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Aug. 5, 2018 | 11th Sunday after Pentecost

The Sacred Meal
Genesis 14:17–24

T HE CHRISTIAN CHURCH affirms the history of the people of Israel as revealed in the Old Testament prepares us for and prefigures the coming of Jesus Christ. Jesus who is God living among us. Jesus who offers himself in sacrifice to save us.

The Old Testament makes frequent references to the Son of God, his suffering and his sacrifice. As we look through those pages in the front of our Bibles we also see stories and events as references to Holy Communion. Some are more obvious than others. The Passover. Manna in the wilderness. Others perhaps not so obvious. But stories that the church for over 2,000 years has seen as a sign of Communion.

This is a photo of a mosaic in the Basilica of St Vitale in Ravenna, Italy. This church and mosaic date from the 6th century. It is in the area where the altar is located. Fifteen hundred years ago when people came forward for the Eucharist, they would get a physical connection between two Old Testament stories and the Lord’s Table. In the middle of the mosaic is a table. On either side stand two men.

The artists named them, so we know who they represent. The one on your left is Abel. The one on the right, Melchizedek.

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THE EARLIEST SHADOW of the Sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood was Abel, the younger son of Adam and Eve. Cain murdered his brother, the shepherd Abel. That story can be read in Genesis 4. This story of the first murder seems an odd comparison for the Lord’s Supper. But Scripture links the blood of Christ with Abel.

In Genesis 4:8, after Cain has killed his brother, God speaks to him, “What have you done? Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground!”

In Hebrews 12:24, the Apostle Paul draws a connection with Christ, calling Jesus “the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” Gregory the Great, from roughly the same time as the mosaic elaborates on this:

“The blood of Jesus calls out more eloquently than Abel’s, for the blood of Abel asked for the death of Cain while the blood of the Lord has asked for, and obtained, life for his persecutors.”

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WHEN WE COME to the Table, we remember the saving work of Jesus. We remember our freedom from the destructive inclinations that corrupted Cain and Abel. We are restored in our relationship to one another. We are restored in our relationship to God. Christ Jesus takes up and perfects the sacrifices of the Old Covenant.

Christ’s blood, poured out for many, does not speak accusations, but pleads “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34). It is this merciful and loving gift of the Son to the Father that is memorialized in our celebration of the Holy Communion.

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THE OTHER FIGURE standing next to the Table is Melchizedek. Who the heck is Melchizedek? We heard his name in our Scripture reading this morning. In Genesis 14, Abraham rescues Lot and his relatives who had been seized in an invasion of Sodom. Then a strange figure bursts into the scene: Melchizedek, the king of Salem (early Jerusalem) comes out to greet him.

We are told that he is a priest of “God Most High.” Melchizedek blesses Abram and also brings him bread and wine. Ah, “Bread and wine.” Do those nurturing gifts remind you of anything?

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews notes that Melchizedek is translated as “king of righteousness,” and Salem is translated as “peace.” (See Hebrews 7:2). So we’re faced with a priest who is also king of righteousness and peace. Is this starting to sound familiar?

In Hebrews another connection is observed: “[Melchizedek] is without father or mother or genealogy, and has neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever” (Hebrews 7:3). This relationship becomes even clearer when Jesus Christ is called a “High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek.”

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JESUS IS the truly righteous king. Jesus makes his triumphal entry into Jerusalem as king. In Jerusalem Jesus is mocked by the words, “Hail, king of the Jews” (Matthew 27:29).

In Jerusalem as king and priest he offers gifts of bread and wine, consecrating them into his own body and blood, during the Passover. Then, as king and priest, he offers the sacrifice of his life, thus blessing all of humanity and the descendants of Abram.

So there we have it. Communion has a shadow that extends as far back as Genesis.

May God look with favor on our offerings of bread and wine this day and accept them as he accepted the gifts of Abel, and the bread and wine offered by the high priest Melchizedek.

— Keith Cardwell

Genesis 14:17–24
Holy Bible, New International Version

¹⁷After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley).

¹⁸Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, ¹⁹and he blessed Abram, saying,

“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
Creator of heaven and earth.
²⁰And praise be to God Most High,
who delivered your enemies into your hand.”

Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

²¹The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people and keep the goods for yourself.”

²²But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “With raised hand I have sworn an oath to the Lord, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, ²³that I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the strap of a sandal, so that you will never be able to say, ‘I made Abram rich.’ ²⁴I will accept nothing but what my men have eaten and the share that belongs to the men who went with me — to Aner, Eshkol and Mamre. Let them have their share.”