Brief synopsis of the readings: In the Old Testament Book of the prophet Jeremiah God speaks and announces that he will make a new covenant unlike the covenant made after the exodus from Egypt “for they broke my covenant.” This new covenant will not be on stone tablets but “upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” With this new covenant people will not need to learn “how to know the Lord.” Instead all “from the least to greatest, shall know me…for I will forgive evildoing and remember their sin no more.” John’s Gospel describes how some Greeks who came to worship at Passover asked to see Jesus. Jesus then spoke of the coming hour when he will be glorified. He talked about how a seed needs to die to produce fruit. In the same way “whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.” He told those gathered that this is why he came to them. Finally he said the time of judgement has come and he will draw everyone to himself, foreshadowing how he will die.

There’s something about this first reading that just sounds puzzling to me. Last week our first reading described how the Israelites strayed from faithfulness to God and were driven into exile but were later restored. The prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah were written over several years and record these events.

After their escape from Egypt God sent them the 10 Commandments with instructions that they must follow these laws. That’s fine, but they didn’t and saw their exile as a punishment for this. In most circumstances we would expect that they would still have to keep the old covenant and learn that before moving on. When I worked with teen moms for the Salvation Army we we set benchmarks for the residents and they could only advance stages once they had shown they could they could do what we asked. Advancement meant more responsibilities but also more freedom. Residents who couldn’t (or wouldn’t) progress would stay at the same level for their entire stay. It’s the same way for most of us where we work. Promotions are awarded when there is reason to believe the candidate can do the job, but nobody will be promoted without mastering their current job. So after proving to God that they couldn’t follow the 10 Commandments God decided to give them a new covenant. What gives?

Perhaps the idea of completing one task before starting another speaks to our idea of justice. We see promoting someone before he is ready is really nothing more than a recipe for disaster. A student doesn’t learn cursive until he masters printing and we insist on mastery in arithmetic before starting algebra. But maybe, just maybe, God has a different agenda for us. When we think of obedience/faithfulness/discipleship we easily think of them as a series of tests or contests. And there’s good reason for that. In Paul’s last letter to Timothy he speaks of having “finished the race” and having “kept the faith.”

But we can also look at salvation from the perspective of God’s love for us and see it a different way. It’s not that God doesn’t care about our progress but his love for us is so boundless that he wrote his new covenant not on stone but on our hearts. A covenant isn’t a contract, it’s much more. A contract is an agreement between two or more people; the relationship between the parties doesn’t matter and once the contract ends they can part with no loose ends.

But a covenant between God and ourselves begins out of love. It’s not between equals but it is based on love; it begins but never ends. And a new covenant does not replace an old one. God has bound himself to us not only by commandments but also by hearts.

The late priest and author Fr. Andrew Greeley once said that God has only broken his promise to us once. When he promised to destroy us for our disobedience he didn’t. Again and again we broke several commandments but still, here we are. We are still here because God loves us more than he loves following the rules. He promised to write to write his covenant on our hearts because it was already written on his. Ah, the things we do for love.

And given that, it can be hard for us to read our Gospel. The covenant between us and God also speaks of our love for Jesus and his love for us. The question of why Jesus needed to suffer and die has never been fully explained but love rarely answers “why” questions. It can, however give us an insight into the depths of Jesus’ love for us. We value more than anyone else those who give their lives for others. The highest military honor given in the United States is the Congressional Medal of Honor and virtually all accounts talk about one person saving the lives of others. Jesus would stop at nothing to save us.

As I write this we are approaching Easter. Some of us have old memories of seeing Lent centering on our need to improve things. But Lent can also remind us of God’s love for us. The reality is that we will fall short on both covenants. We will bear false witness, we will worship other gods (I’m looking at you social media) and we will covet. We’ll hurt others, we’ll act out of selfishness and we’ll let our fear get the best of us.

But God won’t keep a ledger. He won’t keep track of our sins and wait for the day of judgement. God will continue to love us and encourage us to love him and each other. Jesus didn’t die and rise to deny us of salvation.

Easter is coming soon and we will celebrate. God’s promise of salvation doesn’t come despite us but because of us. If you don’t believe me, go back to the first reading: “I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.”