There is a covenant between God and His people. What does this mean? It means that there was an agreement between God and Israel that God would be their God, and they would be His people. Originally this agreement was sealed by the blood of a bull, sprinkled on the elders of the people (Exodus 24). This covenant of union meant that God would always care for, guide, and be present with His people, and for Israel’s part it meant that they would be obedient to the commandments of God, delivered through Moses His prophet. These commandments were meant to guide and keep Israel in holiness and to help His people fulfill the calling to be a light among the nations, a lamp in the darkness of this fallen world.

Just like everything in the Scriptures before Christ, the original covenant was a type of the covenant that would be established between God and His people through His Christ. The first covenant and the laws that governed it were meant to train Israel in righteousness, to lead them to faith, to preserve them in holiness, and to govern their relationship with God. But Israel never truly lived up to the terms of that covenant. The Exodus from Egypt made Israel a nation under God and, eventually, led to the possession of the Promised Land, but new enemies would be faced, sin continued to enslave people, and death was still inevitable.

Therefore, just as Christ had to deliver His people in a true exodus from sin and death, so He had to fulfill the whole law, he had to be the One to fulfill our side of the covenant by being obedient to God in everything, even unto death. In doing so He became the pure and spotless sacrifice of love and obedience, and His spilled blood became the true seal of the fulfilled covenant.

In fact, the covenant was fulfilled so perfectly that its promise and calling spilled over the borders of Israel and reached out to the Gentiles, and to all sinners. Before, we were “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,” says St. Paul. But now, those of us who repent through baptism and participate in His death and resurrection through the remembrance of His Passion enter into the life and blessings promised to those who have fulfilled the covenant. This occurs not because we personally have fulfilled the covenant, but because we are one with Him who has fulfilled it; we “have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:12–13).

In the words of Fr. Alexander Schmemann, the Lord’s Resurrection made death an act of life. God fulfilled the terms of the covenant Himself on our behalf. Our relationship to the covenant before Christ was through the law, but our relationship after Christ is through grace. So magnificent and far-reaching is this covenant as it is realized in Christ that the writer to the Hebrews actually calls the first “obsolete” in comparison (Hebrews 8:13).

With an understanding of our place within the New Covenant, we can have a greater appreciation of what is happening during our worship, particular during Lent and Holy Week. By entering into the story of our redemption through the reading of Scripture, and by entering into the presence of God through the remembrance of Him (involving the offering of the sacrifice of His Son), we once again enter into covenant with God through the blood of His Son. Once again we are a holy nation, a royal priesthood, and citizens of the heavenly Kingdom.

Every week we come broken and divided, having sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, having trampled His commandments, and every week the Lord acts (see Psalm 119:126) to redeem us through the Word and the Offering and to renew His covenant with us. This should cause us to tremble in the face of the awesome act of our worship.  

Fr. John Hainsworth is pastor of All Saints of Alaska Orthodox Mission of Victoria, British Columbia. Born in East Africa and raised in Calgary, Fr. John converted to Orthodoxy in 1992. He graduated from St. Vladimir’s Seminary in 2002 with a Master’s degree in Divinity. 

This article is excerpted from “The Neverending Story: Experiencing Holy Week in the Orthodox Church”; AGAIN Magazine Vol 27 No 1, Spring 2005