Texts of the Readings
April 2,
2006
Fifth Sunday in
Lent (B)
Terrance Callan
Jer 31:31-34
X
Heb
5:7-9 X
John 12:20-33
Suffering and death are part of every
human life, but we do not easily accept them. Instead we avoid them as much
as possible and even try to forget that they are part of our experience.
The death and resurrection of Jesus encourage us to embrace our suffering
and death in order to find life in them, and make it possible for us to do
so.
The reading from the book of the prophet Jeremiah contains Gods
promise of a new covenant to be made with the Jewish people. This new
covenant would not be like the covenant God made with the people after
leading them out of Egypt to freedom. The people broke that covenant and
suffered the consequences, especially the conquest of Judah by the
Babylonians. They did so in part because the covenant was something outside
themselves, a relationship requiring effort to be maintained. But the new
covenant will be a more intimate relationship with God in which Gods law is
written on their hearts, and all the people know God in themselves.
We Christians believe that God kept this promise of a new
covenant in Jesus. The covenant established through Jesus was new in many
ways. It involved a new intimacy between God and people as Jeremiah
foresaw. This intimate relationship was not confined to the Jewish people,
but included Gentiles as equal partners with the Jews. And this covenant
was new because it was established through the suffering and death of
Jesus. This was a completely unexpected aspect of the new covenant. Both
the reading from the letter to the Hebrews and the reading from gospel
according to John offer explanations of it.
The reading from Hebrews says that Jesus learned obedience from
what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of
eternal salvation for all who obey him. Jesus suffering is here pictured
as that of a child who is educated through discipline (see Hebrews
12:4-11). Even though Jesus lacked the failings that in other human beings
must be corrected by discipline, he shared the human condition to the extent
that he had to learn obedience through suffering.
The reading from the gospel of John uses another image to
account for Jesus suffering and death. Jesus says, Unless a grain of
wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if
it dies, it produces much fruit. Just as a seed must die in order to
accomplish its purpose, i.e., the growth of a new plant and the production
of many new seeds, so Jesus had to die in order to draw all people to
himself. Jesus had to die in order to become the true vine, of which we are
the branches, living and bearing fruit in him (see John 15:1-11).
The new covenant was established by the suffering and death of
Jesus. And the intimate relationship with God that we have through Jesus
also includes this element of suffering and death. Like Jesus, we are
children of God who must learn obedience through suffering. For us as for
Jesus Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this
world will preserve it for eternal life.
Let us try to accept the surprising presence and power of God in
the suffering and death of Jesus and in our own suffering and death.
©Terrance
Callan
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