Luke 22:19-20; Acts 2:42-47; Psalm 116
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
There is a method of praying the Psalter known as in persona Christi, that is, in the person of Christ. First, you heard me correctly, you do not merely read the Psalms, but you pray the Psalms. Second, you should think of the Psalms as Jesus Christ’s personal prayers to His Father, which He invites you to pray with Him; not merelybeside Him or at the same time as Him, mind you, but to actually pray the Psalms with Him and as Him. This method of praying the Psalms works better with some Psalms than with other, but in general, your understanding of all the Psalms will benefit from praying them in persona Christi.
This evening’s Psalm 116 is one that particularly benefits from such a reading. In the Septuagintal Greek, the Psalm is divided into two parts. The first part of the Psalm begins with the words “I loved the Lord,” and the second part with the words “I believed.” The voice in the Psalm is that of Christ our Lord. It is He who says, “I have loved” and “I have believed,” for loving and believing are not simply religious requirements laid on the Christian conscience, but they are characteristics modeled in Christ the Lord. All love and all belief begin in Jesus. Any loving and believing that we others may accomplish is an inner participation in His loving and believing, for His loving and believing form the font of our salvation.
Jesus loved the Father in His Passion, the mystery of His suffering and death endured for the sake of our salvation in loving obedience: “The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish.” Jesus did all these things because of His love for the Father: “I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father” (John 14:31). Yet, Jesus did all these things because He loved us as well. St. Paul refers to our Lord simply as “Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37). Because of His love for us, Jesus gave Himself up to death on the cross: “The life I now live in the flesh,” writes St. Paul, “I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). The self-offering of Jesus is the supreme proof of His love for us: “And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2). So, in this Psalm, which is especially concerned with the mystery of His sufferings, Jesus our Lord begins His prayer: “I have loved.”
In the midst of His suffering and distress Jesus called upon the Name of the LORD. Then, abruptly and dramatically, the tone of the prayer changes to a hope all but realized as though His suffering’s supplication had already been answered: “Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; our God is merciful. The LORD preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me. Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you. For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.”
Truly the Lord’s Passion was a sustained act of worship. Out of love for His Father and for us “He offered up Himself” (Hebrews 7:27). The death of Jesus was not a mere miscarriage of human justice; it was the supreme act of worship that endowed all mankind with God’s justice. It was the single deed of such fitting and supreme devotion as to render possible humanity’s access to God for all time and into eternity.
You will recall that James and John, the sons of Zebedee requested to sit at Jesus’ right and left side in His kingdom. Ironically, this request followed upon Jesus’ clear teaching concerning His coming suffering and death in Jerusalem. In response to their inappropriate request, Jesus asked them a question, “Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” (John 20:22). The cup to which He refers is the cup of His Passion and death, the very cup He prayed to be removed from Him in Gethsemane. Not understanding Him, however, the brothers confidently answered that they could drink of that cup. Jesus assured them that they would indeed drink of His cup, but it was not His authority to grant their request to sit at His side.
In the Lord’s Supper, Jesus beckons us to participate in His worshipful sacrifice: “Do this in remembrance of me.” “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” That cup contains the very price Jesus poured out for our salvation: “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 10:16). The drinking of this cup of salvation is itself a proclamation of the mystery of the cross, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26). Thus, the question Jesus put to the two sons of Zebedee – “Can you drink the cup of which I am to drink?” – establishes the essential relationship between our reception of the Holy Communion and our dedication to follow Him along the way of the cross. Like the mystery of the cross itself, drinking the cup involves both God’s grace and man’s response of love and thanksgiving: “What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.”
The “cup of salvation,” wrote Origen in the third century, is the cup of martyrdom, the Christian’s supreme identification with the death of the Lord. For the tradition of the Church, “the cup of salvation” refers to the Holy Eucharist in its fullness, the wide dimensions of which include at once the grace of God, the cup of blessing, the baptismal vows, the gathering of the Church, and the vocation to martyrdom. Thus, Psalm 116 is prayed from within the very heart of the Christian mystery.
The Gospels indicate that Jesus and the disciples sang hymns at the end of the Last Supper. As it was Passover, they undoubtedly sang the Hallel psalms which include Psalm 116. Thus, in the very setting of the Institution of the Holy Eucharist, just before He went forth to the Garden of Gethsemane to accept the cup from the hand of his Father, Jesus stood with James, John, and the other disciples singing; “What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.”
Thus does the Lord’s Supper stand in the very center of everything the Church believes, teaches, and confesses, received by the faithful every Lord’s Day, that is every Sunday, as described in Acts chapter 2: “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” So they loved, and so they believed, and so we love and believe, until He comes.
In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
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