Spoiler Alert
I don’t see a lot of movies in the theater. If I do, I typically wait until the movie has been out for a few weeks, find the earliest time available, and stretch out in the theater.
The only problem with this plan is the internet, because the internet is full of spoilers. Basically the best part of any movie are the plot twists, the surprises you didn’t see coming. Spoilers give us just enough information to “spoil” the surprises and potentially ruin the movie for us.
In the Bible, God doesn’t really understand spoilers, especially when it comes to Easter. God speaks through prophets to help prepare Israel for Easter. Jeremiah is one of those prophets. In chapter 31 of the Book of Jeremiah, God uses language that would be familiar to Israel to set the scene of Easter, the language of covenant.
Through Jeremiah, God tells His people that He is making a new covenant, a new agreement between His people and Himself. God’s people kept breaking the old agreement. Their sin was breaking relationship with God. So God flips the script and He throws in a huge plot twist: “For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sins no more.” Jeremiah 31:34.
No more would sin break the relationship God’s people had with Him. A time was coming when works, good or bad, would be removed from the equation of relationship. By sending His Son, Jesus Christ, God made a new covenant, a new agreement, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16.
What we might call spoilers, God calls promises. Spoilers can ruin the plot of a movie but promises give us something to look forward to. We avoid spoilers, but we cling to promises because promises provide hope.
During Easter, we celebrate a God who keeps His promises. A God who loves the world so much He gave His own Son as payment for our sins. In the promise of Easter, God spoils death once and for all.
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