Rev. Cary M. Richert
5th Sunday in Lent (B)
April 2, 2006
The Broken Made Whole
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Broken. Now there's a word that describes some things in our lives! Broken windows. Broken cars. Broken tools. Broken bones. Broken promises. Broken marriages. Broken families. BROKEN PEOPLE.
We're all familiar with the old saying: If it ain't broke, don't fix it! There's usually lots of wisdom in those words. Especially when dealing with plumbing! Just a little tighter ... and it'll never leak again! Sounds like Tim the Tool-man Taylor, from Home Improvement! Five trips to the hardware store later ... and what wasn't broken in the first place is leaking like a sieve!
Some people spend their entire careers surrounded by the broken. Car mechanics. Surgeons. Pharmacists. Psychiatrists. Athletic trainers. These and many more dedicate their lives in some way or other ... to helping the broken become whole again. Broken things and broken people.
Because by nature we're sinful, much inside of us is broken ... desperately in need of fixing. Yet, in our sinfulness we often fail to recognize our brokenness. Or, we try and desensitize ourselves from its overwhelming and difficult emotional and physical effects with drugs, alcohol, sexual sins, and other man-made solutions ... none of which bring true wholeness and healing.
As a nation, ancient Israel was badly broken in its idolatry and sin. However, they failed to recognize and acknowledge their sin-brokenness. God sent prophet after prophet to His spiritually shattered nation. The prophets' mission was to expose Israel's brokenness ... and to call God's people back into a faithful covenant relationship with Him.
Jeremiah was one of those prophets. A young priest from the tribe of Levi, Jeremiah didn't want to accept God's call. The young, reluctant prophet was overwhelmed! Much of his message to God's people was judgment and imminent punishment by God! The sad thing for Jeremiah was: God's people wouldn't listen! Yet, God's judgment wasn't to be the final word. In the end, His mercy and covenant faithfulness would prevail! Beyond judgment and punishment would come restoration and renewal for Israel. Spiritual healing and wholeness!
God forgee a new covenant with His people! A covenant in which His law would be written upon their hearts, and His people would live in a new relationship with Him. A new covenant relationship ... rooted in the saving work of God's Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus fulfilled perfectly and completely the terms and conditions of the old covenant for ancient Israel. He did this through His sinless life ... and in His sacrificial suffering and death on the cross. He healed the brokenness of sin and made God's people whole again.
The brokenness we experience in our own lives reminds us of our inherent sin-broken relationship with God. At the very heart of our pathway from broken to whole is the love and mercy of God, who applies the healing salve of His gracious promise: For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more, [Jeremiah 31:34]. Forgiveness in and through the blood of Christ. The foundation of God's new covenant of love with us today!
In Holy Baptism God draws us into relationship with Him under the new covenant, the covenant of justification by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone as Savior. In Holy Communion, Christ sealed God's new covenant ... His new testament ... with His own true body and blood. Word, water, bread and wine. All bring healing and wholeness to people whose souls are broken by sin, disobedience and rebellion against God. By God's grace through faith alone, we today are blessed to live under the new covenant Jeremiah prophesied 27 centuries ago!
While many of the things that break in this world can be fixed or replaced ... our sin-brokenness leaves us in a condition similar to that of Humpty Dumpty. After his fall: all the kings' horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again. We're powerless to bring healing and wholeness to our own sin-broken souls ... to, in effect, put ourselves back together again. But, our Savior Jesus took into Himself every bit of our sin-brokenness ... took it to the cross ... and in dying the death we deserve, He covered us with His saving righteousness. He makes us whole!
In making us whole, Jesus re-creates us for a life of faithful service to Him and others through the good works of love He prepared in advance that we should do, [Ephesians 2:10]. And when, in sinful pride, disobedience, and rebellion we fail Him ... He invites us to come to Him in humble repentance and faith, seeking His forgiveness and trusting His gracious reassurance: A broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise, [Psalm 51:17]. And the spirit that was broken ... God will make whole! To Him alone be the glory, forever and ever! Amen.