Love is Stronger Than Death
King Solomon wrote, “Love is strong as death” Song 8:6. Rabbi Yeshua showed that love is stronger than death when He told Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,” Jn 11:25 and commanded, “Lazarus, come out” Jn 11:43.
The Transfiguration
“And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him” Mt 17:2-3.
God is pure light. When we talk to him we too become light. “Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God” Ex 34:29. Rabbi Yeshua’s transfiguration, seen through Moses’ karnaim, was a sign of his divine authority. Our Father confirmed it. “A bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him’” Mt 17:5.
St. Matthew’s word overshadowed meant much more than “covered.” St. Mark used the same word, “And a cloud overshadowed them” Mk 9:7. There on Mt. Tabor, our Father spread his talit over them, bringing Rabbi Yeshua, Kefa, Yaakov ben Zevdi and Yokhanan ben Zevdi briefly into his eternal presence. When Rabbi Yeshua ascended to the Father, “He was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight” Acts 1:9.
Rabbi Yeshua in this way gave his three closest shlikhim a preview of heaven, which he would soon open, that they would later be able to tell others with the greatest conviction, “No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” 1 Cor 2:9. He knew they would need this help to sustain them in the trials ahead. Kefa would lead the Church. Yaakov would be the first shaliakh murdered. Yokhanan would be exiled to Patmos Rev 1:9.
The Alpha And the Omega
Rabbi Yeshua told us, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” Rev 1:8.
In Hebrew, “I am the first and the last” Rev 1:8 was ani rishon v’einsof. Rishon, from the root rosh, is not merely the first but the head, as rosh hashanah is the head of the year. We see the same root in bereshit, the first word of Genesis Gen 1:1. This is an absolute primacy. Similarly, einsof is not merely the last of a finite series like an alphabet but rather is endless, eternal.
Consecration
After reassuring his shlikhim, Rabbi Yeshua prayed his high priestly prayer, which began, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you” Jn 17:1. It is called the high priestly prayer because Rabbi Yeshua prayed “And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth” Jn 17:19. I consecrate myself! God had commanded Moses, “You shall consecrate them, that they may be most holy; whatever touches them will become holy. And you shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests” Ex 30:29-30. Rabbi Yeshua consecrated himself because, in the Final Sacrifice soon to come, he would be both High Priest and Victim, offering himself to redeem us.
To consecrate something is to reserve it entirely for holy use. At the time of the first Passover, God commanded Moses, “Consecrate to me all the first-born; whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine” Ex 13:2. What is consecrated is also sacrificed. “But if it has any blemish … you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God” Deut 15:21. All the sacred vessels of the ancient Temple were consecrated.
- Then you shall take the anointing oil, and anoint the tabernacle and all that is in it, and consecrate it and all its furniture; and it shall become holy. You shall also anoint the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and consecrate the altar; and the altar shall be most holy. You shall also anoint the laver and its base, and consecrate it. Then you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the tent of meeting, and shall wash them with water, and put upon Aaron the holy garments, and you shall anoint him and consecrate him, that he may serve me as priest Ex 40:9-13.
At Baptism, we are consecrated. Lumen Gentium § 10 teaches: “The baptized, by regeneration and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, are consecrated as a spiritual house and a holy priesthood, in order that through all those works which are those of the Christian man they may offer spiritual sacrifices and proclaim the power of him who has called them out of darkness into his marvelous light.” The Catechism § 1273 re-states: “Incorporated into the Church by Baptism, the faithful have received the sacramental character that consecrates them for Christian religious worship. The baptismal seal enables and commits Christians to serve God by a vital participation in the holy liturgy of the Church and to exercise their baptismal priesthood by the witness of holy lives and practical charity.”
It is an abomination to sully a consecrated person or object. Our Father said to us, “Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, `We are delivered!’ – only to go on doing all these abominations? Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?” Jer 7:9-11.
Three years after Antiochus IV had sullied the Temple, Yehuda HaMaccabi performed a hanukkah to re-consecrate it. Two hundred years later the Pharisees themselves had sullied the Temple. Rabbi Yeshua, was himself the hanukkah. “And Jesus entered the temple of God and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, ‘It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer; but you make it a den of robbers’’” Mt 21:12-13.
Father Hardon observed, “The Jesuit saint and Doctor of the Church, St. Robert Bellarmine, in one of his conferences to his fellow Jesuits, told them: “Whatever we may think of sin; however casually we may take sin; however we may minimize the gravity of sin; sin must be something terrifying in the mind of God–because God became man.”1
The Last Supper
Rabbi Yeshua warned his shlikhim, “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of man will be delivered up to be crucified” Mt 26:2. Perhaps, at table, one of the shlikhim asked the Rabbi, “Why is this Seder different from all the other Seders?”
In the Old Testament days, solemn agreements were often ratified by participation in a solemn meal. We see it in connection with the pact between Jacob and Esau Gen 26:30-34, and between Laban and Jacob Gen 31:54. By far the greatest pact was the giving of the Torah, celebrated by a todah sacrifice meal shared by God and man Ex 24:9-11.
We recall that the first todah sacrifice was the original Passover meal. The todah sacrifice always recalled a mortal threat to the people Israel and thanked God for saving them. The mortal threat is always ultimately from Satan, “A murderer from the beginning” Jn 8:44. Holy Mother Church has always called the Sacrament of Rabbi Yeshua’s Body and Blood by the Greek word eucharistia, thanksgiving. The Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. The Sacrament of Holy Thanksgiving. Rabbi Yeshua consecrated the matzah as the Sacrament of Holy Todah. Today after the deacon’s dismissal, “The Mass is ended, go in peace,” the congregation proclaims, “Thanks be to God!”
We recall Cardinal Ratzinger’s comment: “The whole of Eucharistic Christology is present in the todah spirituality of the Old Testament.”2 Already in the time of Moses, there had been a full todah sacrifice. “They beheld God, and ate and drank” Ex 24:11. At the Last Supper, Rabbi Yeshua’s shlikhim beheld God and ate and drank Mt 26:26-28. At the wedding feast in heaven we will behold God, and eat and drink Rev 19:9.
The Same Sacrifice
The Catechism § 1367 tells us: “The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice.” His glorified body was the Holy Eucharist. “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have” Lk 24:39.
Holy Mother Church celebrates the Triduum–Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday–as one continuous event. Good Friday, fourteenth nisan, begins on Thursday at sundown with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper and continues through Friday at 3:00 pm with the solemn Good Friday service representing Rabbi Yeshua’s Final Sacrifice, after which comes the solemn rest through Friday sundown. Holy Saturday, fifteenth nisan, from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown, is a day of solemn rest representing Rabbi Yeshua in the tomb. Easter Sunday, sixteenth nisan, begins on Saturday at sundown with the glorious Easter Vigil Mass representing Rabbi Yeshua risen from the tomb and continues through Sunday at sundown. There is no blessing or dismissal at the end of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, no introduction or dismissal in the Solemn Good Friday Service, and no introduction in the Easter Vigil Mass.
His Last Supper and Final Sacrifice, sacramentally the same event, had to be celebrated on the same day. But not only on the same day. The Catholic Church celebrates one single sacrifice. In God’s mysterious providence they occurred in the same day-long moment! “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” Mt 19:26.
Super Essential
Rabbi Yeshua taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” Mt 6:11. § 2837 “‘Daily’ [epiousios] occurs nowhere else in the New Testament ...Taken literally [epi-ousios]: ‘super-essential’), it refers directly to the Bread of Life, the Body of Christ, the ‘medicine of immortality,’ without which we have no life within us. Finally in this connection, its heavenly meaning is evident: ‘this day’ is the Day of the Lord, the day of the feast of the kingdom, anticipated in the Eucharist that is already the foretaste of the kingdom to come. For this reason it is fitting for the Eucharistic liturgy to be celebrated each day.”
One Sacrifice for One Body
St. John Chrysostom explained the Final Sacrifice. “We always offer the same Lamb, not one today and another tomorrow, but always the same one.”3 His commentary on these words is profound and perceptive: “For what is the bread? It is the body of Christ. And what do those who receive it become? The Body of Christ–not many bodies but one body. For as bread is completely one, though made of up many grains of wheat, and these, albeit unseen, remain nonetheless present, in such a way that their difference is not apparent since they have been made a perfect whole, so too are we mutually joined to one another and together united with Christ.”4 St. John Paul II, in Ecclesia de Eucharistia § 12, expressed its sacrificial meaning: “The Mass makes present the sacrifice of the Cross; it does not add to that sacrifice nor does it multiply it. What is repeated is its memorial celebration.”
Rabbi Yokhanan explained how through the Holy Eucharist we participate in both the Last Supper and the Final Sacrifice on the Cross as “one flock, one shepherd” Jn 10:16. Rabbi Shaul ha-Tarsi added, “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” 1 Cor 10:16-17.
In its final words, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass reminds us that it is the todah sacrifice. When the deacon says, “The Mass is ended, go in peace,” the congregation replies, “Thanks be to God.” We thank Rabbi Yeshua for his New and Eternal Covenant.
The Light of the World
The Seder began with lighting the traditional white candles. In Jewish tradition, the mother of the family lights the candles. Most likely Rabbi Yeshua’s ima, his Blessed Mother, lit the candles, praying, Barukh ata Adonai, Eloheinu melekh ha’olam, asher kidshanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu l’hadlik ner shel yom tov. “Blessed are You, Lord our God, king of the universe, who has made us holy by the law and has commanded us to kindle the festival light.”
Rabbi Yeshua had earlier told his shlikhim, “I am the light of the world” Jn 8:12. He had told them, “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you” Jn 20:21. And he had told them, “You are the light of the world” Mt 5:14. The light of the world sat at table, illuminated by white candles, as the light of the world prepared to bring into being the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, from which would come the Catholic Church.5
Rabbi Yeshua’s Passover Seder plate had on it the traditional six foods that together symbolize Israel’s redemption and deliverance: karpas and salt water, hazaret, maror, kharoset, beitza, and zeroah. The lesson he would teach on this night was all about redemption and deliverance.
He Washed Their Feet
During the Seder, Rabbi Yeshua “Rose from supper, laid aside his garments, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him” Jn 13:4-5. “When he had washed their feet, and taken his garments, and resumed his place, he said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you’” Jn 13:12-15.
Why would Rabbi Yeshua interrupt the Seder to wash their feet? The Seder is a time for teaching, and he had two great lessons to teach his shlikhim by washing their feet.
First, he was preparing them to be humble. When a man walked the hot dusty roads of that time, often in sandals, his feet got dirty and smelly. When he entered a home he would often track in the dirt. Families who could afford servants always sent the lowest servant to wash the feet of a guest before he entered. Rabbi Yeshua, by teaching us to wash one another’s feet, reminded his shlikhim that we are to be humble before God and man. His introduction of humble service to others into a celebration of freedom when people eat reclining reminds us of who we are. He would redeem us. We, his image and likeness, have free will. Before God we are all poor. We should humbly redeem one another.
Second, he was preparing them to be priests. The ancient Aaronic priest was required to wash his hands and feet at the time of the service. Rabbi Yeshua’s shlikhim had already washed their hands; to prepare for the meal, they needed only to wash their feet. At the burning bush our Father had told Moses the shepherd, “Put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground” Ex 3:5. The church sanctuaries his priests would soon enter to re-present the Final Sacrifice would also be holy ground. As the tabernacle laver reminds us, we are to walk toward God’s promised land with clean footsteps.
The Bread
During the Passover Seder the head of household takes three pieces of matzah to teach his children the importance of planning for the future. Now Rabbi Yeshua would teach his shlikhim to prepare for eternal life.
The seventy elders who had gone up with Moses to celebrate the todah sacrifice beheld God, and ate and drank. At the Last Supper, Rabbi Yeshua’s shlikhim beheld God, and ate and drank as he offered his todah sacrifice: “He took bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me’” Lk 22:19. From the beginning, Rabbi Yeshua’s Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity has been called Holy Eucharist (Greek: eucharistia, thanksgiving).
“I am with you always” Mt 28:20. The Holy Eucharist does not belong to the Church. The Church belongs to the Holy Eucharist. The Holy Eucharist existed before the Church, and is the head of the Church. We, the body, God’s image and likeness, participate through the Holy Eucharist in the New and Eternal Covenant that unites us with Rabbi Yeshua.
The youngest shaliakh asked, Ma nishtanah ha-lailah ha-zeh mikol ha-lalot. “Why is this night different from all the other nights of the year”? “They shall eat the flesh that night” Ex 12:8. At the first Passover Seder, the body of a sacrificed lamb saved the people Israel from physical death. But this night was different even from all other Passover Seders, because on this night the Body of the sacrificed Lamb would save the people Israel from spiritual death by opening heaven for us all.
Perhaps Rabbi Yeshua reminded the shlikhim of what he had taught in the synagogue at Capernaum. “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die” Jn 6:48-50. We can imagine them asking questions, and Rabbi Yeshua insisting, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh” Jn 6:51. We can imagine the astonished shlikhim asking how Rabbi Yeshua could give them his flesh to eat.
Rabbi Yeshua had so recently told Kefa, “If I do not wash you, you have no part in me” Jn 13:8. Kefa had replied, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jn 13:9. Rabbi Yeshua probably presented the same argument again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him” Jn 6:53-56.
This was the first great test for the shlikhim. Noah’s seven simple laws prohibited taking flesh from a live animal, which the rabbis understand to include the eating of a human person. They knew what our Father had told Noah for all men, “Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood” Gen 9:4. They knew that he had spoken more forcefully to his chosen people. “Moreover you shall eat no blood whatever, whether of fowl or of animal, in any of your dwellings. Whoever eats any blood, that person shall be cut off from his people” Lev 7:26-27. He repeated the consequences for emphasis: “I will set my face against that person who eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people” Lev 17:10. This was a matter of faith. The halakha, God’s law for man, had no category for the arrival on earth of a divine person. The Torah never prohibited consuming the Mashiakh’s glorified body.
The shlikhim knew too that Rabbi Yeshua had taught, “He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me” Mt 10:37. Abraham could become the Father’s witness to the Israelite people only if he could sacrifice his son Gen 22:10. Only a Jew who absolutely believed that Rabbi Yeshua had “all authority in heaven and on earth” Mt 28:18 could accept being cut off from his natural family to witness for his supernatural family by consuming Rabbi Yeshua’s flesh.
The Wine
At the Last Supper, Rabbi Yeshua invited his eleven remaining shlikhim to the wedding feast in heaven Rev 19:9. He invites us all to enter the wedding feast in heaven through the New and Eternal Covenant, in which he gives us his life, whole and entire, and we give him our life, whole and entire. Rabbi Yeshua consecrated the cup of redemption as his blood of the New and Eternal Covenant and invited all his shlikhim to drink it. “He took a chalice, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins’” Mt 26:27-28.
This was the second great test for the shlikhim. They knew the Torah mitzvah, “Moreover you shall eat no blood whatever, whether of fowl or of animal, in any of your dwellings. Whoever eats any blood, that person shall be cut off from his people” Lev 7:26-27. Only a Jew who absolutely believed that Rabbi Yeshua was the Son of God could obediently consume his blood, serenely confident that in some way it was consistent with the Torah.
It was fully consistent. As with the flesh, the sages always interpreted the Torah’s prohibition against man consuming blood to mean human or animal blood. It was never interpreted to prohibit our consuming divine blood.
Rabbi Yeshua did not end his Seder according to the ancient tradition. Instead, he told his shlikhim, “I tell you I shall not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom” Mt 26:29. He did not drink the hallel cup, the Fourth Cup, that night. Many Catholics believe that Rabbi Yeshua drank his Fourth Cup on the cross. After the Last Supper Rabbi Yeshua prayed at Gethsemane by moonlight, “Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me” Mt 26:39. After being captured he asked Kefa, “Shall I not drink the chalice which the Father has given me?” Jn 18:11.
Hyssop is associated in the original Passover with the blood of the sacrificed lamb. Moses had told the elders of Israel, “Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood ...” Ex 12:22. King David associated hyssop with cleansing. “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” Ps 51:7. On the Cross, where Rabbi Yeshua redeemed us from sin, we again find hyssop. “They put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop and held it to his mouth” Jn 19:29.
Rabbi Yeshua during the Last Supper transubstantiated wine, making it his blood of the new and everlasting covenant. Vinegar comes originally from the Latin vinum, wine, and acer, sharp or sour. Over time it became the French vin aigre, sour wine. A wine left alone long enough can ferment and turn to vinegar. In the Crucifixion context the Roman soldiers might unwittingly have used the fourth cup to mock Rabbi Yeshua, as they mocked his true kingship with a crown of thorns Mt 27:29.
It Is Finished
During the Passover Seder, immediately after all present drink the fourth cup, the head of household declares the Seder complete. Rabbi Yeshua declared his Seder complete. “When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, ‘It is finished’; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” Jn 19:30.
While declaring his Seder complete, the head of household prays, “Next year in Jerusalem.” Rabbi Yeshua on the Cross told Dismas, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” Lk 23:43. The New Israel shows us Jerusalem on High. “And in the Spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal” Rev 21:10-11.
Our Father through Moses blessed Israel, “The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace” Num 6:26. Rabbi Yeshua rising from the dead told his shlikhim, shalom alekhem, “Peace be with you.” Jerusalem be with you. He in his own person was the New Jerusalem.
Rabbi Yeshua repeated his shalom alekhem three times Jn 20:19, 21, 26, connecting his fulfillment with the Shma, our Father’s great Trinitarian proclamation, Shma Israel, Adonai Eloheinu Adonai ekhad, “My Lords our Gods my Lords one” Deut 6:4.
When Rabbi Yeshua declared, “It is finished” Jn 19:30, he announced that his fulfillment of the Old Law was complete. St. Gregory Nazianzus observed, “A few drops of blood renew the whole world.”6 It was only after Rabbi Yeshua’s redemptive sacrifice and the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment that the shlikhim understood the full meaning of our Father’s words to his chosen people. “For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it for you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement, by reason of the life” Lev 17:11.
The Royal Priesthood
Our Father told his Israelite children, “… You shall be to me a kingdom of priests …” Ex 19:6.
Only the Levites proved themselves worthy to sacrifice to God by sacrificing their sons Ex 32:29, recalling Abraham Gen 22:10, so only Levites could be Aaronic priests. Rabbi Yeshua taught the same. “He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” Mt 10:37.
Isaiah had written, “I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people” Is 43:20. Rabbi Yeshua gave his followers “living water” Jn 4:10-11; 7:38. Kefa tells us: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” 1 Pet 2:9.
Kefa’s reference to a “chosen race” meant that Rabbi Yeshua’s followers were now added to the ranks of God’s chosen people in the Eternal Election through Acts 1:8. The Jews remain God’s chosen people: “As regards the gospel they are enemies of God, for your sake; but as regards election they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers” Rom 11:28. Rabbi Yeshua’s followers of Gentile descent were grafted in: “Some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in their place to share the richness of the olive tree” Rom 11:17.
Kefa’s reference to the “royal priesthood,” a fulfillment of our Father’s prophecy of a kingdom of priests Ex 19:6, began to be realized in the original Passover sacrifice of the lambs by ordinary Israelites, after which each family had to consume its sacrificed lamb, a foreshadow of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The royal priesthood went back to the crown of Torah. Mishna Abot 4:13b quotes Rabbi Simeon, “There are three crowns: the crown of Torah, the crown of priesthood, and the crown of sovereignty.”
Maimonides explains the ancient teaching. “Whoever’s heart impels him to fulfill this mitzvah properly and to be crowned with the crown of Torah may not interrupt his mind with other matters. He should not consider that he will acquire Torah together with wealth and honor”7 Rabbi Yeshua taught the same. “You cannot serve God and mammon.” The crown of Torah belongs to the Torah scholar whose life is governed by study of the Torah. He works in the world to support his Torah observant family and studies the Torah at every opportunity.
The crown of priesthood and the crown of sovereignty were physical, but the crown of Torah was a spiritual crown. Rabbi Paul observed, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness” 2 Tim 4:7-8.” St. James said, “Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him” Jas 1:12. St. John received Rabbi Yeshua’s prophecy, “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life” Rev 2:10.
Rabbi Yeshua made those baptized into his redemptive sacrifice a “living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God”8 Holy Mother Church teaches that God § 782 “acquired a people for himself from those who previously were not a people: a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,” and that § 782 “One becomes a member of this people not by a physical birth, but by being born anew, a birth of water and the Spirit, that is, by faith in Christ, and Baptism.”
The royal priesthood does not consist of everyone who sits on a wooden pew each Sunday morning. “An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules” 2 Tim 2:5. Holy Mother Church teaches, “The faithful, in virtue of their royal priesthood, join in the offering of the Eucharist … receiving the sacraments, in prayer and thanksgiving, in the witness of a holy life, and by self-denial and active charity.”9
We recall that in Mosaic Judaism people were often named for their identity and mission. The “name,” in the sense of reputation, goes back to the tower of Babel, when the people sought to make “a name for ourselves” Gen 11:4 in defiance of God.
A “good name” meant a good reputation. Rabbi Simeon in Mishna Abot 4:13b added, “But the crown of a good name is best of them all.” Only those who have a good name are part of Rabbi Yeshua’s royal priesthood. One whose very existence becomes his God-given mission has the good name or title associated with his mission. Thus, the person who wears the crown of Torah has the good name of a Torah scholar. We who devote our lives to Rabbi Yeshua, the Word Made Flesh, have the good name of “royal priesthood” 1 Pet 2:9.
The greatest name of all was Yeshua. “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” Phil 2:9-11.
But why a royal priesthood? It is royal because we bear the crown of a good name, but in what sense are we priests? We are priests because, in the New and Eternal Covenant we offer the sacrifice of ourselves, our body, blood, soul and humanity, to Rabbi Yeshua. The ministerial priesthood also offers the sacrifice of Rabbi Yeshua to the Father for us.
Integral Observance
God is so holy that even his smallest manifestation contains all of him. The rabbis believed that the Torah, the Word of God, was similarly indivisible. Every fragment of the Torah, even a single letter, contained within it all of the Torah. Today we know Rabbi Yeshua, the Torah Made Flesh, is whole and entire in even the smallest sliver of the consecrated Host.
The ancient rabbis believed that the Torah preceded creation, that God looked at the Torah and created the world in conformity with it.
Mishna Eruvim 13a tells us that the old sofer Rabbi Ishmael, told the young sofer Rabbi Meir, “My son, be careful in your work, for your work is heavenly. In case you delete even one letter or add even one letter, you may destroy the entire world.” Every word, letter and mark in the Torah is the will of God and the Word of God, with divine force, so that to add or delete one letter is to change the very structure of creation.
Moses commanded the Israelites, “Take this book of the Law, and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against you” Deut 31:26. Mishna Kidushin 46b says that we should always view ourselves as if we have an equal amount of merits and sins, and as if the world is hanging in perfect balance with an equal balance of merits and sins. A man who performs a mitzvah tilts himself and the entire world to the side of merits. If he commits a sin he tilts himself and the entire world to the side of sin.
Just as the rabbis taught integral observance of the Torah, Rabbi Yeshua taught integral observance, “Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” Mt 5:19. His disciples knew it. Rabbi Shaul ha-Tarsi declared, “I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is bound to keep the whole law” Gal 5:3. Rabbi Yaakov added, “Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it” Jas 2:10.
All of it. Each Torah scroll contained 304,805 letters carefully arranged in 245 columns. If we count the gaps between the words and the tagin, crowns on top of the letters, it comes to about 600,000, corresponding to the 600,000 Jews who received the Torah on Mt. Sinai. Mishna Menakhot 29b tells us that these crowns are significant, and that Rabbi Akiva was able to discover many new halakhot, laws, by searching out their meanings.
§ 579 “This principle of integral observance of the Law not only in letter but in spirit was dear to the Pharisees. By giving Israel this principle they had led many Jews of Jesus’ time to an extreme religious zeal. This zeal, were it not to lapse into casuistry, could only prepare the People for the unprecedented intervention of God through the perfect fulfillment of the Law by the only Righteous One in place of all sinners.”
Integral observance was based on the Shma as the summary of all the Torah. A sin against any mitzvah is a sin against the Shma. This is also the basis for the pre-Christian sages’ teaching that all the mitzvot were of equal importance, since all were expressions of God’s will for us.
And Rabbi Yeshua told us about his fulfillment of the Law. “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” Mt 5:20. We are to keep a higher level of the Torah, higher than the teachers of the Law, higher than Hillel and Shammai, by grace above human possibility.
The Highest Level of the Torah
Did Rabbi Yeshua observe all the Torah mitzvot? On one shabat, Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and healed a man with a withered hand Mt 12:10-13. On another shabat he healed a man born blind Jn 9:1-7.
The Torah had positive ordinances directing us to help one another. They were broader than they might appear. “Help a beast that has fallen down under its burden,” did not apply only to animals; we are to help our neighbor whenever our situation allows it, for instance as a goel. Rabbi Yeshua was under a positive command to help the man with the withered hand, the man born blind, and the arthritic woman.10 He was also under a negative command: “Do not work on the Sabbath.” The Jewish authorities knew the rabbinic principle for resolving such issues: Aseh dokheh lo ta’aseh. A positive command is more important than a negative command. Rabbi Yeshua was consistent with the halakha when he healed on the Sabbath.
There was an even higher principle: pikuakh nefesh, to save a life. Our Father told us, “I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live” Deut 30:19. In ordinary Jewish life it superseded all other mitzvot. The sole exceptions to earthly pikuakh nefesh are the three mitzvot for martyrdom. If someone commands that a Jew worship idols, commit murder, or enter into a forbidden marriage, he is to accept death rather than do them. These particular sins are most offensive to God, and so, when absolutely necessary, Jews glorify God by being martyrs. We recall the time of the hanukkah, when Antiochus IV tried to make Eleazar, one of the scribes 2 Mac 6:18-19, and then the mother and her seven sons 2 Mac 7:1-23 accept his idols by eating pork, they accepted death rather than idolatry. But Jews are to commit any other sin when it becomes absolutely necessary to save a life.
Rabbi Yeshua revealed the full meaning of pikuakh nefesh, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” Jn 10:10. Pikuakh nefesh was about earthly life, but much more about eternal life.
Rabbi Yeshua had come to keep all the mitzvot, and to teach us how. “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” Mt 19:26. Rabbi Yeshua explained, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets” Mt 22:37-40.
Rabbi Yeshua elevated the second great commandment. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you” Jn 15:12-14. This is the agape love that Rabbi Yeshua showed us. If we fulfill these two mitzvot at a very high level of honesty we intend to fulfill our Father’s will for us in all things.
The rabbis also teach that tzedaka, the Jewish legal obligation to support our brother in need, is among the highest mitzvot, but that pikuakh nefesh, to save a life, is the highest of all. Rabbi Yeshua lived these two mitzvot at the highest level of honesty during all his mortal life. His Final Sacrifice redeemed us in the greatest possible act of love for the Father and for us. In this he fulfilled in himself the entire Halakha.
“He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross” Phil 2:8. Rabbi Yeshua told Philip and Andrew, “And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, for this purpose I have come to this hour” Jn 12:27. He prayed at Gethsemane, “My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt” Mt 26:39. He prayed again, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done” Mt 26:42. Rabbi Yeshua the Mashiakh set aside his own will and obediently embraced the Cross.
Paradise had been closed since the Fall of Adam. “He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life” Gen 3:24.
Rabbi Yeshua, the Mashiakh, used the tree of life, the Cross, to reconcile God and man. The tree of life was located in a garden Gen 2:9. “Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb where no one had ever been laid” Jn 19:41.
Rabbi Yeshua’s reconciliation opened heaven Lk 23:43 so that God and man might have Holy Communion with one another in the New and Eternal Covenant. In this he gave our Father the greatest gift, the souls of all the faithful, his image and likeness Gen 1:26-27, from the beginning of time until the end of time, as eternal company in heaven. And he gave his faithful the greatest gift, eternal life in God’s presence.
National Revelation
The whole Jewish nation heard God’s Ten Commandments, the summary of all the Torah, to man through national revelation, because only through national revelation can we know that it was truly God’s self-revelation to man. “Then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice. And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, the ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone” Deut 4:12-13.
The whole Jewish nation also heard of Rabbi Yeshua’s Final Sacrifice. He was crucified on Passover, one of the three great pilgrimage festivals when all Jews who could do so had to travel to the Temple in Jerusalem. The whole Jewish nation was in Jerusalem for Rabbi Yeshua’s Final Sacrifice. They all saw and heard and felt, “And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom; and the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised” Mt 27:51-52. Even the Roman centurion said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” Mt 27:54. Cleopas exclaimed to Rabbi Yeshua on the road to Emmaus, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” Lk 24:18.
Jews heard from one another how Rabbi Yeshua’s blood fell to the earth and remembered, “And Moses took the blood and threw it upon the people, and said, ‘Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words’” Ex 24:8 As time passed they heard what Rabbi Yeshua had said at the Last Supper. “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” Mt 26:28.
Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews
Through this national revelation our Father revealed that Rabbi Yeshua was truly king of the Jews. Rabbi Yokhanan tells us that Rabbi Yeshua for his Final Sacrifice had above his head the title Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews. It was written in Hebrew, the language by which God revealed him self to man, Yeshua haNotzri, Melekh haYehudim. It was also in Latin, the language of the Roman Empire, representing authority, Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum. Finally, it was in Greek, the international language of commerce, representing universality, Iesous ho Nazoraios ho Basileus ho Ioudaion, “Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews.”
Rabbi Yokhanan, who was present, tells us that the inscription was in Hebrew. In his time Hebrew, the leshon hakodesh, “Holy language,” was the language of Torah, of Temple liturgy, and generally of educated Jews. Aramaic was a street language used by working class Jews. St. Jerome, who spoke both Hebrew and Aramaic fluently, translated St. John’s Greek word Hebraisti into his Latin Vulgate, the Church’s reference standard Bible, as hebraice. However, during the first century, the word Hebrew was loosely used to include Aramaic, which the Jews picked up during the Babylonian Exile. Most Jews in Jerusalem spoke Aramaic every day, reserving Hebrew for religious uses. If Pilate wanted as many people as possible to read and understand the epitaph he may have written it in Aramaic.
The Exsultet
The Easter Vigil Mass, celebrating the risen Rabbi Yeshua, begins with the Exsultet, or Rejoicing. Its words, “O truly necessary sin of Adam … O happy fault …” highlight for us a most remarkable truth.
Our far-seeing Father uses evil to make good. He knew from the beginning that we would fall from grace and have to leave paradise on earth. He wanted to prepare us for the day when Rabbi Yeshua would take down the flaming sword Gen 3:24, call us to the tree of life Rev 2:7, and open paradise for us Lk 23:43.
Our Father’s plan was elegant in its simplicity. In the dawn of creation he had kicked the disobedient angels out of heaven. They immediately began to make war against our first parents, darkening their intellects and weakening their wills.
The angelic intellect instantly apprehends all that is open to its perception. The fallen angels, spiritual persons who live in eternity, had known Rabbi Yeshua in heaven; when he came to earth they recognized him . “He would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him” Mk 1:34. “And demons also came out of many, crying, ‘You are the Son of God!’ But he rebuked them, and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ” Lk 4:41.
Once Rabbi Yeshua was on earth, he never explained exactly how he would “give his life as a ransom for many” Mt 20:28. Satan thought he could abort Rabbi Yeshua’s mission by having him crucified. Only after the Final Sacrifice was complete did Satan realize that Rabbi Yeshua’s mission was to be crucified, to open heaven so that God could begin to move us, creatures below the demons in the order of creation, one by one, out of Satan’s reach to the very place the demons had once enjoyed.
Marriage Supper of the Lamb
The tree of life is the Cross, through which we pass to reach the Resurrection. Its fruit is the Holy Eucharist, the “marriage supper of the Lamb” Rev 19:9, which we foretaste in this life to brighten our intellect and strengthen our will.
Rabbi Yeshua prepared us for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb Rev 19:9 in heaven when he instituted the marriage covenant in the earthly paradise, “Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh” Gen 2:24. Rabbi Yeshua raised marriage to a sacrament with his words, “So they are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder” Mt 19:6. God himself is a Holy Trinity, a divine family, who creates each human family in his image. The human family is therefore a divine association above the state or any other human organization. When a Catholic marries, he knows that only his parish church wedding is a marriage. One day the man, and one day the woman, will stand before Rabbi Yeshua for judgment and will be eternally grateful for having cherished his true law.
In our time, states have arrogated to themselves authority over marriage, elevating themselves to idols, violating God’s solemn First Commandment. States pretend to make marriages, but they are no more successful than a man and woman who voluntarily decide that the man will carry and give birth to this particular baby. Say what they will, God will put the baby in the woman’s body.
Rabbi Yeshua’s Mirror
“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face” 1 Cor 13:12.
Our Father had called the Torah “a witness against you” Deut 31:26. Rabbi Yeshua held a mirror up to the world to show us how the Fall of Adam wounded us. His arrival on earth had been beautiful and he radiated holiness all his life, but men did to him whatever they pleased and he died in bloody agony. In his mirror fallen humanity saw itself, and tried to break the mirror and those who held it.
The Pharisees saw themselves in his mirror. They sought obedience to the Mosaic Law in living as a people apart. But our Father had commanded that the people Israel live apart from demons, not apart from his Son. Our Father calls us to “walk humbly with your God” Mic 6:8, but the Pharisees walked proudly before men. “They make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long” Mt 23:5. In Rabbi Yeshua’s mirror the Pharisees saw a series of people the Mosaic Law taught should not be touched because they defiled. But Rabbi Yeshua healed the leper by touching him Mt 8:3, healed the pagan centurion’s servant Mt 8:13, exorcised two demon-possessed men in a cemetery Mt 8:28-32, healed a menstruating woman who touched his tzitzit Mt 9:20, and resuscitated a dead woman by touching her Mt 9:25. They saw that these people could not defile Rabbi Yeshua, but that his power could heal them. However, instead of embracing him, they turned their sin of pride around and accused him . “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Mt 9:11. The Hebrew word for accuser is satan.
Rabbi Yeshua’s shlikhim also saw themselves in his mirror. During his Last Supper Rabbi Yeshua lovingly gave eleven of his shlikhim the greatest gift he could offer, his living presence, and the power to make him present again on their altars at any time. “Do this in remembrance of me” Lk 22:19. Yet, hours later, the man he would make his vicar on earth, when confronted, “Certainly you are one of them; for you are a Galilean” Mk 14:70, replied, “I do not know this man of whom you speak” Mk 14:71. He and the other shlikhim, except for John, were not even present at the Cross. Among his followers beneath the Cross, most were women. “Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene … and the disciple whom he loved [John]” Jn 19:25-26.
Some of the early city-churches also struggled. Rabbi Yeshua, speaking through the early Church, told them: “For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brethren” 1 Cor 1:11. “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel—not that there is another gospel, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ” Gal 1:6-7. “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first” Rev 2:4. “But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice immorality. So you also have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans” Rev 2:14. “But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and beguiling my servants to practice immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols” Rev 2:20. “I know your works; you have the name of being alive, and you are dead” Rev 3:1. “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth” Rev 3:15-16.
We see ourselves dimly in Rabbi Yeshua’s mirror, but we also see his victory at the end of time. Rabbi Yeshua told us, “In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” Jn 16:33. We who follow him work through spiritual exercise to conquer the darkened intellect and weakened will that we inherited from our first parents. When we persevere to the cross, we receive the promise of the Holy Spirit, “To him who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God” Rev 2:7.