Broken covenant. Broken covenant. Broken covenant.
Over and over and over again.
Faithless faithless faithless.
Jeremiah, O Jeremiah,
I’ve seen how Rembrandt painted you:
your head in your hands, eyes downcast,
shoulders slumped.
God has been in covenant with faithless people.
But in exile they pray for forgiveness,
reminding God who God is:
a God of covenant love
a God of mercy.
They promise to repent.
God responds:
I have loved you
with an everlasting love;
therefore I have continued
my faithfulness to you.
The days are surely coming when
I will make a New Covenant
with the house of Israel and
the house of Judah …
I will put my law within them,
and I will write it upon their hearts;
and I will be their God and
they will be my people.
No longer shall they teach one another,
or say to each other: “Know the Lord,”
for they shall all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,
for I will forgive their iniquity,
and remember their sin no more.
We would see Jesus!
Exactly!
We would see Jesus!
The world had gone after him,
and we would go after him, too.
In our hearts we long to wave
the palm branches, to shout
our Hosannas,
and yet, and yet, and yet….
something holds us back.
We have so much to do:
budgets to raise,
programs to start,
meetings to attend,
teachers to find,
new members to attract,
sermons to preach,
music to learn,
dinners to cook,
buildings to maintain,
materials to order …
order the flowers,
order the fronds,
answer the phones …
We’ll parade later.
The world had gone after him,
even the Pharisees knew it,
but now the parade was over.
The palm branches were no longer waving.
The Hosannas sang only in memory.
We would see Jesus.
The Greeks stood in front of Phillip,
asking to see Jesus.
Phillip tells Andrew,
and together they tell Jesus.
The world outside of Judaism
is asking to see Jesus.
This was the sign Jesus had
been waiting for!
God had sent Jesus
to all of God’s people.
The hour is come
for the Son of Man
to be glorified.
The hour of Christ’s death
is nearing.
The hour of our Life
is nearing.
We see the shadow of the Cross;
the angels begin their lamenting.
If we understand, we tremble,
for if we would see Jesus,
we will see God die.
God’s New Covenant
embraces this world.
The world has broken covenant
over and over and over again;
the church has broken covenant
over and over and over again,
and yet, and yet, and yet,
something pushes God forward
past broken covenants.
Love so much Love
that God not only is true
to the covenant made
with God’s people,
but God also keeps covenant
on behalf of God’s people.
Love so much Love
that God climbs upon a cross
and hangs there
even unto death.
The hour of Christ’s death
is nearing.
The hour of our Life
is nearing.
That it had to come to this!
That Jesus had to die
in order for us to live!
Just as wheat dies to the earth
and later bears much fruit,
Jesus had to die to the world
that he could live again
for all of us
that we through him could live.
I had a plant that died one winter.
Because of the ice covered earth,
I put the plant in the garage,
thinking I would throw it away
when the ice thawed,
wash out the pot, and replant.
When spring came, I went to
the darkness of the garage
and there in the pot
the plant bloomed green.
Resurrection in my face.
We would see Jesus.
Exactly!
In these Lenten days
we would see Jesus,
see who he really is,
see what he is about,
see how we are to follow him.
If we would see Jesus
we would see him praying
with loud cries and tears.
We would hear him say,
Now my soul is troubled …
and yet, Jesus is obedient,
faithful even unto death.
If we would see Jesus,
we will see him die.
And if we see Jesus,
we are to follow.
If we follow,
we will die, too,
to our world
of self-centeredness,
and live forever
in this New Covenant
together feeding his sheep,
God’s Love written
upon our hearts.
But there’s something terribly wrong!
The world says Hate
when Jesus says Love.
The world says War
when Jesus says Peace.
The world says Mine
when Jesus says Share.
The world says Torture
when Jesus says Mercy.
The world says Kill
when Jesus says Life Abundant.
The world says do what you can get away with
when Jesus says Justice.
The world says Take Care of Number One
when Jesus says Care for the Least of These.
Oh, we would see Jesus!
But something is terribly wrong.
The church reflects the world.
Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
Shouldn’t the world reflect the church?
In the Lenten quiet,
we hear the world outside
asking to see Jesus.
It’s a sign, of course.
Jesus was sent for all the world.
They would see Jesus.
We live in hope.
Hope that we in the Church of Jesus Christ
one day will step outside our doors
and put our arms around
this cold and shivering world
and in one voice shout:
Love
and Peace
and Share
and Mercy
and Life Abundant
and Justice
and when you have done it unto the least of these
you have done it unto me.
We would see Jesus.
Ann Weems of St. Louis, Mo., is a best-selling poet-writer, speaker, and conference leader. She is an ordained elder in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Her works include Kneeling in Bethlehem, Kneeling in Jerusalem, and Psalms of Lament.
