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Bible - NT - Ephesians: Eucharistic meditation

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Ephesians 4:8: When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.

How do we reach maturity in Christ? Paul gives us a clue when he quotes from Psalm 68, a Psalm of ascension. The Psalm begins as a plea for the Lord fight for David. He calls on Yahweh to arise, scatter His enemies, and make them melt like wax before the fire. Yahweh responds. He marches through the desert from Egypt, and ascends through the parched land toward a land of milk and honey, with Israel joining the procession of the King to His throne-land.

The ascent in Paul’s quotation is, in the Psalm, the ascent of Yahweh to Sinai. “The chariots of God are myriads,” David sings, “thousand upon thousand. The Lord is among them at Sinai, in holiness. Thou hast ascended on high, Thou has led captive thy captives.” It is from Sinai that Yahweh gives gifts to men, the gift of the tabernacle, the gift of the covenant, most especially the gift of Torah.

Paul, however, shifts the emphasis.

In the Psalm, David celebrates the gift of the law from Sinai, but when Paul quotes the Psalm, he celebrates Jesus’ gift of people – pastors and teachers, evangelists and others who equip the saints for the work of service, who train the saints for worship and ministry. How do we reach maturity? Not through the law, Paul insists, but through the ministry of pastors and teachers filled with the Spirit of the ascended Christ. What the law could not do, God has done in Jesus, and through those whom Jesus sends.

Midway through the Psalm, though, it becomes clear that David is not just reflecting on an historical event, but describes something that recurs. The nations tremble because “they have seen Your procession, O God, the procession of my God, my King, into the sanctuary.” Not only from Sinai, but from His throne in the temple in Jerusalem, the ascended Lord gives gifts to men. David sings about two mountains, Sinai and Zion, and from both King Yahweh receives and distributes gifts.

When we read the Psalm through the lens of Ephesians, it throws startling light on what is happening in our worship. Jesus ascended once, and gives gifts, but Jesus also continues to give gifts every time we gather here as God’s temple, at the Lord’s table.

What gifts? Certainly He offers Himself. Certainly He gives the gifts of bread and wine, the gifts of God for the people of God, holy things for the holy ones. But Paul wants us to see too that when we assemble to the heavenly Zion, the ascended Jesus is also giving people. Each week, as we share bread and wine, Jesus is giving Himself to us, but just for that reason, He is giving us to each other. Each week, we are renewed in communion with Jesus, but just for that reason, also in communion with one another.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, February 7, 2010 at 7:37 am

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Bible - NT - Ephesians: Eucharistic meditation

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