Drinking Blood!!

Jul 10, 2024

This is the fifth post from Chapter 4 of Friends With God: Living The Life Of Jesus In Us.

In the previous post we examined the idea of animal sacrifices, what they meant and what God expects of us today in being a living sacrifice.

Pour Out The Blood…

In ancient days people from many pagan nations would drink the blood of an animal, or even of an enemy, in the belief that they would be taking on some of their life and strength and characteristics. Yet, the Law of the Old Testament strictly forbade the drinking of any blood:

No soul of you shall eat blood…he shall even pour out its blood and cover it with dust. For it is the life of all flesh. Its blood is the life of it. …You shall not eat the blood of any flesh. For the life of all flesh is in its blood. (Lev 17:12-14)

This prohibition was a clear distinction between Israel and all other nations. Yet it also provided some validity for the pagan belief that the characteristics of the animal were in the blood, as the reason for not eating blood is that: For the life of all flesh is in its blood.

In contrast, Christ, our living sacrifice, tells us that if we don’t drink his blood and eat his flesh, we will have no eternal life in us. (John 6:53) As discussed in the second post, it is Christ’s blood, which is symbolic of the New Covenant, that gives us eternal life:

He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life; . (John 6:54)

Unlike an animal, whose life is physical and mortal, Christ’s life is spiritual and immortal. This is the life we need to ingest so that we too can become spiritual and immortal.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (John 3:6)

However, God does not want us focussing on the physical aspects of life, but on the spiritual purpose of life.

The law to not drink animal blood was therefore instituted not for health reasons, but for the specific spiritual reason- that Jesus was to come as the only pure Passover Lamb that we are to consume, in order to deliver us from sin and grant us the gift of eternal life.

The Passover Lamb

The Passover lamb was an imperfect representation of the sacrifice of Christ. While it was to be without blemish, it obviously could never be an example that we would be able to follow. The lamb was merely symbolic of purity, innocence, obedience and trust, but its blood had no eternal life in it.

Whereas, Jesus in the flesh was a living example of how we should conduct our lives, in order for us to be granted eternal life. As such, his body is required to be eaten, and his blood is required to be drunk. (Matt 26:26-28)

For to eat his flesh represents following Christ, and to drink his blood represents accepting his covenant to eternal life. In symbolically doing this with the bread and wine, we agree to also be living sacrifices, in a blood covenant with Jesus and God the Father. (Rom 12:1-2)

When Jesus instituted the bread and the wine to represent his body and blood, it was a new metaphor added to the Passover meal, for those in the New Covenant. While bread and wine were generally part of all meals, including the Passover, he now also provided spiritual significance to these common foods.

So, Jesus did not actually add anything to the meal, but he gave greater significance to the entire meal. While Jesus is identified as the Passover lamb, his body and blood are identified as the bread and the wine, thus giving greater importance to everything eaten at Passover.

The Passover meal is therefore not negated but enhanced by the bread and wine, and these symbols should not be eaten as a religious act out of the context of this most important festival.

With desire I have desired…

Jesus told his disciples, With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. (Luke 22:15) When Jesus repeated the same word “desire I have desired”, he was using a Hebrew figure of speech (called a polyptoton) which emphasises that what is being said is extremely important.

Why would he emphasise his desire to eat this particular Passover with the Apostles? Not just because it would have been his last meal with them as a human being, but because to have the Passover with these men was very unusual. The Passover was always to be a family occasion. (Exo 12:3-4)

So, why didn’t the disciples, and Jesus himself, keep this Passover with their own families as per the commandment? Because this specific Passover was a unique event. It was a covenant meal, in which the New Covenant was established. That is why he said With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.

It was at this Passover that the Apostles were to partake of the perfect lamb of God, by symbolically drinking his blood and eating his flesh in instituting the New Covenant. This was the covenant meal, and Jesus himself was the sacrifice.

The Apostles were to have this covenant meal with God himself, in their physical presence, as a physical human. While it was similar to the covenant meal God had with the 70 Israelite elders, mentioned in Exodus, that meal, however, was not at the Passover. (Exo 24:9-11)

Rejoicing As The Family Of God

By instigating this New Covenant ceremony of the bread and wine at the Passover with the Apostles, Jesus was demonstrating the purpose of the Passover sacrifice.

As stated, this particular Passover meal was unusual because the Apostles were not with their families. When we eat a great physical feast, like at a wedding, or to celebrate a birth, we do so with family and friends. Such important social and cultural events, bond our families together with food and great rejoicing as part of the occasions.

This food we consume then becomes a part of us, as we share it with our loved ones. It helps us to develop strong social bonds, building up and strengthening our family relationships as well as providing nourishment, both of which add life and enjoyment to maintain our physical lives and relationships.

When we partake of the living bread of the body of Christ, he comes into us and, in the process, he gives us the capacity to maintain a life that is eternally familial with him and God the Father. We are then one with him and God the Father.

By Jesus instituting the New Covenant at the Passover with the Apostles he was demonstrating that they were in His Family- the Family of God. They therefore had a relationship with God that is not physical but spiritual.

This relationship with Jesus and the Father is not limited to this life, but is totally unlimited because it is the relationship of sonship with the eternal creator who gave us physical life, and who will give us eternal life. What they were eating at the Passover was a spiritual meal to give them eternal life.

We therefore have, in keeping the Passover every year, a very profound analogy between the physical, mortal relationships we have with our families, and the spiritual, eternal relationship we have with God.

The great social and cultural event of Passover and Unleavened Bread, has such rich depth and meaning provided to us in the scriptures. Can you see how contemptible it is to replace Passover with the pagan festival of Easter, and its foolish rabbits that lay chocolate eggs!?

God’s Festivals in ancient Israel provided great meaning and depth, way beyond what most of those eating it could have understood. But they did appreciate that eating the animal sacrifices at the Festivals in Israel was a very positive and enjoyable time of great abundance, combined with rejoicing in a strong and loving family and social setting. God’s festivals serve to foster love, loyalty and caring in the nation and enable you to demonstrate your love and appreciation of your Creator.

These festivals were to be reflective of the joy-filled familial relationship that Israel, out of all the people on Earth, had with God their Abba Father. (Rom 8:15-17) Similarly, God wants us to partake of the living lamb of God, and have a joy-filled life, both now and in the future, with Jesus our brother and God our Father.

Do this in remembrance of me.

We have been called out of this world to be a light to the world, to partake of the blood and body of Christ, in order to proclaim the gift of eternal life that God is willing to give to all people:

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand,
and it gives light to all in the house.
In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matt 5:14-16)

And it’s for this joy of eternal life with God, as Sons of God and Friends with God, that we endure the trials of this life. We overcome sin, repent and grow in understanding of God.

Jesus being a living sacrifice is what the Passover sacrifice pointed to, and it’s the historical context in which the New Covenant was established, and it’s also the context in which the New Covenant should continue to be remembered. As Jesus said Do this in remembrance of me. (Luke 22:19-20)

Jesus did not pay any penalty for our sin when he died at Passover, instead he instituted the bread and wine to symbolise the living sacrifice of his life and death, which we are to partake of in order to gain eternal life.

We rejoice before God at his festivals, knowing that the living sacrifice of our lives is the necessary, and only, “price we must pay” for the joy of eternal life that is also set before us.

Yet it could never be called “a price we must pay”, as being a living sacrifice is the way that produces in our life Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Gentleness, Goodness and Self-Control.

We should obviously therefore welcome God’s way of life with open arms!!

… You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. (Mat 22:37)

Christ’s example of being the living Passover sacrifice set the standard that we should follow in how to live this way of life that is a joy forever more!