April 16, 2022 -- Jeremiah 3:12b -- Between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday: Reflections

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“Return, faithless Israel,
declares the LORD.
I will not look on you in anger,
for I am merciful,
declares the LORD;
I will not be angry forever.”
Jeremiah 3:12b ESV

At a recent church meeting there was a big box of books available, for free, for anyone who wanted to take one. The book’s title is: “Inexpressible Hesed and the Mystery of God’s Lovingkindness”. It is written by Michael Card, a musician and theologian I admire. I am thoroughly enjoying the book and reveling in the richness of the meaning of the Hebrew word Hesed—which in English can be translated: mercy, merciful (as in our passage today); lovingkindness; divine kindness; graciousness; covenant friendship—in fact it is a word that Card argues is unique to Hebrew thought and therefore very difficult to translate into other languages.

It is the Saturday, that odd what-are-we-supposed-to-do day between Good Friday and the exuberant celebration of Sunday, Jesus’ resurrection? It is a strange time in many ways—what do you call it? How is it celebrated? You can find all kinds of rules about fasting and what services to hold or not to hold. Today Jeremiah’s words echo with great clarity for me—it is obvious that the people of the LORD are faithless—but He is faithful, merciful, loving, kind, ardent in His zeal for His lost people, compassionate.

The disciples were scattered, unable to process all the promises of the Old Testament—and Jesus is in the tomb, fighting for their victory. He died in their place, He the faithful One sent by the Father for the rescue of faithless, slow-to-believe people. This people will be captured by His Hesed.

Crowder sings, “I’m the one who held the nail…I’m the one who denied You with my lips'“. That seems a fitting line for Holy Saturday—a meditation on the great explosion of my sins and uncontainable contamination of my mind—my great faithlessness today, more than ever is met by the Hesed—the matchless loving-kindness and mercy of God abounding for me in Jesus Christ. I think today is a day for awe and Spirit-led reflection, prayer which will swell to Resurrection thanksgiving.

O LORD, I fling myself
   with all my weakness and misery
   into Thy ever-open arms.
I know that I am ignorant and much mistaken about myself.
Thou, Who seest in very truth, look mercifully on me.
Lay Thy healing hand upon my wounds.
Pour the life-giving balm of Thy love into my heart.
Do for me what I have not the courage to do for myself.
    Save me in spite of myself.
May I be Thine, wholly Thine, and, at all costs, Thine;
   in humiliation, in poverty, in suffering, in self-abnegation, Thine;
   Thine in the way Thou knowest to be most fitting,
      in order that Thou mightest be now and ever mine.
Thou art my Strength and my Redeemer.
I am Thy poor little creature, dependent on Thy merciful charity alone—Amen.
Père Besson (1816 - 1861) Prayers Ancient and Modern. Ed. Mary Wilder Tileston. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1928. page 226.

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