Reflections on...the Fifth Sunday of Lent.
Readings
Jeremiah: 31.31-34
Hebrews: 5.5-10
John: 12.20-33
…….the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. John 12.23
This Sunday we enter into what has been known as ‘Deep Lent’ or ‘Passiontide’. In these final two weeks of Lent Christian worship centres upon the cross. In some churches crucifixes and statues are veiled – ‘a fast for the eyes’ they say. Entering such churches is not unlike entering a house of mourning with the curtains drawn.
The readings for today focus upon the biblical word ‘covenant’. Today we use the word ‘agreement’ rather than covenant. Agreements are essential to the well running of daily life. They are a means by which things get done and anticipations are met. They can be as simple and immediate as agreeing to meet a friend at the Post Office or something as fulsome and long lasting as marriage vows.
The Bible can be seen as a lengthy narrative that describes the fortunes of an ‘agreement’ or ‘covenant’ that God initiates with the people of Israel. It is to benefit the whole creation and all that is dependent upon it. In the readings during Lent we have already met up with this agreement or rather the constant renewing of the agreement. There was the agreement with Adam and Eve, followed by that with Noah after the great flood, then one with Abraham and another with Moses. Each time God is portrayed as holding to his side of the agreement whilst the human partners become wilful and go their own way. The agreement breaks down, and, as always happens in such situations, rancour, hurt and chaos ensues. Each time, God remains loyal to the agreement and takes the initiative to re-establish it.
The setting for today’s Old Testament is yet another instant when the agreement has broken down. The People of Israel have abandoned the agreement/covenant they had entered into with God through Moses on Mt. Sinai and renewed with King David. They have given allegiance to other gods and to a way of life linked with those gods (rampant individualism, self- centredness, greed, injustice). As a consequence the nation falls apart. Such was its weakness that it was over-run by a foreign power and part of its population taken into exile. In this bleak and hopeless situation, God takes up the initiative and again works towards re-building the covenant/agreement with this people. Note the passion and intensity with which God is said to do this.
The Gospel speaks of ‘the hour has come’. This hour theme is one of the threads that runs through John’s Gospel with repeated references to ‘his (Jesus’) hour had not yet come’. Now the hour has come. Jesus is entering the debacle of Good Friday. The Gospel writers do not see Good Friday as simply another example of what so often happens to a good person – annihilation. They see it as God in Jesus again taking the initiative to re-establish the covenant agreement with his people. Once more it had broken down – as reflected in the opposition Jesus received. On Good Friday, God in Jesus is seen struggling at great personal cost with all that has caused the breakdown of the covenant relationship between himself and his people. Within the struggle he offers forgiveness. He re-establishes the ‘agreement/covenant with the People of Israel and opens up a new future for them and all peoples. Interestingly, in today’s reading it is the arrival of Gentiles, Greeks, that sets this process in motion emphasizing that God’s covenant agreement is for all peoples, not just the People of Israel.
The New Testament reading is complex. Drawing upon language associated with the priesthood in the temple in Jerusalem, the author is claiming that Jesus through his agony on Calvary has in himself become the ‘agreement’ and all who are incorporated into him are incorporated into this ‘agreement’. They are given the grace to live it out in daily life.
- Fr. Malcolm Bradshaw
Readings
Jeremiah: 31.31-34
Hebrews: 5.5-10
John: 12.20-33
…….the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. John 12.23
This Sunday we enter into what has been known as ‘Deep Lent’ or ‘Passiontide’. In these final two weeks of Lent Christian worship centres upon the cross. In some churches crucifixes and statues are veiled – ‘a fast for the eyes’ they say. Entering such churches is not unlike entering a house of mourning with the curtains drawn.
The readings for today focus upon the biblical word ‘covenant’. Today we use the word ‘agreement’ rather than covenant. Agreements are essential to the well running of daily life. They are a means by which things get done and anticipations are met. They can be as simple and immediate as agreeing to meet a friend at the Post Office or something as fulsome and long lasting as marriage vows.
The Bible can be seen as a lengthy narrative that describes the fortunes of an ‘agreement’ or ‘covenant’ that God initiates with the people of Israel. It is to benefit the whole creation and all that is dependent upon it. In the readings during Lent we have already met up with this agreement or rather the constant renewing of the agreement. There was the agreement with Adam and Eve, followed by that with Noah after the great flood, then one with Abraham and another with Moses. Each time God is portrayed as holding to his side of the agreement whilst the human partners become wilful and go their own way. The agreement breaks down, and, as always happens in such situations, rancour, hurt and chaos ensues. Each time, God remains loyal to the agreement and takes the initiative to re-establish it.
The setting for today’s Old Testament is yet another instant when the agreement has broken down. The People of Israel have abandoned the agreement/covenant they had entered into with God through Moses on Mt. Sinai and renewed with King David. They have given allegiance to other gods and to a way of life linked with those gods (rampant individualism, self- centredness, greed, injustice). As a consequence the nation falls apart. Such was its weakness that it was over-run by a foreign power and part of its population taken into exile. In this bleak and hopeless situation, God takes up the initiative and again works towards re-building the covenant/agreement with this people. Note the passion and intensity with which God is said to do this.
The Gospel speaks of ‘the hour has come’. This hour theme is one of the threads that runs through John’s Gospel with repeated references to ‘his (Jesus’) hour had not yet come’. Now the hour has come. Jesus is entering the debacle of Good Friday. The Gospel writers do not see Good Friday as simply another example of what so often happens to a good person – annihilation. They see it as God in Jesus again taking the initiative to re-establish the covenant agreement with his people. Once more it had broken down – as reflected in the opposition Jesus received. On Good Friday, God in Jesus is seen struggling at great personal cost with all that has caused the breakdown of the covenant relationship between himself and his people. Within the struggle he offers forgiveness. He re-establishes the ‘agreement/covenant with the People of Israel and opens up a new future for them and all peoples. Interestingly, in today’s reading it is the arrival of Gentiles, Greeks, that sets this process in motion emphasizing that God’s covenant agreement is for all peoples, not just the People of Israel.
The New Testament reading is complex. Drawing upon language associated with the priesthood in the temple in Jerusalem, the author is claiming that Jesus through his agony on Calvary has in himself become the ‘agreement’ and all who are incorporated into him are incorporated into this ‘agreement’. They are given the grace to live it out in daily life.
- Fr. Malcolm Bradshaw
