Dr. John Tamilio III

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I conducted a funeral the other day and at the graveside, after the committal, a friend of the deceased described him (twice) as a “God-fearing man.”  God fearing?  That is a term we use quite a bit — at least we used to — yet we do not really know the meaning of that word: fear.  Of course, we know what “fear” means, and that’s the problem.  We project our contemporary understanding of the word onto God’s Word and think that fearing God is the same as being afraid.  Afraid of God?  Is that what God wants?  I thought God wanted us to love God.  This sounds a lot like Machiavelli who basically said that it is better for people to fear you than to love you, because if they fear you they will do what you want—if they love you, they will do what they want.  Maybe that works for political philosophy (and I’m not convinced of that), but it certainly doesn’t work theologically.

Actually, the word fear as it is used in the Bible (for “fearing God”) is more about being reverent, respectful, and humble before God — not to be overcome with dread, worry, and anxiety.  That could easily be what the deceased man’s friend meant.  It wasn’t the time or place for me to ask, not that I ever would have asked.

We think of fear when we think of breaking rules or disappointing someone in authority.  Well, God certainly has lots of rules for us to follow and he is the ultimate authority.  The covenant that God established with Israel was filled with all kinds of rules, what the Jews call the Law.  As we’ve said before, there are 613 commandments in the Torah, not ten, and much of official Judaism in Jesus’ day was legalistic.  Paul reflects on this at length, especially in his Letter to the Romans and the Galatians.

But it isn’t just the Jews.  Many Christians today look at their faith from a very legalistic perspective, even though the covenant Jesus established with the Gentile world was something altogether different.

Don’t get me wrong.  It is important to have rules to establish sound theology and order within the church.  However, when everything becomes about following the rules (believing the correct things, living your life a certain way, and even governing the church itself) when this becomes the focus, we risk stifling the joy that is such a fundamental part of being a Christian.  I think that is the crux of the passage we read from Jeremiah this morning.  Yahweh, through the pen of the prophet, says,

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.  It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt — a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord.  But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

The new covenant is to be written on the heart!  What is Jeremiah getting at here?  Is this just about Israel?  What about the Law?

There are many ways to read this passage.  First, this is not about nullifying the Law made with Israel.  That still stands.  God’s relationship with Israel has not been supplanted by this new covenant.  However, we are told that the Law will now be written on people’s hearts.  Isn’t the heart the organ of love?  Isn’t the heart the vital organ that keeps us alive pumping oxygenated blood throughout our bodies?  I find it interesting that Jeremiah tells us that this new Law will be written on our hearts instead of our minds.  After all, don’t we use the mind to process information and analyze data?  It would make sense to put a new Law in our minds so that we understood it better.

But this is about the heart.  That which is in the heart is that about which we are passionate.  A Law written on the heart ceases to be something that you merely have to do; it is something you want to do.  It is a Law that is purposeful and passionate.

What is that Law?  Well, as Jeremiah tells us, this Law will be written on our hearts in order for God to be our God and for us to be his people.  It is about relationality.

Think of your own relationships.  Who are the people you are closest to and why?  It’s a one-word answer: love.  Love is what unites us with God and with one another.  The new covenant is written on our hearts because it is meant to be felt more than understood.

Christianity has its own “laws” and orthodox practices that are to guide our life and worship together, but those laws are to facilitate what is written on our hearts, not to supplant it.  Love is our guiding principle.  Jesus himself said that the two greatest commandments (or “Laws”) are about love:

Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Love is the first and operative word in both commandments.  Our hearts should be filled with a desire to know God.  It is only the Living Water that Christ offers us that will quench our thirsts.  That is what Jesus tells that Samaritan woman at the well in John 4, isn’t it?  “Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.  Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (vs. 14).

I want the Living Water of the Living Christ to fill my heart.  I want the cup of my heart to runneth over.  I want to be saturated with his Word and filled to the brim with Jesus.  Our desire to know Jesus should turn into a desire to know him more once we enter into the new covenant with him.  This is why the new Law is written on the hearts.  As much as I am an academic, I’ll be the first to admit that you will not have a deep relationship with Jesus simply by knowing more about theology, the Bible, and Church history.  Those subjects are important, so don’t shirk your studies, Alex!  But no amount of learning is going to make you love Jesus more.

All we have to do is open our arms and embrace the love he offers.  Jesus is crazy about you.  There is nothing you can do to win his love and there’s nothing you do will lose it.  It is unconditional.  It is there for the asking and available for the taking.  Embrace it.  Embrace all of it.  Amen.