Readings: Hebrews 10:1-18
Speaker: Paul McCabe
This Week’s Thoughts
‘Judas went out, and it was night’ (John 13:13). Boy, was it ever. Looking back on that fateful last supper with his Lord, John hit the nail right on the head. He remembered Judas leaving and it all clicked into place. John knew that that night had been about light vs. dark, truth vs. lies, and good vs. evil.
Judas had sat in the place of honour that night. He had broken bread with Jesus to fulfil the Scripture that says: ‘He who eats My bread has lifted up his heel against Me’ (John 13:18, Psalm 41:9). The disciples were shocked when Jesus mentioned betrayal, but Judas knew his role, and Christ confirmed it, saying: “What you do, do quickly” (John 13:27). And off Judas went, into the devil’s dark domain, morally blind, his back forever turned on the Lord of light.
But what, you ask, does this have to do with Jesus’ perfect sacrifice and the New Covenant? Well, where do you trace the New Covenant back to? Maybe Deuteronomy, where Moses saw a day when Israel will gain “a heart to understand” (29:4). Maybe you think of God saying “days are coming when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah … I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people” (Jeremiah 31:31-33).
Personally, the words “New Covenant” take me to the Last Supper; to the bread and the cup. The last Passover was a demarcation line between God’s Old and New covenants. That is why Paul quoted Jesus word-for-word when he taught on the magnitude of communion to the churches (1 Corinthians 11:23-25). For believers were being brought out from under the weight of the Old Covenant and wrapped in the grace of the New.
I go to the Last Supper when I hear “New Covenant” because of Hebrews 10. As John told us, that night was about light vs. dark, good vs. evil. And is that not the picture Hebrews paints of the Old and New Covenants? For ‘the old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves’ (Hebrews 10:1).
I love films. Always have. The highpoint of my childhood weekends was visiting charity shops and being told by mum that I could buy any video less than £1. Did this mean I bought films with an age-rating above my own? You betcha. But mum didn’t seem to mind, and so my love of film was born. A bonus were the trailers that played before the film itself. They were previews of good things to come, but as intriguing and entertaining as they were, they paled in comparison to the feature film that mum’s precious pound had bought me.
So, the Last Supper was about two kinds of shadow. The first was Satan’s shadow, the one that overtook Judas and thought it could overcome Christ. The second was the shadow of the law. This shadow was cast upon the wall for Jews, much like Plato’s allegory of the cave. But, like the prisoners in Plato’s tale, if only the Jews turned from mere shadows, they would behold the true source, the blinding sun that is the light of Christ.
Communion guides us to the Light. We eat the bread and drink the wine in remembrance of Christ’s perfect sacrifice. No longer are we bound to shadow; to animal sacrifices that could not save but reminded Jews of their need to be cleansed (Hebrews 10:3-4). No, we now abide in Christ. We remember Him always. We know our need and receive salvation as a gift (Ephesians 2:8-9), knowing Jesus kept the law on our behalf to welcome us into a New Covenant and a new age of grace.