Communion Connection 03/04/22
God’s Body… God’s Blood…
John 6
35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty… 51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world… 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.
The topic of blood is never really a pleasant one. We all know someone or have experienced ourselves the phenomenon that just the thought of blood can make people woozy or nauseous. In fact, the visualisation of blood is such an inescapably serious thing… that movie ratings or newsroom images need to be censored or carry classification warnings in our modern world depending on how much blood is depicted.
The sight of blood appropriately garners serious human reaction, because depending on the nature of the injury or physical condition that caused the bleeding… bystanders instinctively know that the presence of blood is a serious and sober matter, requiring our urgent attention. Because without blood we cannot live. Or as the Bible says, “Life is in the blood.” (Lev 17:11)
Given these realities… it’s interesting that Jesus would use such a highly evocative word picture to describe what He had come to do. His life would be poured out to bring us life. His body was broken to become our bread. His sacrifice was intended to sustain us.
We are what we eat… or so the saying goes. And how much moreso is that the case when it comes to the very life and person of Christ: God’s own body and God’s blood being offered to fuel and feed us with the divine life of God?
In a sense… some 1600 years before human history would catch up with this medical practice – God Himself offered humanity a Holy Blood Transfusion… where the fullness of who He is, the essence of His life and vitality can enter our spiritual bloodstream resulting in His life becoming ours…
How does it make you feel to imagine God’s life and love being offered up for you in this way?
Matthew 26:26-30 (TPT)
The Lord’s Supper
26 As they ate, Jesus took the bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to his disciples. He said to them, “This is my body. Eat it.” 27 Then taking the cup of wine, he gave thanks to the Father, he entered into covenant with them, saying, “This is my blood. Each of you must drink it in fulfillment of the covenant. 28 For this is the blood that seals the new covenant. It will be poured out for many for the complete forgiveness of sins.
On the night preceding Jesus crucifixion and sacrifice… His body and blood teaching re- emerged with a beautiful symbolic depiction of the price that our Loving Saviour was about to make for us. God our great blood donor, gave His body and blood to enter into a new covenant with us. A covenant of forgiveness, spiritual life and oneness with Father God.
God’s body. God’s blood. Was about to be given to make us ‘at-one’ with the Father. That’s what atonement means. At-one-ment. A word describing the moment that a Holy God is perfectly reconciled with fallen humanity through the blood of a sacrifice. To atone. To make ‘at-one’ means that any and all alienation and hostility have been overcome. Any charge of sin and offense are “wiped out” “erased” “forgiven” “pardoned” “purged” and “paid in full” resulting in our 100% reconciliation with God. Any good Bible Dictionary will include these kinds of descriptors to further flesh out what atonement means… and the supernatural affect that Jesus’ body and blood has upon our lives.
As recipients of Christ’s new and better covenant our self-perception should radically change, as should our sense of divine confidence… after all, we are no longer separate, ostracised, isolated, or alone.
No, we are ‘at-one’ with our Perfect Loving Father.
How does it make you feel to know that the body and blood of Jesus have made you AT ONE with Father God?
What is your heartfelt response to this incredible work Jesus has done? Pray together as a group and begin to receive the communion elements.
Hebrews 9
1 Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary. 2 A tabernacle was set up. In its first room were the lampstand and the table with its consecrated bread; this was called the Holy Place… 6 When everything had been arranged like this, the priests entered regularly into the outer room to carry on their ministry. 7 But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himselfand for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. 8 The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed…
11 But when Christ came as high priest….12 He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves;but he entered the Most Holy Place(of Heaven) once for allby his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. 13 The blood of goats and bulls… sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. 14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spiritoffered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
The Old Testament is an undeniably bloody book… particularly within Leviticus (described the law around priestly sacrificial ministry) you don’t have read for very long before you are confronted with many examples of blood sacrifice being necessary to deal with sin.
Blood was not beautiful in the Old Testament… rather it was a serious symbol necessary to paint the picture of the awfulness of sin. The sober image of blood was required to counteract the equally sober topic of sin. Because the “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23) and in Hebrew thought life and blood were closely connected…
But, as the Book of Hebrews makes clear, all of these images and ceremonies were an extensive and necessary setup for the greatest sacrifice of all. Jesus Christ, our once and for all spotless Lamb, who’s blood (unlike the blood of goats and bulls), have permanent sin-cancelling affect upon our lives:
Ephesians 1:7-8 (NIV)
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins…
1 John 1:7b (NIV)
… the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
Hebrews 10
19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain… 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
In the end, God has turned this serious, sober, confronting, and controversial topic of His Body and His Blood into something life-giving, selfless, cleansing… even beautiful – all to make a way for us to live ‘at one’ with our Father!
In light of this truth, and in light of these scriptures (particularly Hebrews 10:19-25) how should our hearts respond? How should we now live? How should the spiritual transfusion that we have received of the life of God’s Body and Blood affect our outlook, conduct and faith?