(Audio)
The promise of the first covenant was made to Moses by God himself:
Now, if you obey me completely and keep my covenant, you will be my treasured possession among all peoples, though all the earth is mine.
You will be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation (see Exodus 19:5-6).
As we read today, the Israelites agreed to these terms, saying, "We will do everything that the LORD has told us." They promised to keep the terms of the covenant and so receive the blessings promised within. Yet it wasn't long before they failed spectacularly in the incident with the golden cafe. It wasn't simply a failure in the finer points of the law, but a breach of the first and greatest commandment.
After the incident with the golden cafe it might have seemed that the covenant promise of God had failed. It had not failed, but it was indefinitely delayed. That the covenant blessings were missing was obvious. Israel was no longer a kingdom of priests, for only those of the tribe of Levi, those who remained faithful, were able to exercise that role. Worse still, although God desired to be near to his people and to bless them, the reality of the curse of sin was now interposed between he and his people. They had chosen to direct their hearts toward lesser things and it would not have been merciful of God to enable them in those pursuits. Moses, as the mediator of the covenant, was able to plead on the part of his people, but he was just a man. He could not bridge the chasm opened between Israel and God.
After the failure in the desert it was only through the blood of goats and calves that the high priests of Israel could enter into the sanctuary, and that only once a year. And things continued in this way for generations with no apparent progress. Even in the time of Jesus it was still only the Levites who were priests and the presence of God in the sanctuary was still reserved to the high priest on the day of Yom Kippur. The sacrifices were offered year after year, and still the blessings of the covenant remained locked away.
He said to them,
"This is my blood of the covenant,
which will be shed for many.
The promises of the covenant that had been locked away by sin were restored superabundantly by Jesus himself as he offered his body and blood on the cross. Those who ate the flesh of this Lamb of sacrifice and drank his blood would be included in this new and restored covenant. But this was more than a fresh start or a new attempt at what had been tried before. Unlike the sacrifices that were required after the golden cafe, participation in this one sacrifice of Jesus was truly transformative.
how much more will the blood of Christ,
who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God,
cleanse our consciences from dead works
to worship the living God.
Jesus was more than a scapegoat symbolically bearing away our sins into the desert. He took upon himself the curses of covenant of Moses, curses that we could not take upon ourselves without being destroyed, curses that Israel could only address symbolically, that Moses himself could not mediate away, so that the blessings of the covenant could be unlocked.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” (see Galatians 3:13).
Jesus himself would now and forevermore be the mediator of a new covenant. Since he was both God and man he was able to do what Moses could not do and act as both God and man, offering obedience to the Father, and speaking forgiveness and shalom to the his people. No longer could our weakness and failures derail his plans, because he himself already paid the price for our failures, and he himself would be our advocate if we failed, whenever we returned to him and sought his mercy.
he entered once for all into the sanctuary
Jesus made it possible for all of us to enter into the presence of God. The temple veil was torn when he died upon the cross (see Matthew 27:51), revealing that his presence would no longer be only available in a specific place, to a specific person, on a specific day, but rather to all of his people.
But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth (see John 4:21).
Peter, reflecting back on all of this, realized that these covenant blessings had finally been realized, unlocked by the offering of the body and blood of Jesus.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (see First Peter 2:9).
When we receive the Eucharist we express our desire to belong to this new and eternal covenant, to throw ourselves upon the mercy of our mediator between God and man, and yet at the same time to experience the promised blessing of his presence. By baptism we ourselves also become priests, able to offer the joys and trials of our daily lives as a sacrifice holy and acceptable to God, bringing sanctification to the world.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship (see Romans 12:1)
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