18th January, 2011

BRUCE C. WEARNE

Read Hebrews 8: 1-13

It is said that this new covenant is promulgated on "better promises". What could that mean? Is God to be viewed as somehow acting imperfectly in a "first attempt" covenant only to now bring out a new and updated version? Is that what is on offer here? What indeed does "better promises" mean? "Better promises" than what? Read in the context of the entire letter these "better promises" involve the restoration of God's Image Bearer to the place assigned humans in creation, which involves a restoration of the entire created order.

PICTURE: Nat Arnett (www.sxc.com) "The 'new' is not true in contrast to the 'old' which is false, but the 'new' now fulfils completely (in Christ) what the 'old' could only tell us was necessary."

The meaning of this complex passage can be lost if the relation of the "old" to the "new" is interpreted as a false covenant giving way to a true one. That is not what is in view here. Such a line of discussion, though it may seem very compelling in some abstract logical sense, is not how the letter writer describes the state of affairs. This new covenant is not true in opposition to an old covenant which is false but is what the Gospel declares when it reveals "the Word became flesh and tabernacled amongst us".

It is what John the Baptist said when he confessed "He must increase; I must decrease".

It is what the prologue to John's Gospel affirms: "The law was given by Moses but grace and truth were created by Jesus Christ."

The 'new' is not true in contrast to the 'old' which is false, but the 'new' now fulfils completely (in Christ) what the 'old' could only tell us was necessary. There is a fundamental transition here: in the 'old' those who came under the covenant were yet disposed to ignore the ways of the Lord by being deceived, erring from their hearts, and thereby failing to enter God's rest. And so when the writer pens, "they did not continue in my covenant and (so) I took no notice of them, says the Lord" (8: 9), he is noting how the Lord diagnosed the condition of the people brought out from Egypt and why they needed to be shepherded by the law. This reiterates the same warning in that ancient call to worship, Psalm 95 - "do not let your hearts grow hard as with that former time of rebellion, that day of testing in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test, though they had continually witnessed my works those 40 years" (3: 7-9).

Now the Melchizedekian priest has overcome that disposition-of-the-heart in and for those who inherit God's promises. This is the authentic holy service which is rendered in terms of the true tabernacle, the authentic place, at the Right Hand of the Almighty where "a more excellent ministry has been promulgated on better promises and served by a better covenant mediator".

Any priesthood requires gifts and sacrifices, as with the earthly ministrations performed by the Levites. Priesthood involves a mediation and Christ indeed has something to offer since, as Lamb of God, the incarnate Word of the Lord, He took our death upon Himself. The sacrifices that the Levites offered according to the law were but shadows of what was needed to overcome the grotesque reality that is human sin and that includes the ungrateful ignorance that provokes God to turn His face away.

The amazing teaching turnaround here is that though God's people turn away, to wander in ways of ignorance, because they ignore the Lord, the Lord is busy working because He indeed will fulfill His promise to His people, His beloved: "I will be merciful to their lawlessness, and I will by no means remember their sins".

As shadows, these ancient ordinances of the earlier covenant were ordained of God to teach His people about their true standing before Him, their true condition, and the genuine tabernacle that the Lord was indeed busy pitching in their midst. The message of the 'old' was indeed what John the Baptist proclaimed - it had to decline since, as a sign-post to God's Kingdom, its purpose (according to the flesh) was passing away, the more so the closer it came to fulfilment (according to the spirit).

By living under Christ's mediatorial priesthood the creaturely character of rituals are affirmed, avoiding the presumption that ritual itself, because of the need for ritualised sacrifices as a result of the fall, are part of the sinful world that will simply pass away. Rather, Christ's Melchizedekian priesthood affirms ritual as an authentic creational dimension of our human life in God's Image, lived out in the "genuine tabernacle" which the Lord, and not man, has pitched. Evidently, the Almighty Lord accommodates His people's evident enmeshment in a creational structure that invites rituals, patterns and signs - encouraging art forms, paintings, music, sculpture and poetry. In exactly the same way, His merciful leading accommodates their involvement in political systems and earthly kingdoms.

It is also noteworthy that the reference to Jeremiah 31: 31-34 (that is, "Behold the days are coming…") refers to the previously divided Kingdom - the houses of Israel and of Judah - with the confidence that this breach has now been healed. Indeed, the Messiah, the Son of God who would rule all nations, was to come from Judah, the true consolation of Israel (Isaiah 11: 1, Micah 5: 2). But God's promises still prevailed, even though His wilful covenant-partners did not keep their side and so were oblivious of the fact that their Lord had abandoned them to their sinful ways. But that is precisely the point. The Lord indeed "took no more notice" of them in their wayward ignorance, and let it be known that that was not the end of the story, however much His disobedient image-bearers may have assumed that it was. Since the coming of the Messiah and His victory, the new covenant Jeremiah foretold is indeed achieving the Lord's purpose, "a more excellent ministry promulgated on better promises served by a better covenant mediator".

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