The Body and the Blood
October 30, 2006
Dear Friends
Perhaps one of the most controversial questions you can ask anyone related to Christianity is “why did Jesus die?†While I would not begin to suggest that I have all of the answers to this multifaceted and fascinating topic, we can surely all agree that there is no other incident that is so central to Christian hope. It behooves each one of us to dig deeply into the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
While there are many answers with varying degrees of plausibility of why Christ died, it seems to me that the symbols of Christ death – the bread and the wine — are the pointers to what God wants us to primarily glean from the event. Jesus said “Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.†(1 Cor. 11:24-25) It seems to me that if we can really understand the symbols that he gave us to remember him, we have a real shot at getting to the heart of what the reality meant too. This is not to suggest that there are not other types, shadows, symbols and references within the Bible, but this would be the key thought to which all other thoughts should agree and have compatibility.
Before we look at the symbols, let’s debunk a popular misconception that originated with the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church (and subsequently many others) has made a huge deal over the literal body and blood of Jesus. It is as if the red and white blood cells of Jesus redeemed us from our sin. This theory has taken many bizarre shifts through history including many vials and rags supposedly holding the blood of Jesus. It also took a strange turn with the theory of Transubstantiation which holds that when the person drinks the Communion wine, it literally transforms into the blood of Jesus. We do not believe that the literal body and blood achieved anything for us. They were the natural representation of a spiritual reality; but it was without a doubt the spiritual reality that saved us from our sins, not the natural. We have yet to share with you what we think that spiritual reality is, but rest assured there must be a spiritual reality, for no man (including Christ himself) can be saved by the flesh.
Let us turn our attention to the easier of the two symbols first, the wine. This one is fairly easy because the Scripture tells us plainly that the wine represents his blood and also tells us that blood represents life. This connection is made over and over in Scripture. “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.†(Le 17:11) The only real difficulty lies in choosing what aspect of “life†that the wine represents. It is the fact that Jesus was a living being that is represented? Did Jesus want us to remember each week that he was alive or more precisely alive, dead and alive again? Probably not. Again, this is a natural rather than a spiritual quality. More likely, however, is that Jesus wanted us to remember HOW he lived his life or the quality of his life. He was sinless. He glorified his Father. The spiritual attributes seem much more important than any physical aspect of Jesus’ blood or the fact that he was a living being.
Jesus sacrificed his life. When I say that, I don’t mean that he died on the cross (which, of course, is true). What I mean is that he sacrificed his ENTIRE life. His sacrifice did not occur only on one day near Passover nearly 2000 years ago. Jesus’ whole life was sacrificed from the moment he was born until the day that he died. He gave up worldly power, money, companionship, good food, a nice house and so on for the sake of glorifying his Father and showing us the way to righteous living. If we focus simply on the one day that he was crucified, we are missing the point. His sacrifice was 33 years long.
We will pick up here, Lord willing, next week!
Have a great week,
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