The Mystery of the New Covenant

An Ancient Call for Repentance of the New Covenant

By the spirit of prophecy Zechariah foresaw Jesus, the King of Glory, entering Jerusalem to establish a "peace - covenant" with His Church. He bestows upon the Gentiles a new and eternal covenant in which the captives are set free from destruction and the arid pit of sin. He says,

"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Lo, your King comes to you;

Triumphant and victorious is He,

Humble and riding an ass, on a colt the foal of an ass...

And He shall command peace to the nations...

And for you also, because of the blood of My covenant with you,

I will set your captives free from the waterless pit.

Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope."

This wonderful prophecy is addressed to the Church. It is a call to ascend with gladness and rejoicing to the upper room of Zion away from the world, in order that she may enter into the "New Covenant" with her Savior, through His blood, which is sacrificed on her behalf.

This prophecy has been fulfilled literally, when the Lord asked us: "Drink of it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many, for the forgiveness of sins."

This prophecy explained some mysteries of this covenant:

It named the Church "daughter of Jerusalem," i.e. the daughter of heaven. She was called for a heavenly and eternal covenant to possess the characteristics of her heavenly King.

And the Founder of the covenant is called "the Just King," who pays our debts by His blood, fulfilling the divine justice, reigning over our hearts. He is "Victorious," for He conquers Satan by the power of His Cross. He is "humble," for He crushes the powers of darkness.

This call is addressed to the Gentiles who had been living for a long time in the darkness of the pit of ignorance and did not know the True God. Now they are called to accept a "peace - covenant" with God in order to return confidently to the Savior, their Stronghold.

Isaiah prophesied this call, as he said:

"Incline your ear, and come to Me.

Hear, and your soul shall live;

And I will make with you an everlasting covenant,

Indeed I have given him as a witness to the people, a leader and commander for the people

Surely you shall call a nation you do not know, and nations who do not know you shall run to you."

It is a joyful call for the nations, which God had not called as sanctified peoples, and they knew Him not as their God. Now the Son of God establishes a covenant with them. He makes and intercedes for them to his Father by the blood of his covenant. Thus, they enjoy the steadfast love of David, i.e. the blessings which David had foreseen, and for which he was waiting.

If we know the notion of the covenants among the ancient tribes, we understand this everlasting covenant, which was foretold by the Prophets in the Old Testament.

Consequently, we get to know the "old covenant" which God established with man as a symbol of the new one, which we now enjoy.

The Covenant Among the Ancient Tribes

The covenant is a compact between one person and another or between tribes of nations or between individuals, in which every

Crichton: The Mass and People of God, p. 24 - 29.

Paul Chapel: A living liturgy.

party binds himself to fulfill certain conditions.

Among the primary tribes, it was called "peace - covenant," whose aim was to put an end to fear from any attack by the tribes near by. It created something like a blood tie, which did not naturally exist.

This covenant often had three elements

• 1- The terms agreed to by both parties, and oaths sworn. These terms proclaim that the gods were witnesses to the covenant. Sometimes they set up a stone monument or made a heap of stones as a witness. When Laban established a covenant with Jacob, he said," This heap is a witness between you and I today... although no man is with us. God is witness between you and I, so Jacob swore...."
• 2- Shedding of blood of animals: The two parties usually ratified the covenant by cutting the sacrificial victim in two pieces, standing on the pieces or passing between them, and smearing the blood on their persons.

Something like this happened when God proclaimed His covenant with Abraham. He took a heifer three years old, and a female goat of three years old, and a ram three years old; cut them in two, and laid each half of the animal over against the other. And when the sun had set, and it was dark, he beheld a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between the pieces of the sacrificial victims. This was a premonition of the coming of God to proclaim His covenant with Abraham.

We also know from Jeremiah that it was the custom of the contracting parties to cut a calf in twain and pass between the pieces.

This custom probably had two meanings, retributive and sacramental:

• (A) Retributive: The slaughter of the animal symbolized the slaughter of the perjurer.
• (B) Sacramental or Purificatory: W. Robertson Smith supposes that in the Hebrew rite the parties stood between the pieces, as a symbol that they were taken within the mystical life of the victim, and that the sacrifice was regarded as a ransom for man. This rite was a

mode of purifying the parties to the covenant. He supposes also that the persons who stood or passed between the pieces of the victim were thought to be thereby united with each other by the bond of a common blood. It was a blood-covenant, in which the parties artificially created a tie of consanguinity between themselves, which did not naturally exist.

3- Setting up dinner to share a common meal. The parties shared the same food, which is the source of life. This meant that they led one life, acting as if they were one family. It was a meal of reconciliation or alliance.

The Divine Covenant in the Old Testament

God established a covenant with man, renewing it from time to time, revealing His divine intention to redeem us.

• (A) Removing fear from man's heart. On establishing a covenant with Noah and his descendants, God said, "I will never again curse the earth for the sake of man... Behold I establish my covenant with you and your descendants after you." He put an end to human fear, proclaiming His love to man.
• (B) Declaring His desire to dwell with man. He explained this aim in renewing His covenant with Abraham many times.
• (C) Revealing Himself as contiguous to man. This aim was stressed in the renewal of His covenant in the days of Moses, i.e. the old covenant. Its pattern and rites stand as our guide leading us to the blood of the new covenant, i.e. the Sacrificial Christ.

It had also the three elements like, the covenants of the ancient tribes, but in a new shape and with new meanings:

(A) The exchange of rights and duties before the parties: These are mentioned in the book of the covenant. In it God revealed this choice of mankind and as His own and His consequent sanctification. At the same time on establishing this covenant or renewing it, people said, "All things that the Lord has spoken we will do, we will be obedient." They accepted the covenant of obedience and love to God.

Who was the witness between them? The ark of testimony,

which symbolized God's Presence among His people, was a witness. Thus, after establishing his covenant, God said to Moses: "In which you shall put the testimony that I will give you. Thence will I give orders, and will speak to you over the propitiatory, and from the midst of the two Cherubim, which shall be upon the ark of the testimony."

Within it we find the tablets of the covenant, a container of manna and Aaron's stick, which is a witness of God's Providence towards His own people.

In order to let us feel secure God was called the "Covenant Holder."

• (B) Shedding sacrificial blood: This covenant was formalized in His sacrificial act in which the blood of a victim was shared between God and His people. After reading in the book of the covenant Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people. "This," has said, "is the blood of the covenant that Jehovah has made with you." Blood was the sign through which God was binding them to Himself by a blood tie in a clan relationship.
• (C) The Meal of Reconciliation, that is, the symbol at the Last Supper.

The New and Eternal Covenant

The Incarnate Son of God came to fulfill rather than to destroy the old covenant. He established a new spiritual one, which the prophets foretold. It followed the self-same pattern of the old one but the new covenant surpassed the old one as much as the reality surpasses the shadow and the symbol.

The New covenant also has three elements:

1- An exchange of rights and duties, or the terms agreed to by parties, God and man. The Eucharist, i.e. the Sacrifice of the Cross,

links the shadows of the old covenant to the glory to come. It brings the shadows into relation with the light and realizes the symbols and achieves them.

The terms, which were written on the tablets of stones, now are fulfilled as the sacrificial Messiah bestows upon us the eternal life.

All the terms of the covenant between God and man have been realized in the Eucharist. In it God reveals His divine love and His redeeming plan towards man. He proclaims the glory, which is prepared for man. In it He tells us practically that He is the Good Shepherd and the Loving Father to His sons.

In the Eucharist we also reveal our obedience. We are hidden in the sacrificial Christ, who offered the sacrifice of obedience to his Father on our behalf.

Who is the witness of the covenant between God and man? In the Eucharist Christ is the practical witness, not by swearing an oath, nor by making an ark of testimony as in the old covenant, but by His real Presence in the midst of His Church. St. John says, "Grace to you... from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness... Who loved us and has freed us from our sins by his blood."

2- A shedding of Sacrificial Blood: In the days of the Old Testament the sacrifice was central for helping man to approach God, that prepared the way for the sacrifice of Christ.

The riches inherent in the blood of the new covenant to mankind surpass the blood of the old one. For in the old covenant the blood of the animal was sprinkled externally upon the people. But now in a more sublime way our Lord Jesus offers His own mystic blood by giving His disciples the cup to drink from.

By the Messiah's Blood we enter into an eternal family relationship with God, as we became Christ's brothers, Christ's spiritual bride and of His flesh and bones.

By the sacrificial blood, God has opened the door to His unfaithful wife, in spite of her adultery, offering the Eucharist as a new covenant of a spiritual marriage.

• Fr. Theodert says: "in eating the elements of the Bridegroom and drinking His blood we accomplish a marital union." In the new covenant also, the Incarnated Son of God Himself abides in us, and the wine of His blood flows into each branch to bear fruit in us. The Father comes and dwells in us.
• 3- The Meal of Reconciliation: The Eucharist is the Real and New meal of Pascha, which we will discuss in the coming pages.

Finally, we can say that the Eucharist is the mystery of the new covenant. The sacrifice of Christ fulfills the terms of the two parties, God and man. It is the faithful witness. It has also the power to bestow upon us a spiritual and heavenly relationship. It is the heavenly, lifegiving banquet.

Christ has established this covenant and we have accepted it, so we must not breach it. The apostle Paul says, "How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the man who has spurned the Son of God, and profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and outraged the spirit of grace?"