Eucharistic meditation

Galatians 4:4: When the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son.

Advent is about the beginning of a new time, a new history, a new calendar, a new creation. We know that it’s about a new time because it brings a new table.

This has been God’s way from the beginning. Every new time brings a new table. At the beginning of time, Yahweh formed Adam from the dust, made him a living soul, placed him in a garden and offered him all the trees of the garden but one. He was given a table of fresh food, plucked from the tree.

After Adam’s sin, God set up new tables. Abram worshiped at an altar-table, turning goats and sheep to smoke as Yahweh’s food. At the table of the tabernacle, Israel also offered the bread of God, and ate the crumbs that fell from Yahweh’s table.

The temple of Solomon during the monarchy had a new altar, a new table, and when Ezekiel envisioned the temple of the restoration, He saw it as a glorified table of Yahweh.

So it is with Jesus. He comes in the fullness of time, to fulfill time, to bring in a new time, and as a sign of the new time He brings a new table. And it is a new table. There is no blood or flesh on this table, because the blood has been shed once for all and God has condemned sin in the flesh. Yet, this is not the table of Adam either. Adam ate the fruit direct from the plant, but we eat wheat ground and baked, and we drink fruit that has been fermented, brought to maturity.

New time, new table: That is a basic principle of biblical history. And it is a basic implication of the gospel: This new table is the last table, the table of the fullness of time.