Jesus’ Last Will and Testament
Jeremiah 31:31-34 Yes, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers, when I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant of mine, although I was a husband to them, declares the Lord. 33But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law in their minds, and I will write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34No longer will each one teach his neighbor, or each one teach his brother, saying, “Know the Lord,” because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord, for I will forgive their guilt, and I will remember their sins no more.
Let us hold on firmly to the confession of our hope without wavering, since he who promised is faithful. (Hebrew 10:23). Amen.
I helped my parents write their will several years ago. We decided that 10% of their assets would be gifted to the Lord’s kingdom for mission work in the WELS. My dad commented that the remaining 90% could be divided equally in thirds for me and my two younger sisters.
I told my dad that in the Old Testament, the eldest son received a double portion of his parents’ inheritance. That meant I would receive 60% and my sisters would each receive 15%.
My dad thought about that for a while and then said, “I don’t think your sisters will like that.” I replied, “I know they won’t. But I was only teasing.”
In Jeremiah, God the Father is promising a new covenant – a new will – for his children. “Yes, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers, when I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant of mine, although I was a husband to them, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law in their minds, and I will write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will each one teach his neighbor, or each one teach his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord, for I will forgive their guilt, and I will remember their sins no more” (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
God had treated the Israelites like children with the old covenant. Like when you tell your children that if they get good grades, they can go out for sports. Or when their room is clean, they can have friends sleep over. God told his children that if they fulfilled their end of the covenant, then God would bless them nationally, physically, and spiritually.
But the rules and regulations of the old covenant were so detailed and different than the nations around them that the Israelites had difficulty separating themselves from their pagan neighbors. In fact, they often joined their pagan neighbors.
Every one of you had parents who challenged you after you did something stupid with your friends. “If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump, too?!” The children of Israel did jump. They jumped right into the sin of idolatry of their pagan friends.
The rules and regulations of the old covenant were difficult to keep, but the Israelites’ old sinful nature made it impossible to keep the covenant. Israel’s kings were weak and corrupt. They corrupted their people’s faith in the true God by setting up altars on high places to pagan gods. Israel’s priests were cheats and drunkards. They allowed the people to do what they wanted. The
people worshiped fertility gods like Baal and Asherah. They sacrificed their children to demonic gods like Molech and Chemosh.
As God’s modern-day children, we aren’t any better than those Old Testament children. We follow our unbelieving friends, our unchristian family, and our pagan culture by jumping off the bridge into their same sins. We worship false gods like the pillow god, the liquor god, or the money god. We fall into the sexual sins of Baal and Asherah. We do not strongly speak out when we see women going to and our government funding the sacrifice of unborn infants to the gods of Molech and Chemosh. Any time we are not putting the true Triune God first we are placing him behind gods of our own making.
We often behave like the naughty children we see screaming and running and pitching a fit in the grocery stores. We think to ourselves, “Those kids are out of control. I would never let my kids act like that. If they tried it one time with me … it would be the last time.”
Yet, we are those kids. Except as teenagers, as grown-ups. We cry when we don’t get our way with a promotion at work or a team we try out for. We roll our eyes and argue with our parents – whether our parents are in their 30s and 40s or in their 70s and 80s. We complain when God allows hardship or health issues to visit our homes. We whine about bullies, not realizing how much we bully other people to get our way. We whimper when others are mean to us, not recognizing how mean we are to others – to their face, behind their back, and on social media.
We are out of control! Why would God ever let his kids act like that?!
We behave like children of Satan – because that’s what we are by nature! God should treat us like children of Satan. He should punish us for our wickedness. He should let us die for our trespasses into dangerous areas. He should damn us to hell for our insubordination. He should at least write us out of his will. He should remove our inheritance.
God gave his people a new covenant – a new promise. But it was actually an old promise. This was God’s promise to send the Crusher to stomp on the head of the Ancient Serpent, the Devil (Genesis 3:15). This was God’s promise to send a perfect Passover Lamb, One without blemish or defect, who would be sacrificed for the sins of the world. The Seed of the Woman crushed Satan’s head. He received the venom of the Serpent into his perfect body to spare you this deadly venom. He shed his holy precious Lamb’s blood on the altar of the cross so Death would pass over you.
God does deal with our hurtful words and our harmful behaviors. He does deal with our idolatrous worship of pagan gods. He does deal with us for breaking his covenant with us. He deals with all of it on Christ’s cross. The new covenant relationship with God won’t be based on what people do. It will be based on the One in whom they believe.
In the Upper Room on Holy Thursday, Jesus and his disciples were gathered to celebrate the Passover meal. There was roasted lamb, unleavened bread, and grape wine. Jesus replaces the Passover meal with the Lord’s Supper. He replaces the old covenant with a new covenant.
Luke records this momentous event. “He took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, he took the cup after the supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is being poured out for you’” (Luke 22:19-20). You’ll notice that the EHV has the word “testament” instead of “covenant”. It’s beneficial to hear what the EHV commentary says about this. “The Greek word diatheke may be translated testament or covenant. These two English terms overlap. A covenant or solemn promise is made by someone who expects to
continue living while the agreement takes effect. A testament is made by someone who expects to die before the agreement takes effect. In Holy Communion, we have the last will and testament of our Savior, the God-Man who died so that we would inherit forgiveness and eternal life. But we also have the covenant of the God-Man who rises from the dead to live forever, in order to give us a place at his heavenly table.”
In the Lord’s Supper, Jesus is giving us his last will and testament. That’s why we know that when Jesus says, “this is my body” and “this is my blood,” he’s not playing word games. He doesn’t really mean “this represents my body” or “this symbolizes my blood” as many non-Lutheran Christians believe. If you have made out your will, your lawyer makes sure your language is very clear. It is very precise. This is Jesus’ last will and testament. He is very clear and precise with his language. “Is” means “is.”
When you are giving your heirs their inheritance, you are very specific with who gets what. Your eldest son gets the double portion while the other siblings get smaller percentages. I’m teasing. You list who gets Grandma’s fine China, who gets Grandpa’s woodcarving tools, and so on.
Jesus is very specific about the inheritance God’s children – Jesus’ brothers and sisters – will receive in this Holy Meal. St. Paul explains, “Brothers, I am speaking in human terms. When someone has established a last will and testament, no one nullifies it or adds to it” (Galatians 3:15). Jesus’ true body is really present with the bread and his true blood is really present with the wine in Holy Communion.
The Lord promises, “I will forgive their guilt, and I will remember their sins no more.” The all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful God forgets. He has amnesia when it comes to your sins. He forgets to punish you for your wickedness. He forgets to penalize you for your trespasses. God forgets your rolling eyes, talking back, complaining, bullying, and downright meanness. He forgets to give you the death penalty for your murder of his Son. He forgets how you fail to live up to the standards of his old covenant by replacing it with his new covenant.
Wickedness forgiven. Sin forgotten. Trespasses pardoned. Jesus promises you this inheritance in his last will and testament. No strings attached. No fine print at the bottom of the page. No surprises when the will is read. This is a one-sided, unilateral covenant sealed and secured with Christ’s signature written in divinely human blood at the bottom.
Imagine the surprise of God’s unfaithful children when they hear their heavenly Father proclaim, “I will be their God and they will be my people.” That’s a promise. God is determined to be faithful to it. God promises to come to his people with grace and forgiveness. This is the surprising message Jeremiah proclaimed to the unfaithful children of Israel. They were not cut out of the will.
God also promises to come to you. He comes to you in the unleavened bread that is also Jesus’ broken body. He comes to you in the wine that is also Jesus’ shed blood. You taste forgiveness. You have grace on your lips. You have mercy on your tongue. Since Jesus is really present in this Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, this is one-on-one time with the very Son of God.
This is the surprising message Jesus proclaims to you this Holy Thursday. You are not cut out of the will. The Sacrament upon the altar is Jesus’ last will and testament to you.
When your parents die, Lord willing, everything will be equal for you and your siblings in the inheritance left for you. Before Jesus died, he proclaimed his last will and testament. He wills us his body and blood. He wills us his forgiveness of sins. This is the new covenant, the new testament, in his blood. Jesus so fervently desired his siblings to have these blessings that he
willed us his estate the night before he died. Then on Thursday evening through Friday afternoon, he proceeded to his death to accomplish those blessings upon which his last will and testament depend.
You will taste God’s forgiveness in a few minutes after reviewing the terms of the new will and testament in the words of institution, “This is my body given for you. This is my blood shed for you.” Amen.
So let us approach with a sincere heart, in the full confidence of faith, because our hearts have been sprinkled to take away a bad conscience, and our bodies have been washed with pure water (Hebrew 10:22). Amen.