This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many

The Living Bread icon (John 6:51), Dormition of the Virgin Monastery, Thrakomakedones, Athens, Greece

Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they killed the Passover lamb, His disciples said to Him, "Where do You want us to go and prepare, that You may eat the Passover?"  And He sent out two of His disciples and said to them, "Go into the city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him.  Wherever he goes in, say to the master of the house, 'The Teacher says, "Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?"'  Then he will show you a large upper room, furnished and prepared; there make ready for us."   So His disciples went out, and came into the city, and found it just as He had said to them; and they prepared the Passover.

In the evening He came with the twelve.  Now as they sat and ate, Jesus said, "Assuredly, I say to you, one of you who eats with Me will betray Me."  And they began to be sorrowful, and to say to Him one by one, "Is it I?"  And another said, "Is it I?"  He answered and said to them, "It is one of the twelve, who dips with Me in the dish.  The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed!  It would have been good for that man if he had never been born."

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them and said, "Take, eat; this is My body."  Then He took the cup, and when He had given  thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank from it.  And He said to them, "This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many.  Assuredly, I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."  And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

- Mark 14:12-25

 In yesterday's lectionary reading, Jesus was in the temple in Jerusalem.  After confrontation with the religious leaders over His authority,  He began to speak to them in parables:  "A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower.  And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country.  Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers.  And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.  Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated.  And again he sent another, and him they killed; and may others, beating some and killing some.  Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, 'They will respect my son.'  But those vinedressers said among themselves, 'This is the heir.  Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.'  So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.  Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do?  He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others.  Have you not even read this Scripture:  'The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.  This was the LORD's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes'?"

Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they killed the Passover lamb, His disciples said to Him, "Where do You want us to go and prepare, that You may eat the Passover?"  And He sent out two of His disciples and said to them, "Go into the city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him.  Wherever he goes in, say to the master of the house, 'The Teacher says, "Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?"'  Then he will show you a large upper room, furnished and prepared; there make ready for us."   So His disciples went out, and came into the city, and found it just as He had said to them; and they prepared the Passover.   In the synoptic Gospels (as here in Mark), the date of the Crucifixion is the first day of Passover.  But John dates it to this day, the Preparation Day before Passover, when they killed the Passover lamb (see John 19:13-14).  Therefore, in the synoptic tradition, the Last Supper (for which Jesus sends the disciples to prepare) is the Passover meal.  But in John's Gospel, Jesus, as the Lamb of God (John 1:29), dies at the exact time the Passover lambs are being slain in the temple.   My study bible says that while it is impossible to determine which is historically accurate, both traditions are theologically accurate.  That is, the Mystical Supper is the fulfillment of the Passover meal (the synoptic tradition), while Christ's death is the fulfillment of the Passover lambs beings slain (the tradition of John).  The two disciples sent by Christ to prepare the arrangements for the Passover meal are Peter and John (Luke 22:8).

In the evening He came with the twelve.  Now as they sat and ate, Jesus said, "Assuredly, I say to you, one of you who eats with Me will betray Me."  And they began to be sorrowful, and to say to Him one by one, "Is it I?"  And another said, "Is it I?"  He answered and said to them, "It is one of the twelve, who dips with Me in the dish.  The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed!  It would have been good for that man if he had never been born."  My study bible remarks that divine foreknowledge of the betrayal does not take away Judas' moral freedom, nor his accountability.  For God, it says, all things are a present reality;  God foresees all human actions, but does not cause them.  Jesus makes this very clear by His statement regarding the fate of the one by whom He is betrayed.    Note that Jesus emphasizes both that His betrayer is one of the twelve and also that he is one who dips with Me in the dish.  This is not so much to identify the person, my study bible says, as it is to emphasize the level of betrayal -- that this was one of His closest friends.  See Psalm 55:13-15.

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them and said, "Take, eat; this is My body."  Then He took the cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank from it.  And He said to them, "This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many.  Assuredly, I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."  And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.  The text tells us that Jesus gave the cup to the disciples only after He had given thanks.  The root of "given thanks" is the Greek word eucharist/εὐχαριστέω.  This word immediately came to refer both to the Liturgy and the sacrament of Holy Communion.  Before the end of the first century, my study bible says, a manuscript called the Didache (which was the first teaching manuscript of the Church, and associated with the disciples) referred to the celebration of the Liturgy as "the Eucharist."  In AD 150, St. Justin says of Holy Communion, "This food we call 'Eucharist,' of which no one is allowed to partake except one who believes that the things we teach are true, and has received the washing [holy baptism] for forgiveness of sins and for rebirth, and who lives as Christ commanded us."  Jesus says, "This is My body."  For nearly all of the history of the Church, it has been accepted that these words are true.  My study bible again quotes Justin, as affirming this faith, "that the food consecrated by the word of prayer which comes from Him is the flesh and blood of the incarnate Jesus."  For the Orthodox, it remains that this is a mystery, inexplicable on our terms, yet nevertheless Christ is mystically present in the Eucharist, as His words imply.  The hymn that was sung is a psalm from a group of psalms traditionally sung after the Passover meal (Psalms 113-118).

The level of betrayal involved in Judas' betrayal of Jesus is perhaps something we want to consider.  As my study bible emphasizes, it's not so much which particular individual who did so, but rather the level of extreme betrayal that was involved.  Why is this emphasis important?  Because we all know what it is like to be betrayed, and what an even greater shock and sadness it is to be betrayed by one in whom we have put our trust.  Perhaps there is no one greater sadness than that Jesus has chosen these twelve, and that one of them will betray Him to death.  In John 6:70, Jesus says, "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?"  For those of us who have been spared the more traumatic forms of betrayal, and even for those of us who have experienced a depth of betrayal such as a sibling or parent would convey, the level of betrayal experienced by Jesus can hardly be easily replicated.  Judas is one of the twelve disciples in whom He has entrusted His deepest confidence, teaching, and time.  These men have lived with Him for three years, and they were all hand-picked by Him, as His statement conveys from John 6.  Moreover, this is a betrayal unto death -- and a horrible death as one reserved for those only among the worst of criminals.   Of course, we know the route that Judas will take as a result of this betrayal, that his end will come through suicide after attempting to return the money to the chief priests and elders (see Matthew 27:3-5).  But of the level of betrayal to Jesus Himself, the profound and extreme measure cannot be taken.  For Christ is one who has never sinned, and has loved Judas as well as those who were openly His enemies.   For He has sought to save all of them.  What this must do for us is give us occasion to understand that whatever hardship and sadness we endure in life, our Lord has gone there with us.  We may consider psychological motivations and pain to be something not particularly discussed in the Gospels, but the truth is that the depth of psychological pain is present and clear to us, and we must take it very, very seriously.  The care of the soul is a delicate thing.  The old saying, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" does not apply to words from those upon whom we depend for love and care.  It doesn't apply to friends in whom we've trusted, to those toward whom we have shared our deepest hopes, and our love.  It does not apply to those in whom we've invested a great deal of confidence, and a great deal of personal trust.  It does not apply to those who nominally love us and call themselves friends or family.  The pain of this kind of betrayal is more profound than we can name, its effects longer lasting, and extending both to spiritual as well as physical trauma and damage.  A betrayal such as Christ endures -- or even something only somewhat like it in terms of the levels of trust involved -- can have dire spiritual consequences.  Jilted lovers may feel suicidal, or like throwing their lives away in reckless behavior.  A teenager traumatized by abuse can run away from home and into even more perilous circumstances than they ran from, or live out their adult lives fulfilling the "prophecy" of abusive name-calling they endured from a parent or parental figure, such as a teacher or other authority figure.  Spiritual damage can also come in the form of natural resentment, resulting in a rebellion against God through immaturity or through a lack of comprehension regarding the free will of human beings.  This must surely count as having caused a "little one" to stumble (Matthew 18:6, Mark 9:42).  And then comes also physical disruption of health through repeated psychological trauma and the resulting stress, even possible damage to cells and genetic markers over time.  In short, betrayal is no light thing which we can shake off without great understanding and serious effort; if we are to care for one so betrayed, or for ourselves under such circumstances even remotely resembling the depth endured by Christ, we need to have special care taken to understand our spiritual and psychological need, as well as physical damage possible through such trauma.  But here we must undertake a purely Christian perspective if we are to find the best tools for healing.  We view the entire Incarnation as a healing intervention in our world, and not least of which is this aspect of betrayal, psychological trauma.  It is all-too-infrequently discussed.  Our theology teaches us that Christ was fully human in all respects, because "whatever was not assumed was not healed" (St. Gregory Nazianzinus).  We cannot presume this to apply merely to Christ as physical human being, but also in the fullness of His humanity, including the emotions, which are always on display in the Gospels, such as its shortest verse, "Jesus wept" -- which occurred through His love and compassion for Lazarus and his sisters, and despite the fact that He intended for Lazarus to live again (see John 11:33-36).  Jesus' betrayal also becomes something endured for the goodness and redemption for all of us, because, as Gregory Nazianzinus concludes in his statement, "but that which is united to His Godhead is also saved."  In this cup then, and in this Eucharist, in Christ's perpetual sacrifice on behalf of all of us, we also can find salvation and redemption for our deepest hurts and betrayals.  The Orthodox Easter hymn proclaims that Christ on the Cross "trampled down death by death," "and gave life to those in the tombs."  Death, in our lives, can happen in a multitude of ways, not least of which through emotional trauma via betrayal.  Relationships end, and who we thought we were -- and the lives we thought were ours -- can also come to an abrupt end thereby.  In His cup and in our commemorative Eucharist, we, too, can find a way forward, and redemption for our broken lives and broken relationships.  We can find redemption from the lies and betrayals foisted upon us -- even through no fault of our own.  We can find a new start.  Through prayer, we can experience of depth of love in mystical ways that heals like a balm.  And we can find sure guidance, and strength, one step at a time.  We can pick up the pieces of our lives and whatever remains and give them up to God, for salvation and growth, for courage and strength, for a redemption that comes through time and especially through faith.  Let us never forget, no matter what our circumstances or how harsh we feel the world has treated us, that He has been there first and done so for us.  Let us not betray Him by giving up what He has gained for us through so hard enduring.  He loves us and thereby has sacrificed and gone to the Cross, so that we may have life in abundance, and this applies to every single aspect of our lives.  Let us remember as we go through Holy Week that He invites us to participate in His cup, and Resurrection is not left out.  It is, in fact, the whole point.   Jesus says, "This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many."  Let us remember that for many, an Aramaic expression, means "for all."  No one -- and nothing -- is left out.