Thoughts on Sunday’s Lessons for March 18, 2018

Jeremia op de puinhopen van Jeruzalem (Jeremiah on the ruins of Jerusalem). Painting (1844) by Horace Vernet (1789-1863), Amsterdam Museum. (Click image to enlarge.)

The consistent pattern of our Lenten Lectionary readings continues: In the Gospels we are following the life of Jesus and his disciples from the Jordan to Jerusalem. The Old Testament readings tell us about God’s series of covenants with the people. In Sunday’s first reading, from the Prophet Jeremiah, we hear that the chosen people broke the covenant promise to walk in God’s way that their ancestors made at Mount Sinai. Now Jeremiah tells of a new covenant that is to come. This one will be permanent, for it is not just written on stone tablets but directly on our hearts. Even when we struggle, we will remember the commandment to love God and our neighbor.

Psalm: Psalm 51:1-13

This familiar Psalm’s powerful narrative imagines King David wracked in repentant guilt as he confronts the great sin of sending his general, Uriah, into harm’s way in battle so he could take Uriah’s beautiful wife, Bathsheba, for himself. In poetic words that mirror the promises of the covenants, we hear of David’s shame and grief. He acknowledges inborn wickedness ad makes no excuses for that, but begs for God’s mercy and forgiveness. “Create in me a clean heart, O God,” David begs: A new heart, a clean slate upon which God can write a new covenant of love.

Alternative Psalm: Psalm 119:9-16

Psalm 119, the longest of all the Psalms, carries a message of covenant throughout its many verses: Those who follow God’s laws and teaching, modeling their lives on Torah so as to walk in God’s ways, will reap rewards. Today’s verses follow a Jeremiah reading well. Its verses addressed to God, “With my lips will I recite all the judgments of your mouth,” seem to reflect Jeremiah’s first conversation with God: “Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy,” to which God responded, “you shall speak whatever I command you. … Now I have put my words in your mouth.”

Second Reading: Hebrews 5:5-10

Hebrews is not a letter to a specific congregation but a broad appeal to formerly Jewish Christians who had returned to their original faith late in the first century to avoid persecution aimed at Christians by Rome. Its author argues that Jesus, as Christ, follows in the great tradition of Jewish high priests, a line that goes back through millennia to Melchizedek, the ancient king and great high priest who had blessed Abram before God offered the first covenant to Abram and Sarai. As Jesus has become the source of eternal salvation who intercedes on our behalf forever, there is no longer need for priestly sacrifice.

Gospel: John 12:20-33

In the verses just before these, Jesus has arrived in Jerusalem, riding a young donkey while joyous crowds wave palm leaves and shout loud hosannas. Now a group of Greeks, curious to meet Jesus after all this, ask Philip to arrange a meeting, and Philip and Andrew take the request to Jesus. Jesus responds by launching into a message for the world and the ages: Just as Jesus must first die in order to bear the fruit of salvation through his resurrection, we are the seeds of faith and must grow in discipleship like kernels of wheat. Do we lie fallow and die, or do we grow and bloom where we are planted, bearing fruit as we follow and serve Christ?