RENEWsletter for June 6, 2010 - Body & Blood

Dear friends of renewal--
Next Sunday is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. There are several references to this guy named Melchizadek in the Bible. Who was Melchizadek? What was significant about him? Why do both the Old and New Testaments refer to him? Well, we'll see if we can discover the answers to these questions.

The readings for this most holy Sunday are found on the web at: http://www.usccb.org/nab/060610.shtml and in your Bible at:

Genesis 14.18-20
Psalm 110.1, 2, 3, 4
1 Corinthians 11.23-26
Luke 9.11b-17

The First Reading is the earliest mention of a priest-king called Melchizadek. He was the spiritual and political leader of a city called Salem (Gen. 14.18). This town is generally identified with Jerusalem. Abram had just defeated the king and allies of Elam, and Melchizadek made of big deal of this. "Blessed be Abram by God Most High... who delivered your foes into your hand," he said (vs. 19-20). The noteworthy thing about Melchizadek was that he was both priest and king. He had political power over his subjects' physical and social well-being, and he had power to lead their spirits and souls to well-being too, yet not through the line of Aaron. His priesthood came directly from God. He served bread and wine to Abram and his people (v. 18 again). Bread and wine. That sounds familiar. Abram responded by giving him 10% of everything he had. Abram knew the value of being blessed by God which is far beyond the value of a meal of bread and wine.

The Responsorial Psalm is one of the most important messianic Psalms. It is uniformly regarded as a prophetic picture of Jesus Christ. "The LORD [God] said to my Lord [Jesus]..." (Ps. 110.1). Jesus will wield political power: "Sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool" (v. 1 again), plus he has his priesthood directly from God: "You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizadek" (v. 4).

The Second Reading recounts the Last Supper. Jesus took bread and wine, and said plainly that the bread was his body, and that the cup of wine was his blood (1 Cor. 11.23, 25). Bread and wine. Body and blood. King and Priest? Does that follow? Yes, it does! The bread part is straight forward. Bread nourishes the body. The one who controls the bread, controls the physical well-being of the body. But what about the other part, the wine/blood? Let's look for a moment at Leviticus 17.11: "For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life." One can imagine that in those ancient times before people had all the scientific knowledge of the structure and function of blood, that they thought of it as some mystical force that kept the body alive. Drain the blood out of a lamb, and the lamb died. Blood had a spiritual quality. When it left a body, so did the life. The body remained behind, but quite dead.

Carrying this thought forward into the Gospel Reading, we find that Christ controlled the bread, and thereby controlled the physical well-being of the crowds that had followed him into the desert (Luke 9.16). Christ the King of bread, created bread for 5000+ hungry mouths and took care of them. And why did these folks follow this itinerant preacher out into the desert without bringing enough food along to take care of their own hunger? Because Christ the Priest controlled the "blood," the thing they found necessary for their spirits (v. 11). As much as their bodies needed bread, their spirits needed the spiritual blood of Christ.

There are several passages in Hebrews, chapters 5 to 7, that refer to Jesus's priesthood being of the "order of Melchizedek" as opposed to Levitical in nature. There were many Levitical priests "because they were prevented by death from remaining in office" (Heb. 7.23). But Christ is a Priest of the order of Melchizedek, not the Levitical order, and "because he remains forever, has a priesthood that does not pass away" (Heb. 7.24).

When we partake of the Eucharist, we partake of Christ himself, our King who protects us physically, and our Priest who protects us spiritually. Let's remind ourselves this week when enemies arise, and fears threaten our peace, that we have a Priest-King who reigns and serves forever, after the order of Melchizadek!

Randy Jones
"Those who know not the Priest-King say life is scary and death is scarier!"