The Body and the Blood

The meditation today comes from the Old Testament, Leviticus 4: 15-21. All quotations are from the New Living Translation and are used with permission.

My hope is that you will benefit personally from this time with Jesus and encourage others to observe the Lord's Supper. In these trying times, we need to keep our eyes on Jesus!

Transcript

Welcome to Eat This Bread Drink This Cup. The title of my communion meditation today is "The Body and the Blood." I read from Leviticus 4: 15-21. All quotations are from the New Living Translation and are used with permission.

15 And the elders of the congregation shall lay their hands on the head of the bull before the Lord, and the bull shall be killed before the Lord. 16 Then the anointed priest shall bring some of the blood of the bull into the tent of meeting, 17 and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it seven times before the Lord in front of the veil. 18 And he shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar that is in the tent of meeting before the Lord, and the rest of the blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 19 And all its fat he shall take from it and burn on the altar. 20 Thus shall he do with the bull. As he did with the bull of the sin offering, so shall he do with this. And the priest shall make atonement for them, and they shall be forgiven. 21 And he shall carry the bull outside the camp and burn it up as he burned the first bull; it is the sin offering for the assembly.

As Moses listens carefully to God's spoken words, I suspect he is unaware that one of the burnt offerings for the people of Israel foreshadows an offering that will take place in heaven one day for all humankind. If the high priest or the entire community of Israel sinned, then a bull was required for the sin offering. This offering had two requirements that are unique among all other burnt offerings. First, the high priest would bring the blood of the bull into the tent of meeting and sprinkle it seven times before the veil of the sanctuary, put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of incense, and pour out the rest at the base of the altar of burnt offering. The author of Hebrews tells us (Hebrews 9: 11-13), "So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever." When Jesus died on the cross, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom (Matthew 27: 51). This physical manifestation of the torn veil represents that our high priest did not stop in front of the veil to sprinkle blood but went through the veil into the very presence of God with his own blood to secure our forgiveness. Second, all burnt offerings were burned on the altar of God except the body of the bull of the sin offering; it was burned outside the camp. The author of Hebrews (Hebrews 13: 12) shows us this parallel with Jesus' crucifixion, "So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood." The author of Hebrews explains to Hebrew Christians and to us that the body and blood of the bull for the sin offering was a foreshadow of Jesus' death on the cross and His blood that He poured out for us. As the Law was fulfilled in Jesus, He gives us new physical symbols to help us remember what He did for us on the cross. Jesus blesses the bread and the wine and asks to meet together to partake to remember His death on the cross, His body and blood that He sacrificed for us. Let us pray.

Abba, Father. Today we bless and set aside this bread and the fruit of the vine in this cup to remember Your Son, Jesus. We know that the bread represents His body that was nailed to the cross, and the fruit of the vine represents His blood that He shed for us. As we pour out the wine from the cup, we are reminded of how Jesus poured out His own blood that our sins might be forgiven. Thank-you, Abba, Father, for helping us to understand both the seriousness of our sin and the depth of Your love. Thank-you, Abba, Father, for offering the life of Your very own Son as a sin offering for us. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Today, Jesus invites you to partake of His supper. I read from Matthew 26: 26-28 (NLT).

26 As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take this and eat it, for this is my body.” Let us partake of the bread.

27 And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them and said, “Each of you drink from it, 28 for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many." Let us partake of the cup.

And the assembly of believers said, "Amen!"

Until next time, from Numbers 6: 24-26, "May the LORD bless you and protect you. May the LORD smile on you and be gracious to you. May the LORD show you his favor and give you his peace."

Artist's Note: If you have questions about the Lord's Supper, I invite you to visit my website, https://eatthisbreaddrinkthiscup.com, for a brief overview. The Eat This Bread Drink This Cup podcast is listed in most podcast directories, and I invite you to add my podcast to your favorites and be notified of new posts. There is a written transcript that accompanies each podcast, and you are free to use the transcript in accordance with US copyright law. My prayer is that you will benefit personally from this time with Jesus and encourage others to observe the Lord's Supper. In these trying times, we need to keep our eyes on Jesus!