Info and ideas from: “In the Likeness of God” by Philip Yancey and Dr. Paul Brand.
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| The Last Supper (artist unknown) |
No other New Testament image i.e. the ‘shepherd’, the ‘bride’ etc.) expresses the concept of ‘Christ in you’ so well as blood does.
In the book, the author points out that Christ did not ‘convey himself genetically’…if He had, over the generations there would be only faint evidence of His bloodline. Instead, He chose to convey himself personally and nutritionally, offering each one of us the power of His own resurrected life...through the Spirit.
The following words that we hear regularly would have scandalised His followers at the time...
(They “began to argue sharply among themselves”. “Grumble about him.” “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” (John 6:60))
Imagine hearing these words today without understanding Jesus as we do - we'd likely be equally confused!:
“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father has sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.” (John 6:54-57)
Jesus is real food and drink.
What do you associate with the word ‘blood’? When most of us think of blood, we think of death…but blood is what gives us life. The author uses the concept of blood transfusion as a summary image of the Christian symbol. It's the purest example of shared life. Every cell in the body, and Body, is linked, unified and bathed in the life-giving nutrients of a common source…blood. Infusion of blood is also cleansing in that it washes away toxins (and sins).
Jesus chose this perplexing idea of drinking his blood before blood transfusion was known.
Christians have struggled with this theology – who can describe the process by which Christ’s body and blood become a part of my own? It is a mystery.
Whether it's known as 'Communion' or 'The Lord’s Supper' or 'The Eucharist'…it is not some dated religious practice but an image of freshness and life. We can celebrate the sensation of coming to life through the symbol of the Christ’s blood being transfused into us. The author writes, “We receive an infusion of strength and energy by availing ourselves of Christ’s own reserves.”
The meaning of Communion seems to fit with us better than the actual ceremony. Why have the ritual? As one British Theologian said, “Sex is to marriage, what sacraments are to Christianity – the physical expression of spiritual reality”. Jesus said “Do this in remembrance of me.”
Oil, water, bread, wine – these are known as the 'sacraments' or 'ordinances'. Augustine of Hippo defined a Christian sacrament as "a visible sign of an invisible reality." The Anglican Book of Common Prayer speaks of them as "an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible Grace."
Under the old covenant, worshippers brought the sacrifice…they were the ones who gave. Under the new covenant, we receive – by grace – tokens of the finished work of the risen Christ. “My body, which was broken for you, My blood, which was shed for you”. In those sentences, Jesus cuts across time to the here and now.
So, the act of Communion sums up all three tenses…the life that was and died for us, the life that is and lives in us…and the life that will be and will come for us….Christ is life itself…not just a mere example of living. It also reminds us that Christ is not dead and removed from us but alive and present in all of us.
Whatever the past week has held for us, whatever stresses, strains, doubts, aches and pains, as well as joys, we are beckoned by Jesus to his table to celebrate life….through His forgiveness, healing and above all…love.
:o)
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