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Week 1 Consuming the WordThe New Testament – Document and Sacrament Part 1

Mike Aquilina makes a very interesting statement as we start this brand-new class. I instantly recognized what he was saying about certain protestants and how they described the Catholic Church, because I used to be one of those protestants. We called ourselves “New Testament” Christians believing we were living much closer to the Early Church that we read about in the Bible, more so than other protestant churches and certainly more than the Catholics. We believed we were the ones leading the Body of Christ back to her early roots, back to the basics of holiness and obedience. Those other protestants, and certainly the Catholics, had driven Christ’s body into a deep ditch, and obviously they wouldn’t or couldn’t find their way out of it any time soon. I look back now with a fair amount of guilt and shame of the arrogance we wrapped ourselves in, and there is no doubt the very thing I ridiculed, I have become…Catholic.

This entire series is based on Scott Hahn’s most recent book, Consuming the Word, a wonderful sequel to a book we studied last year, The Lamb’s Supper based on Scott’s amazing teaching on the Book of Revelation. Mike Aquilina has read all of Scott’s books, but believes this new one is his most radical and revolutionary. I encourage all of us to get the book and read it as this class progresses. The Lamb’s Supper revealed how the Catholic Mass is and always has been the establishing of heaven on earth. This new book by Scott is a revelation of how the New Testament is not only a fulfillment of the Old, but it also introduces us to a very radical understanding of the New Testament, seeing it as much more than just a document. Scott is able to take us inside that band of early believers, and show us all that was revolutionary about the Early Church…proving that all of my protestant understanding about the “New Testament” church was just flat wrong.

I didn’t even get the basics of understanding the New Testament correct, starting with the words “New Testament”. I simply thought “New Testament” always

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referred to the books that follow the Old Testament books. You know…Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, the Book of Acts and on to the Book of Revelation. I kind of

knew the New Testament was the Word of God, and is a fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecies and promises. But Scott is now showing me I was far short of the truth…I was just wrong. Here comes the radical teaching I promised you, the New Testament uses those two words, New Testament, just six times, but in none of those six times does the New Testament book refer to itself using those words. Keep in mind testament and covenant are words that are interchangeable, there are exactly the same. To my surpirse, and Mike’s as well Scott takes us to the first time those words are used in 1 Corinthians chapter 11.

1 Corinthians 11:25–26 (RSV2CE) 25 In the same way also the chalice, after supper, saying, “This chalice is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the chalice, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

This is not a discussion here of the books of the New Testament or New Covenant, this is talking about the Eucharist, not a document at all, at least not a document yet. And look at this account.

Luke 22:20 (RSV2CE) 20 And likewise the chalice after supper, saying, “This chalice which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

This is the one and only time Jesus used those words during His ministry on this earth. Once again, Jesus is not talking about future books of the Bible, but instead the transformation of the Passover, the chalice of the blood of the New Covenant or New Testament. The New Testament

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is primarily a sacrament, and later on it became a document, in fact the New Covenant was a sacrament long before it became a document…almost 400 years. Protestants don’t get this, because they don’t understand what the Mass is all

about. But I’m concerned that most Catholics don’t get it either…what do you think they would answer? The New Testament, the New Covenant is not just the inspired word of God, it is that…but it is literally the word incarnate, the word become flesh. The New Covenant is Jesus Himself, coming to us through the virgin birth, and giving Himself to us, and for us,

through the cross, and then three days later giving us Himself through the Eucharist.

We make the same mistake when we use the word gospel. When I hear the word gospel I think immediately of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John…the first four books of the New Covenant. But we need to remember, Jesus proclaimed the good news of the gospel, and He did not preach from the four gospels in the books of the New Testament. The were written long after His death and resurrection. The gospel, first and foremost is the good news of the coming of Our Lord and His kingdom. Jesus Himself is the gospel, He is the good news. What then is the “Word of God”, is it a book, or is it a person? First, and most important it was and is the person of Jesus, and then the book followed. When we hear the Word of God, we think of the Bible, but before the book was the person of Jesus as the living Word of God. Our catechism really gets to the heart of it.

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II. Inspiration and Truth of Sacred Scripture105 God is the author of Sacred Scripture. “The divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.”“For Holy Mother Church, relying on the faith of the apostolic age, accepts as

sacred and canonical the books of the Old and the New Testaments, whole and entire, with all their parts, on the grounds that, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author and have been handed on as such to the Church herself.”106 God inspired the human authors of the sacred books. “To compose the sacred books, God chose certain men who, all the while he employed them in this task, made full use of their own faculties and powers so that, though he acted in them and by them, it was as true authors that they consigned to writing whatever he wanted written, and no more.”

107 The inspired books teach the truth. “Since therefore all that the inspired authors or sacred writers affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures.” (702)108 Still, the Christian faith is not a “religion of the book.” Christianity is the religion of the “Word” of God, a word which is “not a written and mute word, but the Word which is incarnate and living.” If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, “open [our] minds to understand the Scriptures.”(Catechism of the Catholic Church)

There is one New Testament book that uses the word covenant more than any other, and that is in Hebrews. Covenant is found 33 times in the New Testament and 17, over half, are found in Hebrews, especially in chapters 8 and 9, and also in chapter 12. I want us to spend some time reading some of what Scott is talking

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Hebrews 7:26–28 (RSV2CE) 26 For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless, unstained, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens. 27 He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people; he did this once for all when he offered up himself. 28 Indeed, the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect for ever.

Hebrews 8:1–11 (RSV2CE) 1 Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 2 a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent which is set up not by man but by the Lord. 3 For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; hence it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. 4 Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. 5 They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary; for when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.” 6 But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry which is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second. 8 For he finds fault with them when he says: “The days will come, says the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; 9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in my covenant, and so I paid no heed to them, says the Lord. 10 This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11

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And they shall not teach every one his fellow or every one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest.

Hebrews 9:11–12 (RSV2CE) 11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the Holy Place, taking not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

Hebrews 9:23–28 (RSV2CE) 23 Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the Holy Place yearly with blood not his own; 26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And just as it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Hebrews 12:22–24 (RSV2CE) 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel.

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The Hebrew word for covenant occurs 325 times in the Old Testament, but only 33 times in the New Testament. Why the big disparity? The story of our salvation begins in the Old Covenant, and in the telling of the story there is enormous expectation building from the beginning of creation. That volcano of expectation continues to build immediately after the fall, of man, and then through out all the Old Testament covenants initiated by God and tragically broken by His people. The heart cry of Israel to be restored to the covenant family bond Adam and Eve had with God in the Garden, and it grows stronger and stronger with each lost generation. By the time Jesus in born, with many Jews in exile, and the City of Jerusalem under the boot of the Roman Empire, the expectation of the coming Messiah is at a fever pitch. Covenant, covenant, covenant, 325 times written about in the Old Testament…and finally a New Covenant, prophesied by Isaiah and Ezekiel, and Jeremiah is initiated by Jesus Himself, and this covenant is like

none other that has come befoe. You can feel the expectation in the words of Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 31:31–34 (RSV2CE) 31 “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I

took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, and I showed myself their Master, says the Lord. 33 But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

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This “New Covenant” that Jeremiah proclaims will exceed all the expectations that have been building from the very beginning. This one will be over the top, so powerful and complete that it will swallow up all five of the covenants that have

come before. The promises of God are not just fulfilled, they are plenty too much, to put it in pidgin English. It is like going to buy a few fireworks for the 4th of July

and someone gives you the entire fireworks stand. That is why it is only mentioned 33 times in the New Testament/New Covenant. Those early believers realized that God had given them in Jesus, the entire fireworks stand, not just a few firecrackers. I am reminded of the father of the prodigal son, covered in pick muck and coming home in shame, ready to become a slave of his father and no longer a son. But what does his father do when he sees his lost son on the horizon, he runs to him, and hugs him and kisses him. The father ignores the son’s brokenness and despair, and instead calls for a new robe to put on his son’s back, new sandals, and ring on his finger. On top of all that, his father throws the party of the century to celebrate the coming home of his son. That is what we are talking about hear, we a not a religion of the book. We have Jesus Himself, raised from the dead, seated at the right hand of the Father, and coming to us through the Eucharist we enjoy at every Mass. Those early “New Testament” believers were “New Covenant” believers, and the endless fireworks have been going off every since. Can’t wait for next week. Amen.