2nd Midweek Lenten Sermon: Abraham and Jesus

+ 2^nd Midweek Lenten Service – February 28^th, 2018 +

Genesis 17:1-6, 15-16

Redeemer Lutheran, HB

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

When children make a promise to each other, they pinky-swear on it. When we grow up, adults make a promise and shake on it or say something like, “you have my word on it”. And when any politician keeps their campaign promise, it’s a breaking news story.

As we find out along with Abraham in today’s reading, God’s promises are entirely different from ours. God’s Word is unlike our word. What God says, happens. God’s promises are entirely unexpected. Undeserved. Unearned.

When the Lord makes a promise, he keeps it.

Throughout the Scriptures, God makes promises to, for, and with his people through a covenant. We usually think of a covenant as a legal term, like a last will and testament. An agreement between two parties, people, or groups. Throughout the Old and even in the New Testament, YHWH cuts a covenant with his people. That’s what the Hebrew word behind for covenant literally means, to cut. The animal would be cut in half and both participants would walk between the pieces as an oath that if either of them broke the covenant they would suffer the same fate. It may sound a bit gross or graphic, but it’s significant.

This is how the covenant repeated by YHWH to Abraham in Genesis 17 happened when YHWH first made his covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15. YHWH promised Abraham his own son would be the heir of all YHWH’s promises and that through his offspring all nations of the earth would be blessed. 

YHWH declared to Abraham: “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them…“So shall your offspring be.” And Abraham believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

Like any of us, Abraham looked for assurance from God about his promise. So the Lord had Abraham bring him a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”  And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other.

Then comes the truly remarkable part of YHWH’s covenant with Abraham. Abraham was asleep when the Lord made his covenant with him. And while he was sleeping, YHWH alone walked through the sacrifice that had been cut in the form of a flaming pot of fire and incense. The Lord alone bore responsibility for his covenant.

When it comes to YHWH’s covenants with his people, it is entirely one-sided. The responsibility party for keeping the covenant YHWH makes is YHWH himself. He swears by his own name. What he says, he will do.

When the Lord makes a promise, he keeps it.

The same is true for YHWH’s covenant with Noah and all creation after the flood. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.

Again, the Lord keeps his promise by making a covenant with King David, declaring, “When your days are fulfilled, and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.  He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”

Through his prophet Jeremiah, the Lord repeats his covenant of old and promises a new covenant:

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord.  For 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…. And will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Time and time again, when the Lord makes a promise, he keeps it.

How different from us. Unlike the Lord we hold grudges and dredge up past sins of others, just as much as Satan loves to wave our past sins our face. Unlike the Lord, we shift the blame for our sin onto anything or anyone else. Unlike the Lord, our hearts and minds are a deluge of sin and darkness against our neighbors – we destroy others in thought, word, and deed.

It’s a good thing it’s not up to us to keep YHWH’s covenant, any more than it was up to Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, or Israel. When the Lord makes a promise, he keeps it.

In the Old Testament the Lord provided the sacrifices and circumcision as a sign of his covenant with Abraham and Israel. Now in the New Testament, the Lord provides his only-begotten Son for us.

“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
    for he has visited and redeemed his people

... to show the mercy promised to our fathers
    and to remember his holy covenant.

Jesus is born to make a new and everlasting covenant with us in his death on the cross and by his blood shed for us. Eight days after his birth, Jesus was circumcised, not for his own sake but for ours. Jesus was born under the Law to fulfill the Law for you. Jesus stands as the fulfillment of all YHWH’s covenants in the Old Testament, even as he makes a new covenant, a new testament for you in his body and blood.

And just like his covenant with Abraham, this New Testament is entirely one-sided. The responsible party for keeping this new covenant is YHWH himself. He swears by his own name. What he says, he will do. Take, eat; this is my body.” Take, drink of it, all of you,  for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 

When the Lord makes a promise, he keeps it.

Like YHWH’s covenant with Abraham, Jesus cuts a covenant with you only this time he uses his own flesh, his hands, his side, his feet for you. Once again God walks through the flames and sacrifice to bear our breach of his covenant. The Lord alone bore responsibility for his covenant for you. It is completely and totally free, by grace through faith in Christ – unexpected, undeserved, unearned – just as it was while Abraham slept.

Like YHWH’s covenant with Noah, Jesus makes a covenant with you that he might taste death, destruction, and judgment in your place. Jesus keeps us safe in the holy ark of his Church. Jesus ferries across the abyss of death through water and the Word. For on the cross Jesus drowned in your sin and rose again to save all flesh and raise you up on the Last Day.

Like YHWH’s covenant with David, Jesus delivers a new covenant, a new testament in his body and blood from his throne of the cross. Behold, your King. Crowned in thorns for you. Pierced for you. Robed in humility for you. Crucified for you. His gracious rule and reign over you is eternal, as is his mercy and grace.

Like YHWH’s covenant with Israel through Jeremiah, Jesus declares a new covenant for you, that the Lord who sees all, hears all, and knows all will remember your sin no more. The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love for you. He loves you. He forgives you. In Jesus, your sin is removed as far as the East is from the West.

As Hebrews declares, Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance… for Jesus has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

When the Lord makes a promise, he keeps it.

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.