Reformation Sunday-Jeremiah 31:31-34

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son,+ and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

‘"And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”’ (V. 34)

We as Christians know this is true. We know the gospel that we heard in the letter to the Romans today. You and I know that our salvation is pure gift. None of us do any thing to earn it nor do we do anything to prepare ourselves to receive it. It is given to us by the Holy Spirit as He makes us new creations in Christ Jesus. We know this and yet there are times in our lives when we do not understand how we could still be on this path.

Such a time may be a period of unemployment. It may be a time in our lives, such as retirement, when we make a transition from one stage to the next and become unsure of ourselves. When this happens, you or I seek to regain our footing regarding “who am I”. Such a time may come if we are told that we have some disease like cancer or diabetes or a form of dementia or ________. Such a time may come when a family member or friend of ours is in danger for a time. We are rightfully afraid for that individual.

These situations are made all the more difficult more often than not, because we may lose our job because of economic hard times. This difficult situation may come regardless of how well we have done at doing our best at what had been given to us to do. You or I may be in a job where we were an exemplary employee, and yet have our job terminated any way.

It is at times like these and in many other circumstances when we may feel that God is far from us. You or I might come into such a situation and think that we are abandoned. This is a frequent topic in the book of the Psalms (see, Ps. 69, 17, 10, 42, 13, 22, 38, 25, 51, 55, 88, 41, 6). ‘The LORD knows the way of the righteous’ (Ps. 1:6). This is a reversal of the oft repeated statement that the righteous know the way of the LORD; that is, His law. Yet, this is true.

As we read in this passage from the prophet, we know the destination. You also know that this is a certain destination for you. It is impossible for anyone or anything to snatch us from our heavenly Father’s hand (St. Jn. 17). What the psalmist is telling us is, “yes, you know the destination, but you are blind as to the path. You are being led about in the darkness”.

Which is to say, you who are the righteous do not know your way. You do not know where you are going as you walk the path of the righteous. You travel on an unseen journey with an unseen guide. We who are the righteous, our Lord and Savior knows your way. It is He who invisibly leads you step-by-step along on your way with Him. That narrow way which leads to eternal life.

The Holy Spirit, as He speaks through the prophet Jeremiah, is encouraging the people of Israel. They have not been following their Lord and they are headed toward exile. That is the constant drumbeat of Jeremiah’s book. He is continually speaking woe and condemnation to any number of nations and individuals. Here chapters thirty and thirty-one stand out like an oasis in a desert. They tell us of the destination that we are headed to. The Israelites along with us are reminded as we read through Jeremiah’s book, that it is not all condemnation. God, in Christ Jesus, really has rescued you and me and all mankind out of that quicksand pit of condemnation we were caught in. ‘This God is our God for ever and ever; He will be our guide even to the end’ (Ps. 48:14)

‘[Jeremiah writes:] “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”’ (V. 33)

Praise God that He has placed you on that road to salvation. For this is the covenant to which Jeremiah refers: ‘for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus’ (Vv. 23-4). This is your faith. This is my faith. This is the faith of every Christian. We all trust in Jesus to have done it all for us. So, praise God that He has placed you on the road to salvation.

This is the real thanksgiving for us as Lutherans. For us, we know that in Dr. Luther, God gave us confidence in the knowledge of our own salvation. What joy these words of the Holy Spirit in the book of Jeremiah bring to us. After all, the old covenant, that one given to Moses at Mt. Sinai, was nothing but demand and requirement. All that does for you or me as a sinner is to give humiliation. No matter how hard we try, the law of God cannot be fulfilled. What glorious news this must have been for those who first heard Jeremiah’s words.

The prophet was telling them, and us, “yes, you did not keep the law. Yes, you have failed to do as your God commanded at every turn. In spite of that, God still loves you and wishes to be your God. He declares that He will be your God and you will be His people. He will make this reality.” Jeremiah, and St. Paul, tells us this morning that in Jesus, God has now accomplished this prophecy.

Praise God that He has effected your salvation!

So, as Martin Luther intended, find rest in the words of his great hymn of comfort.
‘A mighty fortress is our God,
A trusty Shield and weapon;
He helps us free from every need…
For us fights the Valiant One,
Whom God Himself elected.
Ask Ye, Who is this?
Jesus Christ it is,
Of Sabaoth Lord,
And there’s none other God;
He holds the field forever.’ (TLH 262:1, 2)

What comfort it is that Jesus holds the field. That is to say, He has now defeated the devil. The devil now has no power of you or I, we who believe the gospel. None of this is to say that there were none under the old covenant who had the law in their hearts. All we have to do is read our Introit Psalm for this morning to understand that. After all, it begins with a verse from Psalm 119: ‘I will speak of your statutes before kings, O Lord, and will not be put to shame’ (V. 46). The writer of that psalm makes it clear that he, at least, has the law of God in his heart. We are also repeatedly told, there is a remnant that remains faithful to our God. This could be in the Old Testament (1 Kgs. 19:1-18). This could be in the New Testament (Rom. 11:5, 6). This could even apply to us today. There will always be a remnant, ‘chosen by grace’.

This new covenant will be made reality when this prophecy is brought to full completion at the end of time. It is then when we will be made saints in reality. For now we ‘see as in a mirror darkly, then we will see face to face’ (1 Cor. 13:12). It is even now ours. We live in the “now, not yet”. We are now saints, but we are also sinners. Then we will no longer be sinners.

It is of that time that the prophet speaks of here, when we will have that intimate knowledge of God’s holy will. It is only when the Holy Spirit pours this out, as He has done, can you truly be God’s people and He your God.

‘"And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”’ (V. 34)

All of this must have comforted the Israelites amid all of the woe in the rest of the book. This is a great comfort for you and me as well. We are comforted in these words as we give thanks to our merciful God for making this gospel of forgiveness clear again in the work of His servant Dr. Martin Luther.[1]

We are assured now that, despite our own wickedness of which we repent of daily, we have broken the law of God just as surely as the people of Israel to whom Jeremiah spoke his prophecy had broken the old covenant. The promise of salvation was still theirs, it is still yours, through the new covenant established by God. That covenant is a covenant of pure grace, pure mercy.

Praise your merciful Father that you are a recipient of this salvation by grace in Jesus.

In Jesus’+ Name. Amen.

[1] Sermon Studies on the Old Testament, Series B pp. 397-8.