5th Sunday of Lent – Passiontide

Readings: Jeremiah 31v31-34; Psalm 51v1-13 or Psalm 119v9-16; Hebrews 5v5-10; John 12v20-33.

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth, and the thoughts and meditations of all our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.

A Word: In Jeremiah, we hear God’s promise of a new covenant in which God promises to write the laws of godliness within the hearts of all people from the greatest to the least. Through this new covenant God promises to forgive sins and to cease to remember the sins of his people. God says that this new covenant supersedes the previous covenants, the covenants that God’s people broke and failed to uphold.

In the gospel we hear the promised covenant being fulfilled as Jesus recognises that his time has come to fulfil his father’s plan when some Greeks come to the festival seeking him. Jesus declares that he will draw people to God when he is lifted up for the sake of all and that the ruler of this world will be driven out to save people from the judgement of their sins – all to the glory of God the Father. Jesus promises that all who serve him will be honoured by his father – and instructs that we must follow him. After Jesus shared this message, a voice from heaven was heard, confirming that the Father’s name will be glorified.

The letter to the Hebrews tells us more about this new covenant. It tell us that Christ was a high priest in the order of Melchizedek. For Jesus was not from the priestly families of the Israelites – instead he was a priest sent into the world by his father, a priest called forth to do God’s work, just as Melchizedek had been called up to serve God in the days of antiquity. As a high priest Jesus: offered prayers and intercessions; he obeyed and submitted himself to God’s will; he suffered and was made perfect; and now is the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.

This is a covenant that enables us to recognise and confess our sins; and to turn to God for absolution and cleansing from our sins – as can be heard in psalm 51. It is also a covenant that enables us to ask God for help and guidance to live as God would have us live.

Today is our day to give thanks for God’s new covenant that supersedes all covenants. A covenant that we believe was fulfilled by Jesus’ life, death on a cross and resurrection back to life. A covenant that God made to save us all from our sinful ways. A covenant that is the source of eternal salvation for all who obey and follow Jesus. A covenant that draws us back to God every time we fail and sin. A covenant that makes us clean because of Jesus. A covenant that makes us bold to ask God for guidance and help.

Today let us put our faith and trust in Jesus so that we can follow him wherever he leads, to do whatever he asks us to do for his sake, to the glory of God the father.

Let us pray: Most merciful God, we give you thanks for your son Jesus who suffered on the cross to deliver and save the world. Help us to live like he did, so that we can be servants of others in the world for which he died. Teach us how to share the message of Good News that because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the entire world is able to rejoice in the power of all he accomplished for us. Amen

Thank you for joining us.