The New Covenant (1 Cor 11: 23-26) 3/29/13

          In the New Testament, there are several recitations of the events  surrounding the last supper. Although all of the Synoptic Gospels record it, the very first of which we have a written record comes in First Corinthians. Paul writes to a fractured church that is struggling with divisive behavior. They are having trouble even eating together. So Paul reminds them of the meaning and purpose of the meal that he calls the Lord’s Supper.

          It was the Passover Meal, a huge event in the religious life of Israel. It was the annual remembrance of the Passover, the last of the Plagues to strike the kingdom of Egypt as God delivered his people from bondage. It was the watershed event in the history of the nation of Israel.

           The similarities are striking. As Paul retells the event, the words of Jesus are remarkably similar to those in the Gospels, especially the passage narrated in Luke. How could Paul have known so closely what Jesus said on that night in the Upper Room? We can only surmise that the oral tradition which had so well preserved the tradition of Torah over hundreds of years had been equally well applied to the sayings of Jesus over some 25-30 years following his death and resurrection until the writing of First Corinthians.

          Paul says Jesus “took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said: ‘This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’” Some of the ancient texts read Jesus’ body as “broken for” instead of just “for,” an even more graphic reference to coming events. Of course, Jesus was sitting there with his disciples, so the bread was symbolic of things which were to come. It was not his actual body.

          Paul goes on. “In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’”

          Think back to the Exodus, to the giving of the Law by God through Moses. Moses builds an altar and offers a sacrifice of oxen. Moses reads the law to the people. Each person promises to keep that law. Then Moses memorializes the event by throwing some of the ox blood on the people, saying “Behold, the blood of the covenant that the Lord had made with you…(Exo. 24: 8). Thus the Mosaic Covenant was sealed with blood. The blood symbolically bound God’s people to Him in covenant. God brought freedom from the bondage of slavery to Egypt and sealed it with the blood of animal sacrifice. God gave his people the Law to define that which was wrong; that which was disobedient in his sight.

          Flash forward about 700-900 years to the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah lived through both a time of revival under King Josiah and also witnessed the fall of Israel to Babylon. He saw his beloved people in a downward spiral away from God. But Jeremiah also envisioned a return from exile and a future filled with God. He foretold of a “New Covenant,” where God would declare: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people…for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest…For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jer. 31: 33-35).

          And Jesus says, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” The blood of bulls of the old covenant is replaced with the true sacrifice: the blood of God’s Son. As surely as the blood of animals sealed the covenant of old, the sacrificial blood of our Savior sealed the new covenant for all who believe. His disciples did not understand the significance of his words that night. Indeed, they didn’t truly understand for some time. But in time, they came to understand and witness to the Gospel, the good news that Christ came and substituted himself for us, that we might be sealed in freedom from the bondage of sin. The Law had been fulfilled by the coming of God in the form of his Son and by his life, death and resurrection. The Law had done its job. It had kept us within some sort of containment for its time. But the Law could not save us, for we could not keep it. Only God could do that.

          When we eat the bread and drink from the cup, do we eat the body of Christ and drink his blood? No. But we do, in some high mystery that belongs to God, partake. We partake in the suffering. We partake in the presence. We partake in the promise. We may not understand how it works, but we may take comfort in the fact that it does. We do this in remembrance, and we do it in proclamation.

Paul tells us that Jesus went on to say that “for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” We don’t just remember. We proclaim! Jesus is the new covenant. He is the way, the truth and the life. He is the door through which we enter the gates of heaven. Yes, we mourn that he had to die to save us. But we shout the victory that he claimed for us. When we come to the foot of the Cross with belief and faith in Jesus, we are forgiven.

God remembers our sin no more. This is the New Covenant. We proclaim his death because in that death came victory over death and victory over evil. In that death came life…and life eternal.