Of God

Mark 14:22-25
And while they were eating, He took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it, and gave it to them, and said, “Take it; this is My body.” And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And He said to them, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.

John 6:53
Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.”

In Jewish Talmudic thinking when a person died, their body and soul were separated. The soul was thought to dwell with the body until burial and so the body was not left alone until the burial was completed, usually within 72 hours. At the Last Supper, as He offered the bread and wine, Jesus could have referred to His upcoming death as the separation of His body and His soul.

“This bread is my body. This wine is my soul…” 

But that’s not what He said.

 
Instead, He referred to the separation of His body and blood.

The metaphors He chose suggested violent death, the separation of blood from body before death.

The imagery anticipated the death He ultimately suffered.

Certainly, Jesus hoped that His followers would see the connection between His death and the sacrifice of the Passover lamb. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians confirms this: “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7). But to His Jewish disciples, Jesus knew that other Temple sacrifices would also come to mind.

In keeping with the Torah, twice every day at around 9:0 AM and 3:00 PM an unblemished male lamb was sacrificed in the Temple and offered up along with an offering of flour and wine (Exodus 29:38-42, Numbers 28:1-8). This Tamid (“perpetual,” "continual") sacrifice was offered with prayers and benedictions that people knew by heart and would pray themselves at these times of day. They were prayers for redemption, forgiveness of sins, for the coming of the Messiah and for the resurrection of the dead.

With the twice daily Tamid sacrifice, there was an accompanying promise of God’s presence:
“I will consecrate the tent of the meeting and the altar… and I will dwell among the sons of Israel and be their God” (Exodus 29:44-46).

And there was a promise of His glory:
“It shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the doorway of the tent of meeting before Yahweh, where I will meet with you, to speak to you there. I will meet there with the sons of Israel, and it shall be set apart as holy by My glory” (Exodus 29:42,43).

Jesus' invitation to us to partake of His body and blood was also an invitation of participation into His life of sacrifice.

“The life of the flesh is in the blood” (Leviticus 17:11).

 
The blood of Christ marks the doorway of our lives, visible to all.
The sacrifice of His body and blood gives us life.

We become the “continual” Tamid offering in Him.

 
The promise remains. He consecrates us. He abides with us. He meets with us.
And by His presence in us, He is glorified.

“Do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19).