Sharon: “The New Covenant”

When we reflect on the reality of the new covenant (in Hebrew there is one expression for new covenant and New Testament) in Jesus and compare it with what is written in the prophecy of Jeremiah, chapter 31, verses 31-34, the question is raised about whether the new covenant (New Testament) and the reality that derives from it responds to the expectations raised by the prophet?

The prophet says: “The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt-- a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says 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. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the Lord," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.”

However, reality shows that the new covenant (New Testament) is studied from back then until today and that there are still millions of people that do not even have a clue about what is in it.

One needs to note the words “within them” and “on their hearts”. That means that the covenant is an interior one in Jesus, which enables one to know it not in a didactic way, when one sits down and studies from a book and thus acquits knowledge intellectually. This is because learning from a book is not necessarily the way to get to know Jesus. Many sit and read or study the new covenant (New Testament) and this does not necessarily lead to Jesus. When the prophet says “they shall all know”, he means all who encounters or hears Jesus (then or now) and his or her heart was open to him, because interior knowing as is expressed in the new covenant can only take place in the heart of a person (“I will write it on their hearts”).

Those who opposed Jesus and argued against him, generally did not listen to him with understanding in their heart but rather brought their academic and intellectual learning and this created two opposing poles: intellect and heart, his opponents and Jesus. The opponents of Jesus then could be us today, even among those who are the clergy of today.

Let us pray that it be God’s will that with the spirit filling our hearts we might also know how to listen to Jesus and to others.