I’ve been reading the Old Testament Book of Jeremiah, who is thought to have lived in the Holy Land six centuries before the birth of Jesus.
It is a tough read.
This is the part of the Bible where God is described as angry, vindictive, unforgiving, threatening, caustic, overbearing, petty, violent, bitter, hateful, short-tempered, unyielding, furious, regretful, vengeful.
And worse things.
The prophet is given a message that amounts to a statement that God hates, yes HATES, his people for their persistent attraction to the gods of neighboring nations, and to the customs of these people and their gods.
Jeremiah is given the task of announcing unremitting destruction of the entire Jewish nation, and that it is too late to do anything about it. Babylon will destroy Jewish society, Jewish monuments, Jewish animals, and the Jews themselves.
This fiercely angry God is unloving. He is terrible to envision.
He seems absolutely nothing like the Jesus I have come to know and love and worship. Nothing like the one who surrendered his life for me, though I did nothing to deserve his sacrifice. Nothing like the one hanging on a cross, having not spoken a word of self-defense at the hands of his killers.
The question is an obvious one – how can we reconcile the depiction of this violently angry, impatient, vindictive, petty Old Testament God with Jesus, the self-sacrificing God?
It is an old question.
I am fascinated by Marcion of Sinope, an early Christian theologian a bit more than a century after Jesus’ life. Marcion lived in Rome and his contemplations led him to an honest conclusion – the triune God revealed by Jesus Christ is simply a different God from this angry Old Testament ogre. To Marcion they were simply incompatible, too different in character to possibly be the same entity.
I actually give huge credit to Marcion for stating the obvious rather than ignoring it. This obvious incompatibility goes conveniently undiscussed in Christian churches. The threats and hateful words assigned to Jeremiah by God are not often mentioned, let alone discussed, in sermons from Christian pulpits.
Marcion said what needed to be said – this Old Testament God COULD NOT POSSIBLY BE JESUS CHRIST.
Marcion eventually was branded a heretic and fell from any kind of authority in orthodox Christianity.
It is a tough read.
This is the part of the Bible where God is described as angry, vindictive, unforgiving, threatening, caustic, overbearing, petty, violent, bitter, hateful, short-tempered, unyielding, furious, regretful, vengeful.
And worse things.
The prophet is given a message that amounts to a statement that God hates, yes HATES, his people for their persistent attraction to the gods of neighboring nations, and to the customs of these people and their gods.
Jeremiah is given the task of announcing unremitting destruction of the entire Jewish nation, and that it is too late to do anything about it. Babylon will destroy Jewish society, Jewish monuments, Jewish animals, and the Jews themselves.
This fiercely angry God is unloving. He is terrible to envision.
He seems absolutely nothing like the Jesus I have come to know and love and worship. Nothing like the one who surrendered his life for me, though I did nothing to deserve his sacrifice. Nothing like the one hanging on a cross, having not spoken a word of self-defense at the hands of his killers.
The question is an obvious one – how can we reconcile the depiction of this violently angry, impatient, vindictive, petty Old Testament God with Jesus, the self-sacrificing God?
It is an old question.
I am fascinated by Marcion of Sinope, an early Christian theologian a bit more than a century after Jesus’ life. Marcion lived in Rome and his contemplations led him to an honest conclusion – the triune God revealed by Jesus Christ is simply a different God from this angry Old Testament ogre. To Marcion they were simply incompatible, too different in character to possibly be the same entity.
I actually give huge credit to Marcion for stating the obvious rather than ignoring it. This obvious incompatibility goes conveniently undiscussed in Christian churches. The threats and hateful words assigned to Jeremiah by God are not often mentioned, let alone discussed, in sermons from Christian pulpits.
Marcion said what needed to be said – this Old Testament God COULD NOT POSSIBLY BE JESUS CHRIST.
Marcion eventually was branded a heretic and fell from any kind of authority in orthodox Christianity.
So much for Marcion.
But.
What about his POINT? It still is valid. How do we understand the tone of the caustic message reportedly given by God to Jeremiah, compared to the self-sacrificing message of Jesus Christ on the cross?
I’ve been thinking about it...
I’ve concluded that our New Testament God is the same God with the same demanding expectations for faithfulness.
But the equation has changed.
I am no longer responsible for living up to God’s demands for faithfulness.
This God knows that I cannot, any more than his people, the Jews, ever could.
God’s original covenant with his people, communicated to Moses, was about his people trying to be faithful, and failing. The only prescription for reconciliation after failure was the scrupulous ceremonial sacrifice of innocent animals and the offering of their blood. The prophecies of Jeremiah make clear that animal sacrifice had become thoroughly inadequate.
I am so utterly thankful that something changed, and that God changed it.
God announced a new covenant that is no longer about our faithfulness – it is about his faithfulness. It is about the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.
In the midst of the hateful threats given to Jeremiah to call down on his people, we find a remarkable message from God to Jeremiah, slipped with subtlety into Jeremiah 31:31-33:
But.
What about his POINT? It still is valid. How do we understand the tone of the caustic message reportedly given by God to Jeremiah, compared to the self-sacrificing message of Jesus Christ on the cross?
I’ve been thinking about it...
I’ve concluded that our New Testament God is the same God with the same demanding expectations for faithfulness.
But the equation has changed.
I am no longer responsible for living up to God’s demands for faithfulness.
This God knows that I cannot, any more than his people, the Jews, ever could.
God’s original covenant with his people, communicated to Moses, was about his people trying to be faithful, and failing. The only prescription for reconciliation after failure was the scrupulous ceremonial sacrifice of innocent animals and the offering of their blood. The prophecies of Jeremiah make clear that animal sacrifice had become thoroughly inadequate.
I am so utterly thankful that something changed, and that God changed it.
God announced a new covenant that is no longer about our faithfulness – it is about his faithfulness. It is about the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.
In the midst of the hateful threats given to Jeremiah to call down on his people, we find a remarkable message from God to Jeremiah, slipped with subtlety into Jeremiah 31:31-33:
“This is a brand-new covenant that I will make with Israel when the time comes. I will put my law within them – write it on their hearts! – and be their God. And they will be my people. They will no longer go around setting up schools to teach each other about God. They’ll know me first hand…I’ll wipe the slate clean for each of them. I’ll forget they ever sinned!”
There in the midst of the hate, this angry God slips in an unimaginable promise of a new covenant to take effect sometime in the distant future.
Few details, but a very different premise.
It takes six more centuries to unveil the truth.
In the Gospel of Luke, chapter 22, verse 20 we read about Jesus’ last night alive with his friends. Celebrating the ceremonial stages of the Jewish Passover meal, Jesus reached the prescribed step where the cup was to be shared with all reclining around the table.
"This cup is the new covenant written in my blood, blood poured out for you."
How many times have I heard those words and let them slide past me meaninglessly at communion services?
The same demands for perfect faithfulness. The same responsibilities to a perfect God. The same need for some kind of blood to pay for shortcomings.
All the same.
But so different. This new covenant, promised to Jeremiah, announced by Jesus, is not about my obedience. It is about Jesus’ obedience. It is not about me living up to standards. It is about Jesus living up to standards. It is not about the repeated sacrifices of innocent animals. It is about the one sacrifice of an innocent God himself.
For me.
And you.
Marcion didn’t realize that the answer to his puzzle was not that there are different Old Testament and New Testament Gods.
The answer to his puzzle was that there are different Old Testament and New Testament covenants.
I am so glad that there is a new covenant.
Now with every hateful and vengeful prophecy I read in Jeremiah, I think with tears of the one who somehow felt the full weight of that anger, paying once and for all for me and you and for all who will ever have sinned.
Yes, I am so glad that there is a new covenant.
How many times have I heard those words and let them slide past me meaninglessly at communion services?
The same demands for perfect faithfulness. The same responsibilities to a perfect God. The same need for some kind of blood to pay for shortcomings.
All the same.
But so different. This new covenant, promised to Jeremiah, announced by Jesus, is not about my obedience. It is about Jesus’ obedience. It is not about me living up to standards. It is about Jesus living up to standards. It is not about the repeated sacrifices of innocent animals. It is about the one sacrifice of an innocent God himself.
For me.
And you.
Marcion didn’t realize that the answer to his puzzle was not that there are different Old Testament and New Testament Gods.
The answer to his puzzle was that there are different Old Testament and New Testament covenants.
I am so glad that there is a new covenant.
Now with every hateful and vengeful prophecy I read in Jeremiah, I think with tears of the one who somehow felt the full weight of that anger, paying once and for all for me and you and for all who will ever have sinned.
Yes, I am so glad that there is a new covenant.
3.25.23
