Easter Sunday, Year A. Series

Jeremiah 31:1-6, Psalm 118:1-2, Psalm 118:14-24, Colossians 3:1-4, Acts 10:34-43, John 20:1-18, Matthew 28:1-10.

A). AN EVERLASTING LOVE.

Jeremiah 31:1-6.

The book of Jeremiah is mostly, but not exclusively, a book about God’s judgment. The painful ‘rooting out, pulling down, destroying, and throwing down’ spoken of in Jeremiah’s commission was but a purging, to make room for later ‘building and planting’ (Jeremiah 1:10). When we undergo the chastening of the LORD, it is because ‘Whom He loves, He chastens’ (Proverbs 3:12; Hebrews 12:6).

Written when the Babylonians were already at the gate of Jerusalem to execute (unbeknown to them) the LORD’s judgment against that city - and at a time when all other hope was lost - Jeremiah chapters 30 to 33 appear as Jeremiah’s ‘Little Book of Consolation’. Our present passage (Jeremiah 31:1-6) opens with the LORD reassuring all the families of Israel that He will not cease to be their God, and they His people (Jeremiah 31:1). The New Testament gives us warrant to extend this to include all who are ‘chosen in Christ from the foundation of the world’ (Ephesians 1:4).

In Jeremiah 31:2, the LORD speaks of the people who were left of the sword “finding grace in the wilderness.” This no doubt carried echoes of Israel’s exodus out of Egypt, but also addressed the remnant of those who escaped the sword in Jeremiah’s own day. Perhaps, too, we have wilderness experiences in our own lives, and find that the Lord has not deserted us even there.

After all, the LORD had embraced them (us) with “an everlasting love,” and continues to draw His people not because of their merits, but because of His grace and loving-kindness (Jeremiah 31:3). This becomes significant when applied to those who went into exile in Jeremiah's day, who had escaped the sword (Jeremiah 51:50), and who would eventually experience a new exodus by returning to the land.

Jeremiah envisages a time of rebuilding for all Israel (Jeremiah 31:4). Mentioning the mountains of Samaria (Jeremiah 31:5), he speaks of a day when the watchmen of Ephraim will encourage their people to return to Zion (Jeremiah 31:6) - representing not only Jerusalem, but also the right worship of the LORD (John 4:22). This reunion of the divided kingdom is anticipated by other prophets (e.g. Ezekiel 37:21-22).

Taking Jeremiah 31:3 as our main text, we may observe the following:

1. There is an imminence about the statement that “The LORD has appeared to me”.

Earlier the emphasis had been upon the LORD being far off as well as near (Jeremiah 23:23), but now the people needed the reassurance that ‘the LORD is near to all those who call upon Him’ (Psalm 145:18).

2. There is a certainty about the statement, “Yea, I have loved you”.

This could almost be one of Jesus’ ‘Amen, amen’ sayings: so often translated as ‘Verily, verily’; ‘Truly, truly’; and the like.

3. And what does the LORD say, to Jeremiah; through Jeremiah to Israel; and to us? “I have loved you”!

This is not a merited love. Israel was a nobody, nothing, nation when God called them out of Egypt (Deuteronomy 7:7-8). Yet the LORD ‘set His love upon them’ for no other reason than ‘because he loved them.’

4. This is personal: “I” have loved “you.”

Personal to Jeremiah. Personal to Israel. Personal to you, Christian believer, and to me.

5. There is an “everlasting”-ness about this love.

It did not begin with Adam, but before Adam, for ‘God is love’ (1 John 4:8). It has its existence in the Personhood of the Triune God. It is an endless, never-failing love.

6. The effect of this love in the lives of God’s people is that it has drawn us with the cords of His loving-kindness.

(i) He drew us out of the mire of sin by the Cross of Jesus (Romans 4:25).

(ii) He drew us out of the grip of death by His resurrection (Romans 6:5).

B). A CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION.

Psalm 118:1-2, Psalm 118:14-24.

The Orthodox Celebrant passes in and out amongst his congregation, repeating his announcement in the Indigenous language of each people group: ‘The Lord is Risen!’ Each ethnic group answers in their own native tongue: ‘He is risen indeed!’ The appropriate response to the Easter message is, first and foremost, celebration (Psalm 118:1-2).

Psalm 118:14-24 has long been used by the Christian Church as a part of the Easter message. These verses are included in the lectionary readings for Easter Sunday, in all years. The same verses are often sung in seasons of Communion in non-liturgical churches.

This is not without Biblical precedent. The Psalm itself is the last of the processional Psalms which were sung by pilgrims on their way up to Jerusalem for the great Jewish feasts. There are echoes of the Passover, and anticipations of the death and resurrection of Jesus.