Cross Examinations: The Covenant Cup

Lectionary readings for the Fifth Sunday of Lent

Isaiah 43:16-21
Psalm 126
Philippians 3:4b-14
John 12:1-8

TEXT: Mark 14:12-31

LISTENING TO THE TEXT

The setting for the Last Supper is the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the celebration of a covenantal Passover meal. Table fellowship expressed not only deep friendship, but also a familial intimacy. Therefore, when Jesus announces point blank: "One of you will betray me - one who is eating with me" (14:18), His disciples are clearly shocked to hear the news.

Although we as the readers already know who will betray Jesus (v. 11), Mark makes it clear that Jesus' disciples don't have a clue. What is surprising to the reader of the story is rather than being indignant that someone would betray Jesus by responding, "You don't mean it!" - the twelve instead pose a question, "Is it me?" (v. 19). The disciples' response is an implicit confession that even the best of human beings are capable of the worst of treachery.

This is a story about the making and breaking of covenants. In the very moment that the disciples are breaking covenant, Jesus is making covenant. Even with his awareness of imminent betrayal, in the breaking of bread and sharing the cup, Jesus establishes a new covenant with them. Instead of exposing his enemy, Jesus embraces him. In the reinterpreting of the bread and wine as his broken body and shed blood Jesus seals the covenant with his own life, death, and resurrection.

ENGAGING THE TEXT
THE NEED

The need of this text is covenantal faithfulness. Covenants are mutually agreed upon promises made between at least two people. Covenants are not the same as contracts. Contracts are legal in nature, enforceable by law, and sealed by signatures and paper work. Covenants are relational in nature bound together by love, commitment, and faithfulness.

To break a contract is to violate the law. To break a covenant is to break a promise. All of us have been guilty of breaking covenant with other people, with God, and with ourselves. The reasons for these easy betrayals are painfully clear: we more self-centered than others-centered. We cherish comfort and despise sacrifice. We would rather save our own skins than to lovingly give ourselves away. Try as we might, human nature does not provide us with the faithfulness and integrity we need to keep our promises.

GOD'S ANSWER

God's answer comes in the provision of a new covenant. It is not a covenant dependent on our capacity to be faithful. It is a covenant initiated, empowered, and fulfilled by God himself in the atoning work of his son Jesus Christ.

In the midst of treachery, desertion, and betrayal our self-giving God celebrates covenantal unity with sinful humanity. When we could not fulfill our end of the agreement, Jesus sealed the promise through his own blood, insuring that his steadfast love will make us faithful people.

OUR RESPONSE

Because the new covenant is defined first and foremost by God's faithfulness we are invited to participate in new relationships: with Christ, with others, and with ourselves. Those relationships are considered new because they are no longer maintained by our faithfulness to God - they are rooted and grounded in God's faithfulness to us.

The cross of Jesus does not allow us to view our relationship with God in contractual ways. Any notion that doing religious things for God obligates him to do certain things for us are shattered by the awareness that even our best intentions fall woefully short of reciprocity. Yet because of our "covenant making" Christ we are enabled to abandon our "covenant breaking" ways. Whenever we partake of the Lord's Supper we are reminded of our source.

PREACHING THE TEXT

An effective way to preach this text is to connect the dynamics of this story to our own experiences of making and breaking covenants. All of us have experienced betrayal and all of us have betrayed. Every person in your congregation will be able to identify with the experience of being let down or hurt by someone they loved and trusted. Remembering and retelling those stories can help provide a lens to view this story.
Tom Boomershine offers helpful insights for preaching from this text: "When has someone whom you have loved and trusted broken covenant with you? Tell that story and then tell the story of Jesus' last supper. Also when have you broken a covenant that you made with someone who loved and trusted you? Listening to the story in this context may shed new light on both sides of your covenantal relationships.

"There are many other potential connections with the last supper story: good-byes, last holidays together, festive mealtimes. But the primary connection is with the times of making covenant: marriages, baptisms, ordinations, installations, inaugurations, and the swearing of oaths in court. What are your primary memories of making covenant? Those occasions at their deepest level are the most direct link to the dynamics of the supper narrative."*

The sermon could conclude by helping the congregation to see how God's vertical covenant with us brings meaning and vitality to our horizontal relationships with each other. An appropriate response to the sermon would be to culminate the worship service by celebrating the Eucharist together.

*Thomas Boomershine, Story Journey: An Invitation to the Gospel as Storytelling (Nashville: Abingdon, 1988), 151.