Lent 5- I will put my Law within them

 

Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 119:9-16; Hebrews 5:5-10; John 12:20-33

I suspect all of us have the experience of knowing that we should do something, but for some reason just couldn’t seem to do it. Maybe you know you should exercise, or eat better, or dedicate more time to prayer or Bible study, but you just don't seem to be able to make yourself do it?

I suspect we also have the experience of doing something we know we shouldn’t do. For some reason we just can't seem to stop ourselves. Maybe you smoke and you know that it’s bad for you, but you just aren't able to stop. No matter how many times you plan to do it you just don't seem to be able to do it. Many of us have experiences with different kinds of addictions. Maybe it isn’t food, maybe it’s watching too much TV, or maybe we are too attached to our phones and social media.

It's as if our will is broken. Our ability to make choices, and follow through, is broken. Or, that's what it feels like. Why do we do the silly things we do? Sometimes our inability to choose well even hurts us and those around us. Why do we do these things?

The prophet Jeremiah was speaking to a fairly broken people in our Old Testament reading. They were the chosen people- Israel. God brought them out of slavery and gave them instructions on how to live and time after time they turned their backs on God. The prophets said they were like a spouse that was always committing adultery. They were always breaking God's heart by running off with someone else. Now the people were feeling the effects of the path they walked down. Nearly 600 years before Jesus was born, the Temple built by King Solomon was destroyed by a foreign power and the monarchy of the great king David was ended. They ate the fruit of their rebellion- their infidelity, their corrupt kings and priests, the injustice and exploitation of the poor and vulnerable, their idolatry. It all came back on them, and it was a very bitter fruit. And Jeremiah warned them.

Why did they do it? Jeremiah warned them. Other prophets warned them, and still they kept on in their rebellion. They were like someone who was diagnosed with diabetes and their doctor told them what they had to do but they kept on eating everything they weren't supposed to. Suddenly they ended up in the hospital.

We're not all that different from Israel are we? We get all kinds of warnings to stop doing damaging things- from friends, family, doctors, psychologists, parole officers. We get all kinds of encouragements to do good and healthy things. For some reason over and over we have a hard time deciding to do what is good for us and those around us. … On one level, we want to do what is right and good and healthy- and we don't want to hurt others. We don't want to hurt ourselves- and yet... we do.

In Chapter 7 of Paul's letter to the Romans he says this (this is Eugene Peterson's version from The Message): 

"... I've spent a long time in sin's prison. What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can't be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God's command is necessary.

But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.

It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God's commands, but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge."

Just about everyone I know can relate with that passage in the Bible. It may have been written 2000 years ago, but it could have been written yesterday. The people of Israel were told what to do. They had it carved on stone tablets right from God's own hand, but still they didn't follow. We aren’t so different.

Part of what's wrong is that our will is broken. We can know what we need to do, but our will seems to be broken. We need something more than information. We need help choosing and following through on that choice. We need help wanting the good, and healthy, and true. It doesn't matter how much information we have or how smart we are. Our will still betrays us.  

Dallas Willard has spoken about a young woman’s experience in university in a moral philosophy class where a fellow classmate was a terrible person, but got good grades in that class. He knew the information, but he was not becoming a better person because of it. Information wasn’t his problem. It was his will.

In the middle of destruction Jeremiah is given a word of hope for the people of Israel: 

“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.  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, [...] “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD." (Jer 31)

Through the prophet Jeremiah, God promises to put his Law in the hearts of His people. God won't just tell us what the good thing to do is. God will help us want to do it by writing the law on our hearts. He will give us the power to choose the good and deny the destructive, and it will be what we want.

This is a promise that is fulfilled with the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit now dwells in us. The Holy Spirit does not override our free will, but the resources have been placed in us to allow us to choose to do what is right and to not do what is wrong. God hasn't only told us what is good and true, but He has also given us the power to choose it. This is Paul's message in Romans 8- that through the power of the Spirit we have been given power to be the people God wants us to be.

It's at this point we start wondering why we still have such a hard time. If we have the Holy Spirit, why do we still struggle? Through the Holy Spirit we are drawn into intimate relationship with God. It is a door that is made open to us, and we are invited to walk through it. … It is through deep, and continuous conversation with God in prayer that we will find ourselves being transformed. … We sometimes want to claim the power without the relationship, but it doesn't work that way. Like any relationship this required time and attention. If we want to strengthen a friendship, then we spend time with that person. We treat them well, with respect. We listen to them and value what they have to say. In our relationship with God this means spending time in silence and solitude, as we turn our attention to God and make ourselves available. It means we take time to reflect on Scripture. It means we take time to interact with God in prayer and worship. … And maybe our will is so messed up we find it hard to choose these things. So, we start by asking God to help us to desire a deeper relationship with Him. … As we open ourselves to God in these ways, God enters into our struggles, and struggles there with us, giving us power for that day. Our transformation comes through deep relationship with God, usually one step at a time.

Jeremiah's words have started to come true. He says, 

“The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant … 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.”

 In Exodus 24 Moses establishes a covenant with the people. We read 

“Then [Moses] took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, ‘All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.’ Moses took the blood and dashed it on the people, and said, ‘See the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.’” (Ex 24:7-8).

 At the Last Supper Jesus 

"took the cup, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you'" (Luke 20).

 It is through the life-blood of Jesus poured out for us that we are invited into a new covenant. This opens the doors to all kinds of grace, which will give us the strength to choose what is good and true.

We receive the life of Christ knowing that power for change resides in God. God can change us from the inside out. Through the Holy Spirit our hearts will be changed and be filled with love so that we don't have to be told to love our neighbor, we just do it because the life of God lives in us and courses through us and we can't imagine why you'd want to do anything else.

As disciples, we follow Jesus and learn to be more like him, and therefore we learn to live in his kingdom. His kingdom is present wherever what he wants to have happen is happening. And as we learn to be like him, we begin to feel that the really hard thing to do isn't the right thing. As we become more like Jesus, we begin to feel that the hard thing to do is the wrong thing. As we strengthen our relationship with God and open ourselves to be transformed- as we allow Him to write His Law on our heart- we begin to want what God wants- we learn to love as God loves. Amen.