"God did not establish a contract with His people, He established a covenant."
"The Eucharist," Viktor Vasnetsov, public domain
Contracts and covenants are part of our daily lives but they are very different things.
Our society is governed in large part by contracts. These contracts may be formal or informal, written or oral, and usually involve an exchange of goods and services. For example if you make an appointment to see a doctor, that is a type of informal contract. If you fail to keep the appointment the contract is broken and the doctor is under no obligation to seek you out and provide his services. Contracts are for business. Two businesses may enter int a contract with each other in order to form a single larger business.
But covenants are different, covenants create family.
Consider the marriage covenant. It may appear on the surface that two individuals are establishing a covenant between them. But in reality the covenant is between two families. A marriage is much more than two persons beginning a family, a marriage unites the family of the bride and the family of the groom into a single larger family. A covenant is not broken with the failure of one of the parties, but it is weakened.
In ancient times covenants were sealed with the shedding of blood. An animal, usually a sheep or goat or even an ox was sacrificed. The blood was collected and sprinkled on those principals of the covenant. The implication was clear. A covenant was a serious enterprise, not to be taken lightly. The breaking of a covenant could very well result in more shedding of blood.
God did not establish a contract with His people, He established a covenant. God relates to his people through covenants because we are part of God's family. Covenants create a familial bond so strong it can survive even if one party fails to uphold their end.
The history of our relationship with God is a history of covenants. Time after time we have failed to live out our covenantal promises with God. But God does not abandon us. Instead He reaches out to us, to affirm His promises. And with each succeeding renewal of His covenant, His family is enlarged. In the Garden of Eden God established a covenant with our first parents, making them part of His family. When they turned away from Him, that family bond between God and man was weakened but it was not dissolved. He then renewed the covenant with the family of Noah, then the tribe of Moses, the descendants of Abraham and the kingdom of David.
But all of these were foreshadowings of the eternal covenant that was still to come. A covenant God promised back in the Garden of Eden that was fulfilled in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Do you remember God's statement to the serpent?
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." (Genesis 3:15)
This is the first time God promises us a savior who will come to heal our relationship with God that was damaged by our first parents. It is a promise of a New Covenant.
At the Last Supper, Our Lord raised His cup and said, “This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many.” At the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus sweated blood as He prayed for the strength to submit to God's will and accomplish our salvation by establishing the New Covenant.
There is a documented medical condition called hemohidrosisor hematidrosis that occurs in patients experiencing extreme stress or shock. The capillaries around the sweat pores become fragile and leak blood into the sweat.
Any significant loss of blood results in a physical weakness. The extreme stress of the ordeal in the garden, meant that Jesus was already in a weakened state before He picked up His cross, even before He was scourged which would have weakened Him further.
After the beatings and the Via Dolorosa, the Lord was probably suffering hypervolemic shock, a condition where the body loses more than 20% of its bodily fluids, making it impossible for the heart to pump enough blood.
With the shedding of the blood of the King of Kings, God established a New Covenant with His people, a New Testament. This covenant would not be broken or weakened, even if we failed on our part.
With the previous covenants, God's family was limited by tribe and nation and kingdom. But the New Covenant, established through the sacrifice of Jesus, encompasses the entire world.
Today on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, we celebrate the fulfillment of the promise God made way back in Genesis. Jesus Christ establishes the new covenant with His body and blood. Jesus gives His body and blood as true food and true drink. This food and drink unites us with God and restores our familial relationship with Him. The very nature of our being is elevated and we become creatures of both flesh and spirit.
In the sacrament of the Eucharist, we receive the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus, the Christ, the anointed Son of God. Whether we receive the body, or the precious blood, or both, we receive Him entirely. We consume His Flesh and drink His blood so that we may have new life in the New Covenant.
The Sacrament of the Eucharist is the center of our faith. It is not a symbol, or a token, it is truly the body and blood of Our Savior, it is the source of our salvation.
Pax Vobiscum
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
Master’s Degree in Sacred Arts. For more information visit the website at www.pontifex.university
Lawrence Klimecki, MSA, is a deacon in the Diocese of Sacramento. He is a public speaker, writer, and artist, reflecting on the intersection of art and faith and the spiritual “hero’s journey” that is part of every person’s life. He maintains a blog at www.DeaconLawrence.org and can be reached at Lawrence@deaconlawrence.com
Lawrence draws on ancient Christian tradition to create new contemporary visions of sacred art. For more information on original art, prints and commissions, Please visit www.DeaconLawrence.org
Purchase fine art prints of Deacon Lawrence’s work here.
“The Resurrection of Christ” © Lawrence Klimecki
