The Promise
Do you remember the Price Promise that John Lewis used to have?
Never Knowingly Undersold. I know they don’t use it any more, but back then, the implication was clear: They were the cheapest. It meant If you found the thing you had bought from them cheaper elsewhere, they would make the difference up to you.
It was a powerful statement! Not ‘‘we’ll try and be cheaper’ - but ‘never knowingly undersold.’
In the Old Testament book of Jeremiah, a similarly powerful promise is made:
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. (31:31)
Powerful words! But the prophet Jeremiah was not thanked for sharing God’s message with the people God sent him to. He was a revolutionary, and he paid the price for it - he was beaten, excluded, thrown into ditches and sewers.
The book of Jeremiah is surprisingly honest, particularly when it comes to Jeremiah’s feelings about all of this. Rather than being painted as a strong, single-minded warrior, we read of many occasions where Jeremiah acts as though he would rather not be doing what God is asking of him. He breaks down in tears. He calls for God to punish and remove those who attack him out of vengeance. He has crises and doubts. I wonder if we can relate to this breaking down of confidence?
However, Jeremiah ultimately does remain obedient to God - he does keep going, and I wonder if the promise of a new covenant was one of the things that kept him going. With God making a promise like that, a promise to know all people individually, to forgive their sins and lead them into a new way of living in harmony with the creator of the universe, Jeremiah obviously felt he could, despite the struggles, trust in God to deliver.
This ‘new covenant’, or ‘new promise’ was to be realised through the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus - the events which we will be marking and remembering this Holy Week. But every year, I am led to wonder, how did Jesus feel about it all?
If Jeremiah often felt scared and angry, I wonder how Jesus, who knew that what was to come would be so much worse, so much more painful, so much more humiliating, really felt?
In John 12:27, Jesus says ‘Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? “Father, save me from this hour”?’
We can identify with that. When things get hard for us, when anxiety, or doubt, or fear, or sadness overwhelm us, we might pray so hard ‘God - make this go away. Save me from this hour. Get me out of this.’
But Jesus’ prayer is different - he says: 'No, this is why I came in the first place. I’ll say, ‘Father, put your glory on display.’
To paraphrase… Yes, I’m struggling, but God I want your will to be done. I’m shaken, but I will trust in your promise.
Could we say about our own lives? ‘Yes it’s hard, but if you want me to do it, I will carry on? I will trust in your promise to all people, including me?'
And listen how God responds to Jesus: ‘I Have glorified it, and will glorify it again.'
Perhaps there’s a lesson there for us; to remember how we have been blessed and held and guided in the past, and to know that God will continue to honour that promise for every single one of us in the future - however unsettled, however bad we may feel in the moment.
As we approach the services and traditions of Easter, let’s remember that it is all in service of a promise. A promise from God, the creator of the universe and everything in it, a promise made to you individually: A promise to forgive and remember your sins no more. A promise to stand with you throughout the changing circumstances of life. And a promise to lead you into a life eternal, of joy, rest and peace.
Thanks be to God!
Lewis Cox
