C4CC(16): The New Covenant (2)
So what does Jesus say about this feast? He says: “This is the new covenant.” Covenants are an important theme in the Bible: there are several covenants, with Noah, with Abraham, Moses and David and also the High Priestly one. They are always at God's initiative, God seeking our flourishing and God entering into a compact with humanity, with the chosen people, to ensure their flourishing. If the people keep the covenant (if they are righteous) then they will flourish and God will pour down blessings upon the land. Consistently, however, the people fail and this is a perpetual facet of our fallen human nature. We fail to live righteously and so become trapped in our sin. We are unable to save ourselves, and we need to call upon God to save us. What Jesus is doing is saying: this is the new agreement, here is where God is acting again. We fulfil our side of the covenant and are formed in righteousness through the sharing of the bread and the wine.
Jesus also says “This is my body.” When Jesus predicts that the temple will be cast down, He says it will be rebuilt in three days, and then when the local people say, 'how can he rebuild the temple in three days?', the answer given in John’s gospel is 'he was talking about his body'. Communion is the new temple: the temple has passed away and that which the temple accomplished in terms of atonement, in terms of wiping away sin and reconciliation with God, those functions of the temple are now enacted within the body. Christ’s body is now the temple.
Jesus also says, “Do this in remembrance of me.” The 'in remembrance' is the word anamnesis in Greek. It is only used in one other place in the Bible in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, in Leviticus, so there is some debate over exactly what is meant. A key element, however, is that, just as with Passover, it is not just a memorial, it is a re-enactment. We are taking part in the events as we re-enact them. It is a present tense process and is not purely a symbolic process. St Paul in 1 Corinthians 10 says, 'this bread that we share, is it not a sharing, is it not a participation, is it not a communion in Christ’s blood?' Paul is arguing about eating meat from pagan sacrifices, whether it is acceptable for the community in Corinth to do this, and also to eat the supper of the Lord. He says 'well, when you are eating those sacrifices, you are sharing, you are becoming part of the body of the pagans. And you cannot do that because when you are having the Lord’s supper you are becoming part of the Body of Christ.' His argument makes little sense if the process is purely symbolic. On the contrary, St Paul has a very robust sense of the reality of what it means to share in the body and the blood, to share in the bread and the wine – not least because he goes on to talk about those who eat unworthily. Those who do not take communion seriously, who are frivolous, are guilty of the body and the blood, which is an expression meaning that they share in the murder, they acquire the guilt of the killing. So they crucify Jesus again. It is saying they are still bound up with the values of the world, the worldly values which crucified Christ, those which put Him to death. If you do not understand what is going on in communion, if you do not take it seriously, then you are still sharing in the values of the world, and therefore you are still sharing in what murders.
The Old Testament roots of Christian worship are very important. Baptism is what has replaced circumcision: where circumcision was a one-off entry into the Hebrew community, baptism is the one-off entry into the Christian community. Yet what kept the Hebrews going in their ongoing life of worship were elements like Passover and the temple, and it is precisely Passover and the temple that Jesus overturns and replaces with this sharing of bread and wine. The ongoing worship of the Christian community is carried through in this act, and this is very much the universal testimony of the church fathers. It does not mean that all worship should be Eucharistic. It means that here is the centre of gravity, the living heart of the Christian community, here is what enables the wider ministry of the church. It is the Eucharist that empowers the prophetic witness of a church community; it is the Eucharist that empowers the church to stand out over against the world; it is the Eucharist that empowers the church to be in the world but not of the world.
Jesus said that He was going to abolish the temple and create it again in three days. The empty tomb now corresponds to the Holy of Holies: God has come out from the place of sacrifice and we are sprinkled clean, but instead of the goat’s blood, we have Christ’s blood, which makes us clean and reconciled with God. The two angels at the empty tomb correspond to the two cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant which was placed in the Holy of Holies. The site of the resurrection is the new mercy seat, and so, if you accept the resurrection then you have received reconciliation with God. It is the revealing of this truth through the story of crucifixion and resurrection that sets us free from being trapped in the process of natural and human wrath. This isn’t separable from either the crucifixion or the Last Supper, the three things hold together and hang together and cannot be separated. “This is my blood of the New Covenant shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.” This is the sacrifice which we are called to share in. We are washed clean by the blood of the Lamb.