"I Will Be Your God"

 This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you (Luke 22:20)

What a statement to make to a group of 12 men who had grown up under what we now call the "OLD" Covenant!  To them, it was not an "old" covenant; it was THE Covenant that God had made with their ancestors, a covenant which they themselves renewed, and had been renewing all the days of their lives, at every Passover.  I will be your God, and you will be my people!

What a statement!  Had any other god in the history of the universe ever made such a statement, no matter how much blood had been shed, how many lives of innocent children had been sacrificed?  "I will be your God!"  What could that possibly mean?

The whole history of Israel, beginning with Abraham, was a graphic docu-drama illustrating what it meant that Yahweh would be "their God."  In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses is reminding the people just before they cross the Jordan into Canaan, of their history:

Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created man on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other.  Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of?  Has any other people heard the voice of God (alternate translation: of a god) speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived?  Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

....Because He loved your forefathers and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength, to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today.

Observe [these laws] carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people." What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him? And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today? 

This covenant, initiated with Abraham and his descendants, sealed and ritualized and repeated year after year with each new generation following the first Passover, wherein God delivered them out of Egypt and brought them safely into the Promised Land ---- this covenant which made them "one family" with God Himself, the Divine Presence in their midst, -----this covenant, sealed with the blood of goats and lambs, and celebrated with a family meal where the Lamb was eaten, ---- this covenant, which the disciples thought they were entering into once again at THAT Passover Meal, ---- was taken up by Jesus, the Lamb of God, who said New Words in the midst of the Old Ritual:  This is My Body, given up for you!

And the cup, no longer the blood of goats and lambs, but now:  This cup is the NEW COVENANT in my blood, which will be shed for you.

Just as Moses gave them a New Law from the time they left Egypt to the time they entered the Promised Land, so Jesus gives them a New Law at the Last Supper:  A NEW LAW I give to you: Love one another as I have loved you!

"I will be your God, and you will be my people."  What does that mean?  What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?  This new covenant is sealed with the blood of Jesus Christ Himself:  "I will be your God!"  

If only we knew what is meant by covenant.  If only we knew!