‘For This is My Blood’

‘For This is My Blood’

For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

Matthew 26:28

When we come to the Communion Feast, we return to a pivotal moment in history.  Christ Himself instituted the Feast in a holy moment when He was preparing His disciples for His crucifixion.  He took two simple elements, the bread and the wine, and elevated them before the disciples to symbolize His broken Body and His shed Blood.  For the next little while, we want to dwell upon the words of our text in terms of the thankfulness we experience as the result of Christ’s work and the way in which these symbols present that work to us, most specifically the wine, as the emblem of His Blood.  Christ says, ‘This is my blood of the new covenant.’  The old covenant, symbolized by the Passover feast, with which the disciples were familiar, involved the shedding of the blood of the lamb.  The blood as it appeared on the posts and lintel of their houses in ancient Egypt had meant the difference between life and death for the household.  Now Christ refers to His Own blood as being that which would make the difference between eternal life and eternal death.  The Blood of Christ is indispensable.  His sacrifice is crucial to our redemption.  Therefore we come to the Lord’s Table in a spirit of thankfulness for His Blood ‘of the new covenant.’

Our Gracious God and Our Savior,
we praise You for Your Sacrifice on our behalf.
We rejoice that in Your Goodness,
You have poured our Your soul unto death,
that we may live, and that for all eternity.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning