Sermon -- 10th Sunday after Pentecost

EXODUS 24:3-11

THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT PRODUCES PEACE WITH GOD.

 In the name + of Jesus.

 

     There are two testaments in the Bible.  We usually consider them divisions based on history.  The first part is old stuff; the second is newer stuff.  But the division is more than historical.  A testament, or a covenant, is an agreement made between two parties.  The Old Testament was a covenant that the Lord had made with the people of Israel.  The terms were announced at Mt. Sinai.  Moses had stood in the presence of the Lord.  He received the Ten Commandments and other laws which set Israel apart as God’s chosen people.  And as it was done with covenants of a secular nature, so it was done here: The Old Testament was sealed with blood.

     The Hebrew expression for making a covenant is literally “to cut a covenant.”  When two kings would make a treaty with one another—vowing to do something for each other, or vowing not to do something against one another—they would have an animal slaughtered and its body severed.  The two pieces of the animal carcass would be spread a few feet apart.  Then the kings would walk together through the blood trail.  It is as if each king were saying, “May I be slain like this animal if I fail to live up to my end of the covenant.”

     The Old Testament was given by the Lord and proclaimed by Moses.  “All the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.”  And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord” (Exodus 24:3-4).  Then the covenant was confirmed in blood.  Animals were slaughtered and prepared for sacrifices.  Their blood was collected.  Half was splashed against the altar, sealing the Lord to his end of the covenant.  The other half “Moses took … and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words” (Exodus 24:8).  By sprinkling the people with blood, Moses bound them to the Old Testament.

     The blood of the covenant produced peace with God.  Once the covenant was confirmed, the elders of Israel ascended Mt. Sinai to feast with God.  He did not look upon their sinfulness or treat them as their sins deserved.  He received them as his beloved people.  They beheld God, although the only thing described was the pavement beneath God’s feet.  They ate and drank with God as friends.  For, they were reconciled to God by the blood.  The blood of the covenant produces peace with God.

     The Old Testament, however, had a flaw: It was a two-sided covenant.  The Old Testament was that God promised Israel: “I will be your God.  I will bless you, protect you, provide for you, preserve you, and prosper you if you will obey my words.”  The flaw was not on God’s end.  He is ever faithful and always keeps his word.  The problem was this: “if you will obey my words.” 

     The Israelites had vowed: “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient” (Exodus 24:7).  I think they meant it.  It is like a teenager who makes his or her confirmation vow.  The catechumen vows that he will be faithful to God’s word and suffer everything, even death, rather than fall away from it.  When that vow is taken, I believe each catechumen is sincere.  But then temptations come.  We discover how weak we are when we face peer pressure, worldly expectations, and our own ego-charged cravings.  The Israelites discovered this too, as the pages of Scripture record and repeat.  In fact, about a month after the Israelites vowed their faithfulness to the covenant, they crafted a golden calf and worshiped it.  They were unfaithful to their faithful God and deserved whatever punishment they got.

     But it is no different for us.  We have been chosen as God’s people.  We know what God desires of us.  Our problem is rarely ignorance.  Our problem is sinfulness.  We are sincere every morning when we wake up that we will do the good God wants us to do and avoid the evil God forbids.  We will be obedient.  We will demonstrate kindness to that obnoxious brother-in-law who brags about himself.  We will show patience to the other drivers on the road because we all want to get where we are going.  But then our brother-in-law says something we assume is an insult and we respond with prickly and vicious words.  Our patience with other drivers lasts until someone takes too long after the light turns green.  We surely do not act like the children of God or live up to the code God has set for us.  It is not because we are unaware of his word.  We do know God’s word.  Therefore, we also know his judgment on our behavior.  We deserve to be slain, for the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).

     There was one element in the Old Testament that continued to provide hope for the sinner—blood.  The blood of the covenant produces peace with God.  The Old Testament prescribed the blood of sheep and bulls to be shed daily for God’s people.  It was that blood which declared the atonement for sins.  Each animal was presented as a substitute for the sinner.  The priest would lay his hands on it, signifying that this animal is the substitute.  “This one bears the sin of the people.  This one dies for me.”  And with the fellowship offering, a portion of the sacrifice was given back to the worshiper.  He would stay in God’s presence at the temple and feast with God in peace.  The blood of the covenant produced peace with God.

     As the years went by, thousands of animals were slaughtered.  Gallons of blood were splashed against the altar.  The smoke from the altar continued to declare peace from God to his people.  But none of those sacrifices actually took away sins or delivered from death.  Rather, each of those sacrifices pointed to a greater sacrifice—a sacrifice which would not need to be repeated because it would be sufficient for all the sins of all the sinners of all the nations for all times.  This blood would be shed to establish a new covenant, a New Testament.  This would be a superior covenant because it would be an everlasting testament which would never fail.  The blood of this covenant produces eternal peace with God.

     Unlike the Old Testament, this New Testament is a one-sided covenant.  God the Father sent his own Son to proclaim the terms, to fulfill those terms, and to seal it with his blood.  He does not leave any conditions for you to fulfill.  What if he did?  What if Jesus had said, “I have done what is necessary to make you children of the heavenly Father.  All you have to do is act like children of God, and then you will have eternal life.”  Oh, the anguish and the pressure and the doubt that would have been laid upon us!  And that is on a good day!  How could we ever live up to God’s expectations of us?  What hope could we have?  We would be driven to utter despair.

     Once again, our problem is not ignorance.  It is not even our will.  We want to do what is good—God has worked that desire in us.  We want to avoid what is evil—and yet we still do it.  St. Paul expresses the frustration every Christian has: “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.  For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.  For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (Romans 7:18-19).  If we know better, and if we want to do better, why don’t we actually do better?  This struggle bothers us all.  Many Christians have wondered if they really are Christians because we keep sinning.  If the Lord had chosen to make the New Testament conditional on our performance, we would surely be lost.

     But the blood of the New Testament produces peace with God.  It is all in God’s hands.  Every part is put upon Jesus to fulfill, and he does.  He presented himself as the fulfillment of every sacrifice; for, the Old Testament points to him.  Jesus is the whole burnt offering—consumed completely in the fiery wrath of God for our sins.  Jesus is the guilt offering.  The Bible says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ’Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’” (Galatians 3:13).  He assumed our guilt and took our curse.  In exchange, Jesus gives us his innocence.

     The exchange was made and sealed with blood.  Jesus’ blood was splashed out upon the cross, and his blood was sprinkled upon us in our baptism.  St. Paul reminds us that Jesus “saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy…”  For, this is not a two-sided covenant in which we have work to do yet, but one-sided in which Jesus has done all the work.  And how is that covenant applied to us?  St. Paul continues, “by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:5-7).  The blood of the covenant produces peace with God.  He does not treat us as our sins deserve.  Rather, “the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).  Since we have been baptized into Jesus’ name, we have been cleansed of all sin and are dressed in Jesus’ righteousness.  God will not condemn that which is righteous in his sight; therefore, you get to live in peace.  It does not mean your sins are okay, but it does mean they are forgiven.

     The blood of the covenant produces peace with God.  After the covenant was confirmed at Sinai, “Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel.  …And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank” (Exodus 24:10-11).  You and I also get to eat and drink in the presence of the Lord.  We not only feast with him, we feast upon him—for he is the fellowship offering.  He says, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood” (1 Corinthians 11:25).  We receive the benefits of Jesus’ death and resurrection.  This is what strengthens and keeps us in the true faith unto life everlasting.  We depart from this altar in peace to live in joy as God’s redeemed.  Eventually, we will depart from this life and enter the glorious, everlasting life with our Lord.  He will welcome us in joy and have us sit at the wedding banquet of the Lamb. 

     Since the New Testament is validated entirely by Jesus, it has been accomplished without a flaw.  We receive all the benefits by grace.  Nothing has been earned, but all has been given—mercy, forgiveness, peace, joy, and glory.  The precious blood of Christ has won great riches, and it has redeemed and reconciled you. 

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