Power in the Blood

Passage: Matthew 26:17-30

In Leviticus God prohibits his people from eating and drinking any blood. God tells them,

Any Israelite or any alien living among them who eats any blood—I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from his people. For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar…

One of the reasons God prohibited his people from consuming the blood of their sacrifices had to do with the worship practices of many of their near neighbors. Proponents of the pagan religions that crowded in on the Israelites drank blood in the belief that the practice would increase their vitality and infuse them with the life of whatever creature had given up the blood. They believed, literally, that “the life of a creature is in the blood,” and that by drinking the blood they absorbed that life. God demands that, rather than drink the blood, his people pour out this perceived source of life as an offering to him. In turn they are to trust God to be their source of life and strength.

Given this history, it seems strange that Jesus should invite his disciples to “eat my flesh and drink my blood” in their first communion meal. Isn’t this an invitation to, at least symbolically, violate God’s specific rules about consuming blood?

As it turns out, Jesus is co-opting the pagan ritual. He’s saying, “I am your life. I am your strength. If you claim your place with me, you absorb my life. My life will be alive in you.”

The disciples could not have imagined the full implications of Jesus’ words, or the supper he was instituting. Even today we wrestle with the full implications of the Lord’s Supper. What does it mean to take the bread and wine, believing that these powerfully symbolize and seal the life God gives? To take Jesus’ body and blood is to take his eternal life into our frail and time-bound bodies? It is to believe that, infused with the life of Christ, we will not die, but have his life - eternal life.