Priestly Privilege

            It struck me in today’s reading (Lev. 7-9) that Aaron and his priestly sons received portions of a lot of the sacrifices offered in the tabernacle.  They, and they alone, were allowed to eat them.  There is the exception of the peace offering, which formed the basis for a communal meal.  That makes sense, because it was intended to establish what we know as the “communion” effect of the Lord’s Supper, that is, the peace offering was intended to establish peace with fellow members of the people of Israel and with God.

            Now, these two things got me thinking about the Lord’s Supper.  I wonder what Jesus had in mind when He established it?  I think we’re probably supposed to think two things.  First, the Lord’s Supper pretty clearly brings forward the OT peace/fellowship offering.  Paul calls it a ‘participation/fellowship’ in the body and blood (1 Cor. 10:16), and he talks about the Lord’s Supper in a way that takes seriously that eating the Body forms us as ‘the body’ of Christ.  So, it’s a communion in the sense that just as we are united with the Body and Blood of Christ, we are also unified with one another at the altar in the mystical body of Christ.

            A second thought occurs to me, too.  Under the Mosaic covenant, only the priests were allowed to eat the majority of the sacrifices.  Now, in the New Testament, all Christians are called priests and kings.  So, I wonder if this is in the background of the Lord’s Supper, too, that, once, this sort of holy-making meal was the privilege of only the few, but, now, it is the privilege of all of God’s people—declared holy through faith in Jesus and maintained in their priestly holiness through their participation in the Lord’s Supper.