Jesus the King (Seeing Glimpses of God in the book of Jeremiah)
Preacher: Phil Swain Reading: Jeremiah 36:1-8, 21-23, 27-28; 31:31-34
This sermon was preached on the last Sunday of the church calendar before starting Advent – the day we acknowledge as “Christ the King” Sunday. Our reading comes the Old Testament book of Jeremiah and is not about Christ the King but rather a less than perfect King of Israel – Jehoiakim. When Jeremiah brought God’s message of concern and mercy Jehoiakim … the King refused to hear or accept it. Instead Jeremiah took God’s message of grace and hope to the people (including us) that God is establishing a new covenant with all people. A covenant established in relationship, forgiveness and love. A covenant that was ultimately established through another king – Christ the King. This sharing will bring together many of the key themes that we have been looking at within the Old Testament and help us look forward to Advent and Christmas … where we will celebrate the birth of this newborn King.
Today is the last Sunday in the liturgical year which makes the end of our Old Testament journey and preparation for Advent next week! In the church calendar it is also Christ the King Sunday.
Today I am going to try and be creative and tie three different threads or points together in my sermon.
- I want to start by looking back over the past 11 weeks of our Old Testament Narrative journey and reflect on the covenants that God has made with people.
- At the same time I want to look forward to what we are starting next week … Advent and the preparation for the coming of Jesus … and the new covenant that God establishes in Jesus.
- And I wish to tie in a third point about what this might mean for all of us – especially in the light of the bible reading from Jeremiah – and see if we can get a glimpse of God’s message for us today.
Three points … or three different angles that I want to explore today … and that got me thinking. What has three points? What has got three angles… A triangle.
So my plan is to use a number of triangles as a creative tool to help us learn together and lets see if God reveals something to us as we do this.
Are you willing to give this a try-angle?
Triangle Number #1 – God’s Covenant
For the past 10 weeks (11 if you include today) we have been working through the Old Testament with a particular focus or angle. Can anyone remember what the major theme was.
Promises (or covenant). We have looked at:
- God promise to Abraham that if Abraham trusted in God, God would bless him and his descendants with a blessing larger than the stars in the sky.
- God promised to Moses that he had heard the people’s cry for help in Egypt and rescued them – giving them freedom and life.
- God through Moses gave the promise of the law … a guide or a way of living which would bless any who followed it. God encouraged people not to try things their own way but to embrace God’s way which leads to life.
- God promised to Hannah that she was not forgotten and that her faithfulness would be rewarded.
- God promised to David that he would be king and that through David a lasting Kingdom of justice and righteousness would be established
- God promised to Elijah and the widow that even in the darkest of times, those times when all seems bleak, that God is still at work, God is always at work.
- God promised to Jonah and the Ninevites that if anyone who cries out to God will be saved
- And God promised through Isaiah that it does not matter who we are or what we have done, in God we can find forgiveness and a purpose.
This Old Testament journey has been about promises!
In one of my sermons – I said that the word covenant is like promise but seems to convey a deeper, more personal tone. A covenant is a promise that we hold so dearly that we are totally commitment to not breaking it.
In many of these stories – God is described as making a covenant with people. We talk about God’s covenant with Abraham, with Moses, with David … not that these were exclusive to these people but through these people, God is making a covenant with all people.
So … I want to make this first triangle to represent COVENANT. This journey we have been on for the past 2½ months.
They are about God making a promise with a particular person in a specific context but is actually connects to something larger … an eternal covenant that is for all people in all contexts.
If I was going to sum up the two key points that come from our learning journey through the Old Testament Covenants (I could write them on these smaller triangles) … I would say it is …
- Relationship – I will be your God and you will be my people
- Faithfulness – The keeping of the covenant is not up to us but is dependent on God’s faithfulness.
Together they make a diamond because they are the gem of learning that we have been reminded of over and over again.
Ok … how we are going so far? Let’s bring in today’s Bible reading. And I will use this orange triangle to represent King Jehoiakim. (G-hoe-ick-im)
King Jehoiakim was the son of King Josiah … and if you are all familiar with your Isreal kings, you would know King Josiah is one of the great kings of the Southern Kingdom. King Josiah became king when he was just 8 years old and when wander though the run down temple he found the scrolls of the law and started reading. Seeing that the law was helpful and could bring life, he commanded all of the southern kingdom to come together and he had the law read out to them – leading to a revival and renewal in their relationship with God.
The covenant between Josiah and the people and God was strong and full of blessings.
But within 4 years of Josiah’s death, King Jehoiakim has already lost his way. And this story is a powerful reflection of just how far.
Jeremiah the prophet receives a word from God for Jehoiakim and sends Bauch to go and read it to the king. (Note that Jeremiah was not allowed in temple anymore … most likely because he had already tried to confront the people of their ungodly actions and was banned).
So Bauch goes to Jehoiakim and starts reading … and in a power move, after each portion, Jehoiakim would pull out the scribe knife and cut off God’s words and throw them into the fire.
There is a lot of symbolism here. The scribe knife was used to cut out mistakes when writing a scroll – implying that Jehoiakim felt that God message to him was wrong. The burning of God’s words in the fire is a clear rejection of God and a refusal to respond to God reach out.
In this moment – the covenant between God and Jehoiakim and the people was broken. (Cut triangle) Not from God’s side but from the hard heartedness of Jehoiakim.
We might be critical of Jehoiakim but are we much different?
I would suggest that we all have experienced brokenness in our covenant triangle too. If this orange triangle represent us then I am sure that this triangle too has been broken. Either through us stubbornly choosing our way over Gods, maybe it is through the challenges and harshness of life, maybe it is through apathy or ignorance. The issue of how it became broken is less important that the fact that our covenant with God, our relationship or connect with God, has (and maybe still is) experiencing brokenness.
So where do we go with this?
There is another portion of the Bible reading still to come.
Marion is going to come and read from Jeremiah 31 … which is five chapters earlier in the book of Jeremiah but chronologically actually comes after. Scholars thing that Jeremiah was written in many parts. The first part (Chapters 1-25) was written after the southern Kingdom of Judah was defeated by the Babylonians and taken into exile. (Jeremiah 29:11 … I know the plans I have for you)
This is the main section and was very helpful for the people of God. So helpful that they realised that Jeremiah also said a bunch of other things as well, and then released the second edition with the extra bits added on the end … some of which were actually Jeremiah’s words before the exile such as the reading we had from Jeremiah 36. So we are jumping back into the main section which is actually jumping timewise later.
READING – Jeremiah 31:31-34
Ok … so far we have the yellow triangle representing God’s covenants within the Old Testament. It is unbroken because God is faithful and always keeps God’s promises.
But we have two orange triangles representing broken promises … or the brokenness that comes from turning away from God’s covenant.
One representing Jehoiakim who when God reached out to him, he literally cut God out and threw the words into the fire. Jehoiakim stepped away from God’s covenant and blessings … and within a short time was defeated by the Babylonians
And we have this triangle which represents us – and the brokenness that we might have experienced (or still are experiencing) in our relationship with God.
The reading Marion just read is not simply pointing back to the Old Covenants with Abraham, Moses or David … but speaks of something new. (Verses 31,32)
“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
We need a new triangle. A new yellow triangle to represent this NEW COVENANT.
But what is different about this new covenant. What changes have been made? If the old covenant was about relationship and faithfulness … then what is the new covenant about.
Well – it still is about relationship because God still uses the line, “I will be their God and they will be my people”. That hasn’t changed. God still wants to be part of our lives and wants us to be connected or be in relationship with God.
I think this time it is more personal. Instead of putting the law onto a tablet that people could smash or sending God’s word on parchment that people could burn … God suggests that God’s word would be in our minds and written on our hearts.
This new covenant is all about knowing God – from the youngest to the oldest, from the least to the greatest – it is about God knowing us and us knowing God. And how do we do this … through Jesus. Jesus himself said, if you know me you will know the father or know God. This new covenant is made possible through Jesus!
Which leads us to the other gem of this passage and the gem of this new covenant … it is about forgiveness and mercy. Through the cross of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus we can find forgiveness and a new start. This is what the Lord said through Jeremiah … “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more”.
The first covenant might have pointed back to the Old Testament stories with some threads that connected with our story … but this new covenant is clearly pointing forward … pointing forward to the time that was coming where God though forgiveness and grace would become part of our lives.
This covenant is pointing forward towards the good news of Advent and Christmas and the coming of Jesus. It points forward to the forgiveness of the cross and life that comes from resurrection.
This was the message that Jeremiah was sharing with King Jehoiakim, but he refused to hear it. His broken triangle never got healed. But it is not too late for us.
Hear the good news – the new covenant that God establishes with all people through Jesus is one that can transform lives and transform communities.
Through Jesus – God is offering us a covenant that can bring healing to our brokenness. Whatever caused this split can be forgiven … and forgotten! I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more”.
Through the cross we can find forgiveness, healing, hope and life.
Are you hearing this???
How do I bring all this together on this Sunday before Advent. How do I wrap this up …
At the heart of what we have been learning for the past 10 weeks and will continue to explore during Advent is these two covenants.
The first covenant made to Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and a bunch of other Old Testament women and men is all about promises and the faithfulness of God. God promises to be our God and that we will be God’s people, God’s family.
And through Jesus, God establishes a new covenant – one based on relationship and forgiveness and life. That we are known by God and invited to get to know God in return.
This amazing story of God’s grace is bracketed by brokenness. While God is faithful, people like Jehoiakim refused to hear the good news of healing – but we have the chance to be part of this story, to find healing and forgiveness and reconciliation within the cross and embrace the new covenant.
And on this special day before Advent … can you see the picture that is emerging. No more talk about good kings like Josiah or bad kings like Jehoiakim but rather the King of Kings – Christ the King.
- Noel, Noel, Born is the King of Isreal.
- O Come and adore him – born the king of Angels
- Joy to the World, the Lord has come, let earth receive its King.
Let us embrace the fullness of God’s promises to us this Christmas. Amen.