How the Davidic covenant is fulfilled by Christ (Mathew), through the Eucharist (Luke), in the Church as the New Temple (John).

In order to answer this question, I think it is very important to see the meticulous nature of the Davidic covenant. David and his house enjoy the favour of God who commits himself by oath to an “eternal covenant”. The nature of this covenant is defined by the words of God: “I will be a father to him and he shall be a son to me”. Being an unconditional promise, the covenant with the house of David cannot be broken (Ps 89:29-38). The perspective is very different from that of the Sinai covenant, where the divine favour is conditional: it requires obedience to the covenant on Israel's part (Ex 19:5-6).


Against this background we have to read the gospel according to Mathew which starts with a genealogy of Jesus where Jesus is witnessed and presented as the “son of David” and “the son of Abraham” (Mt 1:1). By mentioning David and Abraham, Matthew calls to mind the Davidic and Abrahamic covenants which will be fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the “anointed” one (Mt 1:1ff). Jesus is the long-awaited king, the “son of David” whose throne will be established for ever (2Sam 7:13-14). He has come to proclaim the ‘good news’ that the ‘kingdom’ has arrived (Mt 3:2, 4:17). This is a universal kingdom that encompasses all nations, and through which all nations will be blessed (Gen 17:6; Mt 28:19). The Gospel according to Mathew gives a particular attention on the kingdom of David: Jesus is born in Bethlehem, the city of David, which was prophesized as the birth-place of the Messiah-King (Mt 2:6; Mic 5:2). Jesus is born of a virgin fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah regarding the future Davidic king (Mt 1:23; Is 7:14). The Magi visit Jesus at his birth to pay tribute to him, just as kings visited Solomon (1Kgs 4:34; Ps 72:10-11). People identify Jesus as the “Son of David.” For instance, two blind men use this title for him (9:27), the Canaanite woman (15:22), and the crowds who welcome Jesus into Jerusalem (21:9). Jerusalem, the capital of the Davidic kingdom, is important to the Davidic covenant and it is here that Jesus’ ministry reaches its climax with his passion, death and resurrection (Mt 26-28).


At the Last Supper, Jesus intervened decisively in making his blood “the blood of the covenant” (Mt 26:28; Mk 14:24), the foundation of the “new covenant” (Lk 22:20; 1 Co 11:25). The description of the Last Supper is outlined with references to eating and drinking with which Jesus manifest the kingdom. In the first mention Jesus points out that this Supper is linked to the imminent arrival of the kingdom (Lk 22:16), and in the other quote Jesus promises the apostles (Lk 22:30) that they will eat and drink at his table in his kingdom. Through the institution narrative, the bread and wine are transformed into the Eucharistic Body and Blood of Christ, the king. As the king is present so is his kingdom, which is a Eucharistic kingdom. “Behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you” (Lk 17:21). Through the institution of the Eucharist Jesus reinstates and transforms the Davidic covenant. As David was enthroned in the earthly Jerusalem, Jesus is enthroned in the heavenly Jerusalem. He is the heavenly king, who by giving his own Body and Blood in the Eucharist, enables Christians to be united to him, and therefore to enter into the life of the Trinity. The Church which is the mystical Body of Christ manifests the renewed Davidic kingdom and exists simultaneously in heaven and on earth.


In the Old Testament, the Temple is both functional and symbolic space. It serves as the place of the cult, especially sacrifice, prayer, teaching, healing and royal enthronement. It plays the role of axis and centre of the world. During the New Testament period the edifice retained its symbolic role as the privileged divine abode, which represented on earth the dwelling place of God in heaven. In Jn 2:16 Jesus calls it “my Father's house”. But some texts relativise this symbolism and pave the way for transcending it. Jesus announced the replacement by a new sanctuary, to be built in three days after its destruction.(Jn 2:19-22) After his resurrection, Jesus' disciples understood that the new Temple was his risen body. In the Gospel of John, Jesus is portrayed as the fulfillment of the Temple, the holiest place for the Jews and “the embodiment of God’s covenant with David”. John also shows how this fulfillment continues in Christ’s mystical Body, the Church, through the sacraments. This idea is developed by the apostles peter and Paul. In Pauline theology, incorporation into a holy temple in which the Spirit dwells (1 Cor 3:16-17; 2 Cor 6:16; Eph 2: 19-22). And what is true of the Church is also true of the individual Christians, whose body is a temple of God’s presence (1 Cor 6:19). Peter likewise envisions believers as “living stones” who are built into a spiritual temple that gives pleasing worship to God (1Pet 2:5).


Concluding remarks could be these: God's “covenant” with David is not mentioned explicitly in the New Testament, but Peter's discourse in Acts Ac 2:20, and the Pauline discourse in Ac 13:34 makes a similar connection by employing the expression of Is 55:3 which, in the Isaian text, defines an “eternal covenant”. The resurrection of Jesus, “son of David”, is thus presented as the fulfillment of the covenant-promise given by God to David. Eucharist really sealed this eternal covenant and gave it immanent as well as eschatological nuances. The Temple gets a wider scope in the new Testament as the body of Christ, as the mystical body of Christ-Church and every one who belongs to this body and get nourished from it by the reception of sacraments.