The Body and The Blood
Contents
Passage
While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the[a] covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.[1]
Introduction
Have you ever had an event fail to meet your expectations? This is exactly what I think must have happened to the disciples. After the triumphal entry, I think they expected that Jesus would institute the kingdom. But as we know this is not what happened. Jesus did not march to the capital, throw out the Romans and take a seat on the throne. No instead Jesus submitted himself to Roman execution and died the most horrific death imaginable.
So, how can we make sense of such a failure to meet expectations? We must understand that the problem that Jesus was solving was so much bigger than freedom from Roman oppressors. Jesus was solving the problem of sin and separation from the life-giving, life-blessing God of the universe. Jesus failed to neet the expectations of those who followed him, but I am so thankful he did.
Main Body
Christ's body was broken for us (Heb. 10:9-14)
On the night before Jesus died, he had set aside an extremely important time for his disciples. As part of his meal with his disciples, Jesus instituted what we now know as the Lord's supper. This institution was set up as a God ordained means of memorializing what Jesus was just about to do. I don't want to get too deep into the specific theology surrounding the Lord's supper but I do want us to take a moment to reflect on the Lord's supper.
In Matthew 26:26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” The body of Jesus was broken, killed on the cross. But let us now forget the significance of this event.
Let's turn to Hebrews 10:9-14,
9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. 14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. [2]
In verse 10 we have the phrase "we have been made holy." This phrase makes use of the Greek word ἡγιασμενοι which we might translate as sanctify. The writers of Hebrews here refers to positional sanctification. That is the means by which we are justified. That is, through the broken body of Jesus we each are made Holy.
The writer continues by contrasting the broken body of Christ with the offering that the priests used to make. These offerings were made continually, there was never a break but rather the priests were forced to continue each and every day making offerings to God in an attempt to atone for sin.
Today, the bread, which is a memorial of Christ's body which was broken for us reminds us that we do not need to daily offer for our sins. No, Christ once and for all gave himself that we might be made holy.
Christ's blood initiated a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-37)
Jesus continued in Matthew 26:27-28, Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Look with me at Jeremiah 31:31-37
31 “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. 33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
35 This is what the LORD says,
he who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the LORD Almighty is his name: 36 “Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,” declares the LORD, “will Israel ever cease being a nation before me.”
37 This is what the LORD says:
“Only if the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below be searched out will I reject all the descendants of Israel because of all they have done,” declares the LORD.
The prophet Jeremiah had prophesied that the days were coming in which God would institute a New Covenant, a covenant that would serve all people, not just Israel. Hebrews 8:13 tells us this made the old covenant obsolete. The New Covenant included the writing of God's law on our heart. The cup is a memorial of this New Covenant. No longer is there a disctinction between Jew and Gentile. No longer does the blessing of God flow from obedience to the Torah. No longer is the redemptive community of God an exclusive club. No, redemption under the New Covenant is bought with the blood of Christ on the cross.
