) given to God’s people through Moses. God would initiate the new covenant after the idolatrous people had been purified by exile. It is doubtful that Jeremiah foresaw an interpretation of his concept of a new covenant in the sense in which the concept is understood in Christianity, See the Words of Institution at the Last Supper in Luke 22:20 and 1 Corinthians 11:25. But the Holy Spirit is not bound by what a prophet envisions in his own time and circum-stances. Under guidance of the Spirit, the Scriptures are open to new interpretations. The Old Covenant made at Sinai was sealed with the blood of oxen, Exodus 24:5. For Christians, the New Covenant was initiated at the Last Supper and sealed with the blood of Jesus dying on the cross.
The Responsorial Psalm (51), one of the Seven Penitential Psalms, picks up on the last statement of Jeremiah’s oracle, recognizing not only the persistence of sin, but the remedy for sin, a reme-dy coming from God, “Create a clean heart in me, O God.” The clean heart is not static as in “me and God.” There is a promise of action, “I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners shall return to you.” The second reading is an excerpt from Hebrews. One might expect a selection that would expand the concept of the New Covenant as we see in Hebrews 8 and 9, which quotes Jeremiah’s whole oracle (our first reading), then expands on it. Instead, the assemblers of the Lectionary chose a passage emphasizing Jesus’ agonizing petitions to his Father in Gethsemane. The author speaks of Jesus learning obedience through his sufferings. In this way he became a source of salvation to those who obey him. His obedience sanctifies our own obedience to him.
This Sunday’s gospel is part of the last chapter of the Book of Signs, chapters 1-12. Why the Book of Signs? Because it includes the seven great signs (miracles) that signify some identity of Jesus. The overriding theme is the death and glorification of Jesus, or as John prefers, the “lifting up” of Jesus. John notes that some “Greeks” (Gentiles, pagans) had come to worship in Jeru-salem at Passover. It was not uncommon for non-Jews to participate in Jewish ceremonies inso-far as was allowed to them. These Greeks wanted to see Jesus. Seeing and believing are close companions in John’s theology, for example John 9, the man born blind. When told of the approach of the Greeks, Jesus speaks of his glorification. What follows is the method by which his glory is to be achieved. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” That fruit is salvation not just of his own people, but of all nations. The Greeks seeking to see Jesus represent those nations. . Two sayings follow which imply that those who seek Jesus will also become grains of wheat dying and bearing much fruit.
We are accustomed to speak of Jesus’ agony in the Garden. John’s gospel has the garden but not the agony. In the other gospels Jesus begs his Father for escape from the death about to come upon him. Not in John’s gospel. The closest we find to the troubled Jesus in the other gospels happens right after the grain of wheat sayings. Jesus is troubled, but he is not begging for relief. It goes like this, “I am troubled now, yet what should I say? ‘Father, save me from the hour?’ No! That is why I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name!” The Father answers with a promise of Jesus’s own glorification. Here we have a Jesus who is totally in charge, controlling whatever happens to him. This is why John writes at the beginning of his Passion Narrative, “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands….” John opened this section with the theme of universal salvation by introducing the Greek seekers. He closes by returning to this theme, as Jesus says, “And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all to myself.” The Samaritans in John 4:42 had it right, “We know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”
”
