Let’s Go Meet the Lord! —Lectionary Reflection for Easter Sunday (Jeremiah 31)

Jeremiah 31:1-6 New Revised Standard Version UpdatedEdition

31 At that time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.

² Thus says the Lord:
The people who survived the sword
    found grace in the wilderness;
when Israel sought for rest,
³     the Lord appeared to him from far away.
I have loved you with an everlasting love;
    therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.
⁴ Again I will build you, and you shall be built,
    O virgin Israel!
Again you shall adorn yourself with your tambourines
    and go forth in the dance of the merrymakers.
⁵ Again you shall plant vineyards
    on the mountains of Samaria;
the planters shall plant
    and shall enjoy the fruit.
⁶ For there shall be a day when sentinels will call
    in the hill country of Ephraim:
“Come, let us go up to Zion,
    to the Lord our God.”

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                While Palm Sunday featured Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, that triumph gave way to the horror of Good Friday. The powers that be had conspired to execute Jesus, and with his death on the cross, his friends laid him in a tomb. The hopes and dreams of a people had been dashed. Yet, word has come that the tomb is empty and that Jesus has risen from the dead and apparently he is looking forward to being with his followers. So, let’s go meet the Lord.

                The first lectionary reading for Easter Sunday comes from Jeremiah 31, though Acts10:34-43 is offered as an alternative. In that reading, Peter shares the gospel message with Cornelius and his household.  Here in Jeremiah 31, we hear the prophet speak words of hope concerning the restoration of the people of Israel who had been scattered to the far winds after the destruction of Jerusalem. It’s good to remember that not everyone was taken to Babylon. Some stayed behind while others went elsewhere, including Egypt. The reading opens with a reminder that Yahweh (the LORD) is the God of all the peoples of Israel. This rather buoyant word is given by a prophet who had spoken words of judgment on Israel. In fact, the first twenty-nine chapters of this oracle had spoken words of judgment, but then in chapters 30 to 31, we hear a message of consolation and restoration. Restoration means that something has been lost. As we read this passage three years after we entered a pandemic that essentially sent us into exile, we know that much has been lost. We look to the future in hope of restoration, knowing that that future isn’t a return to what was, but a restoration of the people to a new reality. This word of hope, a word fitting for Easter doesn’t erase the words of judgment that need to be shared. In other words, Jeremiah had more than one sermon, and he knew when he needed to deliver a word of judgment and when to bring a word of hope.

                The word we hear in Jeremiah 31 doesn’t speak directly to the Easter message of resurrection. However, it does serve as an invitation to gather before the LORD and celebrate God’s everlasting love and faithfulness. So, let us dance before the LORD! This call to celebrate is set in a larger context that addresses both the unfaithfulness of the people, the reality of their exile, and God’s faithfulness. Our call to celebrate on Easter Sunday must not lead us to forget that Easter follows Good Friday’s cross. The message of Easter is that in the resurrection of Jesus, death doesn’t have the last word.      

                As we read this passage from Jeremiah, we should note that it begins with a reminder of the covenant relationship that exists between Yahweh and the people of Israel—Yahweh is the God of all the peoples of Israel. The reminder here is that God is faithful to that covenant. Later in the chapter, Jeremiah will speak of a new covenant, one written on the heart rather than on stone (Jer. 31:31). It might be new but it’s not different. We might think of this as a declaration that the covenant God had made in the wilderness had been renewed. Jeremiah reminds the people of God’s faithfulness in rescuing them from danger in the wilderness, including danger from the sword. This deliverance or act of salvation was an act of grace.

                There is a hearkening back to the earlier deliverance of the people from bondage in Egypt. The people found grace in the wilderness and will find it again. Like the first group of wanderers who looked forward to entering the Promised Land, this group of wanderers also looked forward to returning to the same Promised Land. So, let’s begin the procession by joining in the dance. As with Miriam in the Exodus story (Exod. 15:20-21), the people are invited to adorn themselves with their tambourines and join in the dance of the merrymakers. While this passage doesn’t speak specifically of resurrection, it does speak of God’s faithfulness. The promise of the resurrection depends on that faithfulness.

                Perhaps this is the hope Jeremiah offers to us this Easter season. We can take confidence in God’s grace, love, and faithfulness, that God will bring us into the Promised Land.  While Good Friday may have ushered in a state of exile (the tomb) it didn’t get the last word. While Jesus’ followers were not sure what the future held for them as they laid his dead body in the tomb, he had shared with them the hope of the resurrection. They simply weren’t ready to embrace that word until after the news came on Sunday. The people of Israel might not have fully comprehended what Jeremiah had in mind, but he did remind them that God is faithful and that faithfulness is rooted in God’s grace and everlasting love. The same is true of Jesus’ message to us.

                Even as the promise of the resurrection didn’t completely make sense to Mary Magdalene and then Peter and the Beloved Disciple as they headed that first Easter morning (Jon 20:1-18), Jeremiah’s promise of restoration may have been difficult to hear on the part of the exiles living in the shadow of Babylon. This idea that they would return home to the land of Israel and plant vineyards and enjoy the fruit of those plantings might have seemed outlandish. Yet, Jeremiah wants the people to remember how God had been faithful to the covenant during the wilderness wandering. It is this divine faithfulness that the Easter message draws upon.

                As we ponder the Easter message, we do so in the shadow of a pandemic that doesn’t want to go away, the reality of inflation that eats at our finances, a war in Ukraine that threatens to expand, the ongoing reality of gun violence in our communities, the political, cultural, and social polarization that continues to divide us. It’s easy to fall into despair, at least if we continue to look at the news. There are very few places to hide from these realities. So, what message does Jeremiah have for us on this Easter Sunday? How does the promise of resurrection offer us hope?  Jeremiah declares God’s everlasting love and faithfulness and does so even in the midst of seeming despair. Is this a promise we can take hold of? If we do, what will this mean for us?  Can we dance before God, celebrating the new life we experience in Christ? John Holbert writes of Jeremiah’s Easter message:

Like Jeremiah, we need to look squarely in the face of the world’s ugliness and horror and hopelessness and shout, “Christ is risen!” because the God who raised Jesus from the dead loves us with an everlasting love and will always, always continue divine faithfulness to us. Perhaps a look at Jeremiah on Easter Day is not so irrelevant for a Christian, after all.  [Feasting on the Word, p. 357].

If the resurrection of Jesus is a sign of God’s faithfulness and love, then it would seem appropriate that we go meet the Lord, having adorned ourselves with tambourines, so we can join in the dance, singing as we do so “Christ the Lord, is Risen Today!”