How to Save a Life - Part 3
“‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’”
~John 6:51
“For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
~1 Corinthians 11:26
Read: Luke 22; John 6; 1 Corinthians 11:17-26
In this trifecta of posts regarding the Bread of Life, we need yet one more piece to bring us full circle. We began by witnessing God providing physical life for the Israelites while in the wilderness. We continued by observing Jesus introducing spiritual life for the Jews by feeding the 5,000 with five loaves of bread and two fish. Now, we end by remembering Jesus’ commands on the final night of His human life on Earth.
“When the hour came, he reclined at the table, and the apostles with him. Then he said to them, ‘I have fervently desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.’ Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he said, ‘Take this and share it among yourselves. For I tell you, from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.’
And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’
In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.’” (Luke 22:14-20)
This moment in time is now known as the Last Supper, and the moment when communion (or Eucharist) was instituted. This was also the Passover meal, itself a memorial for how God redeemed Israel from Egypt. In Exodus, Moses tells us of the reason for Passover: “‘When your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ you are to reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when he struck the Egyptians and spared our homes’” (12:26-27a). This was a time of remembering the hand of God working in the lives of His people.
Symbolism runs rampant throughout the entire Last Supper narrative. As a means of remembering God’s deliverance from Egypt, the Passover meal already held a great deal of significance and symbolism. Jesus layers on new meaning that still impacts us today. At Passover, the Jews would sacrifice a perfect male lamb as an atonement sacrifice. Hebrews tells us why: “According to the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Heb 9:22). At the very first Passover, the blood of the lambs was spread over the doorposts and lintels of the doorways. The blood protected the families within those homes. It was all that saved the Israelites. Moses also recorded these words, “‘I am the LORD… The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a distinguishing mark for you…” (Exo 12:12a, 13). The later Passover feasts still included the blood of lambs as a reminder that they were only saved from God’s wrath through the blood of another, never by their own works.
At this final Passover meal, Jesus uses the memorial of God’s deliverance to institute the new covenant that would be established through His sacrifice. Jesus became the ultimate Passover lamb whose blood would deliver not only the Jews, but all who would believe in Him, from their sins. The blood of Christ is our distinguishing mark that protects us from God’s wrath and promises us life forever with Him. We no longer need the yearly atoning sacrifices because Jesus paid the price once for all time. Hebrews tells us, “Now where there is forgiveness of [sins], there is no longer an offering for sin” (10:18). We no longer need the sacrifice, but we do need the memorial.
When Paul writes to the Corinthians, he talks about the importance of observing the Lord’s Supper (Communion), and the one phrase that gets repeated is “do this in remembrance of me [Jesus]” (1 Cor 11:24, 25). We are a people prone to forgetting, and God knows this. When He instituted Passover with the Israelites, He made it a permanent statute. He expected the people to repeatedly observe Passover, so that they would always remember that it is the Lord who saves. Today, Communion is our bloodless reminder that replaces the bloody Passover memorials.
There is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood. There is no life without the blood of Christ. In Luke 22, Christ breaks the bread and calls it His body that would be broken for us. Christ takes the cup of wine and says it is His blood that would be poured out for us. This makes us recall John 6 where Jesus told the people:
“‘Truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day, because my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.” (John 6:53-56)
True life is found only in Jesus. No, we do not literally eat His body or drink His blood, but when we make the choice to believe Him and accept for ourselves the sacrifice of His body and blood that cleanses us of our sins, then we figuratively eat and drink of Him. We ingest a spiritual reality that grants us true, everlasting life. Thus, when we partake of Communion, we use the physical reality of bread and wine (or grape juice) to remind us of the true Bread that gives us life.
