Jesus tells a parable about a banquet. It includes criticism of holy rulers who oppose him and the banquet. The holy rulers are being replaced with a people’s movement and their banquet is being replaced by a table of communion. The rulers banquet is referenced in today’s first reading from Isaiah. In it, Yahweh, the “Lord of Hosts,” holds a banquet for his holy rulers. The rulers are War Lords and their banquet is held after they kill their enemies. Their descendants are the parable’s holy rulers, “chief priests and elders of the people.” In the name of Yahweh, that same “Lord of Hosts,” they are planning to kill their enemy, Jesus.
Present day chief priests and religious elders in the U.S. still oppose Jesus’ people’s movement and table of communion. They oppose them every time they use the name of the old deity; “Lord of Hosts” over an alter of sacrifice in their Mass. A Mass prayer called the Sanctus contains the grievous title, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts: heaven and earth are full of your glory…” It is a reference to the title Yahweh “Lord of Hosts,” which is used synonymously with “Yahweh of Armies.” Yahweh is the Host of Armies that have banquets, specifically gruesome after-battle banquet by victors. Why gruesome? Because the Host, which is derived both from enemy (hostis) and to strike (hostire as in hostile), also refers to what is eaten at the meal – or, rather, who is eaten at the meal. The Host refers to the enemy victim struck down during hostilities, who is offered as sacrifice, and thus eaten in gruesome after battle meals by the victorious warriors. In ancient times, War Lords practiced Militarism, a religion of human sacrifice. It started with pre-battle sacrifices of victims, next was the battlefield human sacrifice, and then the meal sacrifice afterward. While the after-battle meal component has diminished, the battlefield practice has not. In war, War Lords then and now remain loyal to the religion of Militarism and its primary practice – the practice of human sacrifice. Militarism’s human sacrifice theology remains extremely influential. Theologians started errantly applying it to Jesus. They reversed the people’s movement and the table of communion back to a ruling priestly class offering human sacrifice. Likely without being conscious of it, the self titled christian priestly class made Jesus an updated sacrificed ‘Host,’ meaning their enemy, whom they ‘Hostis,’ meaning strike down in their hostility. It is a hostility that seems subconscious, spawned from their refusal as high priests controlling an altar banquet to be replaced by his people’s movement gathered around a table of communion.
Jesus Last Supper is thus grossly misunderstood by Militarism, its rulers, and their theologians. In place of the usual sacrificed body and spilled blood that Militarists would exact from him the following day at Calvary, Jesus offered nourishment of bread and wine as his body and blood at the gathering the night before. A life-giving creation nourishes a people’s movement around a table of communion.
Prayer: Life-giving Spirit, help us to share communion with all people.
Question: How can we shift from Militarism’s human sacrifice practices to nourish life-giving practices?
October 15, 2017 Gospel Matthew 22:1-14 Twenty Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time