Who is faithful to the Lord? Our Savior tells his apostles that one of them will betray him. None of them wishes to be the one who betrays the Lord. Often we point to Judas as the one who betrays the Lord. While this is true it is inadequate. Not only Judas, but the rest of the twelve deny their Lord. Not only Peter denies the faith, but the others deny the faith by their flight. Not only the apostles, but we deny Jesus in our hearts and attitudes. We fall into disbelief and live as if the Lord is not God. We fall into doubt of our Savior's providence. We live like atheists. Every one of us betrays the Lord. We fail daily. Though we wish to fear, love and trust in God at all times, we fall short and deny our Lord, betraying him to death.
Thanks be to God that in the midst of this passage of Matthew, sandwiched right between messages of doom and gloom, Jesus points to his body and his blood - his perfect sacrifice on our behalf. Jesus points us to our sin. Then he points us to his blood which is poured out for the forgiveness of sins. Are we partakers of his body and blood? Are we partakers of his divinity? Then we have the life-giving forgiveness flowing through our mortal bodies. We are proclaimed faithful, though we know our doubt. We are proclaimed forgiven though we know our daily denial of the Lord. We will be called to eat and drink with our Lord in his kingdom.
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