Thoughts for the Day

This is my blood of the covenant                   Matthew 26:28

Four cups of wine are drunk as part of the Seder, the Passover meal, representing four ‘I will’ statements from God ahead of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt: I will bring you out, I will deliver you, I will redeem you and I will take you as my people.  Which cup Jesus was holding when he made today’s statement is not indicated by Matthew or Mark, but Luke refers to Jesus taking the cup after supper, which suggests to me at least that it would have been the last one … assuming, of course, it was one of these and not an extra one.  Whichever it was, I wonder how the disciples reacted to hearing these words as he lifted it, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”  It must have sounded quite shocking!

Covenants in the Old Testament established great promises of God, beginning, in terms of the Israel’s history, with promises to Abraham, then through Moses, on to David and finally to Jeremiah.  The promise to Jeremiah was of a future covenant by which God would ‘forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more’.  Did the disciples realise that Jesus was announcing the arrival of this covenant through the pouring out of his blood?

Jesus’ reference to his blood being poured out was more than a metaphor for his imminent death on the Cross.  Every animal sacrifice in the Levitical system involved the pouring out of its blood, often alongside the altar, never to be consumed because it represented the life of the animal, the essence of the principle of a life given in place of a life to atone for sin or guilt.  It was a powerful image both of what was about to happen physically and of the spiritual reality that it would accomplish.