Blood (5) Lord's Supper and Covenant Renewal

Many of the references to blood in the New Testament refer to the Lord's Supper. When Jesus celebrated his Last Supper with his disciples, he referred to his blood. Mark, Matthew and Hebrews describe the wine that Jesus shared as the "blood of the covenant".

This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many (Mark 14:24, Mat 26:28).

This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep (Hebrews 9:20).

Luke and Paul referred to the "new covenant in my blood".

In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you" (Luke 22:20).

In the same way, after supper, he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me" (1 Cor 11:25).

In the book of Hebrews, it is described as the "blood of the eternal covenant".

Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus (Heb 13:20).

The relationship between blood and the new covenant is explained in Hebrews.

This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. When Moses had proclaimed every command of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people (Heb 9:18).

In Old Testament times, a covenant was established by an action involving blood, usually the blood of an animal. When God established his covenant with the children of Israel, Moses sprinkled the blood of a calf on the document recording the covenant and on the people themselves. Allowing themselves to be sprinkled with blood, the people committed to obey the law that God had announced to them (Ex 24:6-8, Deut 29:25).

Jesus established a new covenant by dying on the cross, but his blood was not sprinkled on his followers. Instead, before he died, he established a shared meal for his followers in which a cup of wine would be shared, representing the blood he shared on the cross. The "blood of the covenant" that we drink together is the equivalent of the blood that was sprinkled to establish the old covenant. The new covenant had a better symbolism to mark its fulfilment.

The cup shared at the Lord's Supper is a "cup of thanksgiving".

Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ (1 Cor 10:16).

The cup is filled with wine. There is no blood in the cup. Thanksgiving looks back to something that has happened in the past. The benefits gained by the shedding of Jesus blood were achieved when he died. He does not repeat the suffering in the present. Rather, he encourages us to look back on what he did for us with thanksgiving.

The other important word in this verse is "participation". When we drink from the cup of wine during the Lord's supper, we are declaring our participation in what Jesus achieved on our behalf. We died with Jesus so we will can live with him. This was confirmed in John 6:53-58.

Confusion

The danger in tending to worshipping "the blood" or turning it into something magical is that it minimises what Jesus did. We were rescued by Jesus. His blood did not rescue us. Jesus' blood did not feel any pain when he was beaten by the Romans and hung on the cross. The pain of his beating and death was registered in his mind. He paid the price by experiencing this pain. His blood did not feel it. Jesus felt it. Jesus is the one we should worship. His Holy Spirit is the one who can empower us.