Jesu Juva
“Everything Old Is New Again”
Text: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 10:15-25; Luke 22:7-20
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
When does something new become old? Answers will vary, but we can estimate. We may not agree where the line is, but we agree there is a line. When what is new becomes old. When does a person become old? Is it 50, 60, or 70 years? What about a car? 10 years? For technology, clothes, and fashion, one year is sometimes all it takes for the new to become old. Old fashioned. Old hat. Old and worn out.
But what if it didn’t? What if a person never became old? A car never broke, your computer or phone never became obsolete, your clothes never wore out? We get glimpses of this in the Bible. In the early days of the world, some of those folks lived 900 years and more. When the people of Israel were stuck in the wilderness for forty years, their clothes and shoes did not wear out. But mostly, things do. The line may move, we may have different opinions about where that line is, but there is a line. Things, people, become old. Wear out. Fall apart. Die. Sooner or later.
Because we crossed the line. God had set a line - do not eat from this tree; this one tree. And when Adam and Eve crossed that line - when they trespassed, when they transgressed - they went from new to old, from life to death. That’s what sin does. And that’s sin’s lie. Sin, the devil, temptation say do this and you will live; you’ll be better, better off. Do this and you’ll be good; as good as new. But we aren’t. We’re still stuck on the wrong side of the line. Doing, saying the wrong things; thinking, desiring the wrong things.
But these next three days, this Sacred Triduum, are about making us new again. All three of the Scriptures we heard tonight said that.
From the prophet Jeremiah we heard: Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. And, Jeremiah goes on to explain, not just a covenant that is new, but a covenant that makes us new.
In the reading from Hebrews we heard that we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh. The old way moved us from new to old, from life to death. This new way undoes that, for it is the new and living way. That is, the way that moves us to the new from the old, to life from death.
And then in the Holy Gospel, Jesus gives His disciples the bread and wine which is His Body and Blood, and says: This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. That new covenant that Jeremiah was talking about. This gift that makes new.
For as the flesh and blood of Adam and Eve went from the right side of the line to the wrong side, the flesh and blood of Jesus went the other way. He was born into this world gone wrong, this world fallen into sin, this world gone mad, this world growing old and dying, and His flesh and blood crossed back to the right side of the line. He forged a new and living way, for us. That we not die, but live. And not just live the same old lives, but new lives.
That is what these next three days, this Sacred Triduum, are all about. Jesus making all things new (Revelation 21:5).
So He gives His disciples new bread and a new cup. Bread they had never eaten before and a cup they had never drank before. It looked like the same old bread, the same old cup, but it wasn’t. In the old Passover, it was unleavened bread. Now, it is His Body. In the old Passover, it was wine. Now, it is His Blood. His Body given and His blood shed for the forgiveness of sins. Those sins that put us and keep us on the wrong side of the line. But His Body given and His Blood shed to forgive. His Body now eaten and His Blood now poured into us to forgive. And with that forgiveness, to give us life and make us new.
For the old, Jesus took. That’s the cup He drank. Our old cup. The cup of suffering, the cup of wrath and death. The cup He prayed in the Garden, My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me (Matthew 26:39). But it was not possible. This cup had to be drunk, completely, down to the dregs. So Jesus did. For you. In your place. And in its place, gives you a new cup - a cup that makes new. The cup of blessing. The cup filled not with wrath and death, but with forgiveness and life. The cup of His Blood. Take and drink this, He says. So we do. We eat this new bread that is His Body, and we drink this new wine that is His Blood. And we are forgiven, made new, and given life. We are taken back across the line, where we were always meant to be.
And what God makes new never becomes old. Oh, but you say, we are still wearing out, we are still dying, we are still sinning. And indeed we are. For we are still old Adams. Though we have been made new in Jesus, we have not yet traversed that new and living way Jesus opened for us. We have not yet passed through death to life again. But we have begun. And we have Jesus’ promise that we will. That death will not be the end of us, but that as He rose from the dead, so too will we rise with Him.
So in that confidence, we live new lives. Not the same old, sinful lives. New lives. Lives like the reading from Hebrews described for us: In full assurance of faith. Holding fast the confession of our hope. Stirring up one another to love and good works. Not neglecting to meet together. Encouraging one another. Forgiving one another. And all the more, he says, as you see the Day drawing near. What day? The Day when Jesus returns and all is fulfilled. When all is made new. The Day of the new creation - the new heavens and the new earth (Isaiah 65:17; 2 Peter 3:13).
Imagine that. No more old, only new. No more sin, only forgiveness. No more death, only life. No more sadness, only joy. No more strife, only peace. No more division, only unity. That is the new Jesus has provided for us. The new He gives to us this night in His Supper. The new that will never grow old. Take eat. Take drink. New food, a new life, a new you.
In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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