Communion-Series 1
WHY SHOULD I PARTAKE IN THE FLESH AND BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST?
Drinking of Blood prohibited in the Old Testament:
When God first gave man meat to eat, He undeniably prohibited man to eat blood, saying that the blood has life in it (Genesis 9:3, 4). In Deuteronomy 12:23, the Bible says, “But be sure you do not eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat.”
Eating of Certain Animals Prohibited in the Old Testament:
A list of clean and unclean animals are given in the Old Testament, and the Bible strictly prohibits eating of unclean animals (Leviticus 11).
Amendments in the New Testament:
In Acts 10:11-16, Peter is given a vision wherein he sees all kinds of four-footed animals, reptiles and birds coming down in a sheet, and he heard a voice saying, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat.” When Peter refused saying that he hadn’t eaten any animal or bird that was impure or unclean, he heard the voice thrice saying, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
Though the message here is for Peter to take the message of the Cross to the gentiles, we cannot deliberately refuse to take in the literal, unexaggerated sense of it, that the law of Moses pertaining to the eating of unclean animals is done away here and gives men the consent to eat any animal.
Peter confirms this again in an argument with the priest and Pharisees in Acts 15:28, 29, saying that we must abstain from i) food sacrificed to idols, ii) blood and iii) animals strangled to death. There’s nothing else to hold back with regard to food. And Peter emphasizes it saying, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following (above) requirements.”
So we come to a conclusion that the New Testament also clearly prohibits the eating of blood but not any animal.
Why then the Blood and Flesh of Jesus Christ?
In Matthew 26:26-29, we see that when Jesus Christ was communing with His disciples, He took the bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to His disciples saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took the cup of the fruit of the vine (Matthew 26:29), gave thanks and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” So He didn’t ask them to eat the real flesh or drink the real blood, but the bread and fruit vine symbolizing His body and blood.
In John 6:51-59, He says that His flesh is ‘THE LIFE OF THE WORLD’ (John 6:51), and unless we eat His flesh and drink His blood, ‘WE HAVE NO LIFE IN US’ (John 6:53), that is we are considered as dead. But whoever eats His flesh and drinks His blood has ‘ETERNAL LIFE’(John 6:54), that is life here on earth and even after our body dies.
All of us who received Jesus Christ and believed in His name, we are given the right to become the children of God, that is we are ‘BORN AGAIN’. When we are born again into Christ as new babes, we need to know that we aren’t born of blood or flesh nor of the will of man (John 1:12, 13). So once we are born again, in our spirit we are free from any bonding of our parents or any of human blood relationships. As a result there should be no natural succession of the nature of our parents like short-temper or any other acts of the flesh mentioned in Galatians 5:19-21. To add to our credit, we can also claim that there should be no natural succession of sicknesses like diabetes, hyper-tension, cancer, etc. (note: This does not mean that you should not have natural affection and care for your loved ones, except which there is no compulsive progression of the fleshy deeds or nature). And because we partake in the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, His nature like love, humility of heart, meekness, etc. are ours and His strength and health are ours too. As said in Colossians 3:4, Christ is our LIFE. Let’s live real vibrant lives on earth by partaking in the flesh and blood of JESUS CHRIST!
