THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
This week two amazing and well-known biblical themes come together. In the Old Testament reading for this Sunday (Jeremiah 31:31-34) the focus is on Jeremiah’s prophecy of the new covenant in which God’s law is written on the heart. This all sounds very easy and comforting until we recognise that it’s going to take a kind of spiritual heart surgery to accomplish this. It’s worth it, of course—as it is physical heart surgery that brings healing and new life—but, like surgery, it hurts. A lot.
This is why the New Testament reading from John’s Gospel (which is the focus of today’s meditation below) speaks about the seed that falls to ground and dies. Unless a seed is willing to do this, it cannot bear fruit, it cannot become what it was created to be, it cannot take on the new life that waits within. In the same way, Jesus calls us to follow him on the road to dying and rising. We cannot get to the resurrection without going through the cross, and we cannot get to God’s new life without giving up our old one.
This week we will be challenged to release our old life and our old ways in order to die so that God can perform surgery on our hearts. If we will accept the challenge, we will find a new life, a new way of being, a new relationship with God, with the world and with ourselves, waiting for us on the other side.
To download this week’s reflections in PDF format, click here.
