For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is being poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Matt 26:28 (AMP)
Poured Out For Many – The Good Gift Series – Part 3
Go to PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6 | PART 7
On the night of watching, the Passover meal, where every Jewish family was partaking of the Passover Meal, Jesus had a meal with his friends, and kind of turned it on its head.
He made the rituals not about the lamb, but about him.
John the Baptist had said of Jesus, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29.)
“While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it. “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them.” (Mark 14:22-24)
Throughout the ages, all kinds of religions and traditions thought that to appease their God(s) blood needed to be spilled in the form of sacrifice. And many, many were given.
There was an understanding that life and death were entwined, and it was thought one could buy the other.
In a sense, life itself does depend on death. A seed can’t grow unless it falls to the ground and is buried. We can’t eat meat unless an animal has been killed. We can’t eat produce unless it has been pulled from the ground, cut off from its life source and harvested… for something to be received, something has to be given. And since the dawn of time, people have made sacrifices to obtain their deities approval.
Think of all that blood over all those years.
On that night in Egypt, thousands of years ago, the Israelites smeared the hot, sticky, sweet smelling blood of sacrificed lambs on their doorposts so that God would pass over them and let them live. It wasn’t just the nice little smear we see in Picture Bibles – their doorposts dripped with it. They could smell it, taste it on the air. They would have brushed up against it as they walked through their doors… You couldn’t get past the fact that something died in the hope that others could live.
I wrestle with the question, did God need so much blood?
Jesus passed a cup of wine around at the Passover Meal (later to be called, The Last Supper), and asked everyone to drink. “This is my blood,” he said.
Covenant (sacred agreement) blood, he called it – poured out for the healing and restoration of the world.
Poured out to show us that there is another way, a way without shedding more blood.
Jesus' blood didn’t have to be smeared on homes, it wasn’t poured out on an altar at the temple only to be done again and again and again. Jesus offered his ‘blood’ to us, not so that we could look and observe. He wanted us to take it into ourselves, drink it in, to make it a part of our being.
There is a powerful mystery to the sacraments. Maybe we are eating and drinking Christ whenever we eat together; whenever we live in harmony with each other; whenever we forgive, extend mercy, show compassion; whenever we chose peace over violence, mercy over judgement; whenever we take in widows and orphans, feed the poor, find help for the sick, visit the imprisoned, grant freedom to captives; whenever we do the hard work of living with authenticity, grace, and vulnerability?
God is always present, hidden in plain sight, all around us, in simple things like bread and wine… flesh and blood.
The intent of Jesus death by those who murdered him was to divide and disrupt. The Eucharist is intended to bring us together; it’s an invitation for all to gather at the table; it gives us hope for resurrection. Yes, there is death and blood and brokenness, but we can hope that one-day bloodshed will cease, brokenness will heal and love will win. All we have to do is keep setting the table.
And the only prerequisite for a seat at the table is hunger.
Bread and wine. Body and Blood. Death for life.
The Good Gift. Eucharist.
This gift is not something to be observed or remembered or feasted around once a year. It is to become a part of us, ingested and digested, mixed into ourselves, body, soul and spirit.
Go to Part 4 – A meal started it all »
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