Eat My Flesh and Drink My Blood

Easter Sunrise Service (5)

It’s Good Friday.  So how and why did Jesus die?

No one could have laid hand on Jesus if He wanted to avoid it. Satan, the rightful Prince of the World, couldn’t do anything when he met Jesus in the wilderness. His townsfolk at Nazareth tried to push Him over the cliff but He escaped unharmed. When sought by those who came to arrest Him in Gethsemane, He simply said “I am” in surrendering Himself and all those men drew back and fell to the ground. He really could have avoided arrest if He wanted to. But He marched on to the cross.

Jesus was very popular with the common people, although much hated by the religious leaders because He never let up on their hypocrisy. The Jews wanted somebody to deliver them from the oppression of foreign power and they thought they have found their man in Jesus, the miracle worker. They sought to make Him a king of this world. However, Jesus repeatedly rejected their quest and insisted on going His own way. Many fell away.

Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:53-54, NKJV)

The above was likely to be the last straw. They must have thought that this Jesus has lost it altogether: what was He talking about eating His flesh and drinking His blood? He didn’t want to be a king, but He wanted to give them His flesh to eat and blood to drink? At the Last Supper, knowing He would soon be arrested, He raised the issue again:

... “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”...“This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” (1 Cor 11:24-25, NKJV)

Notice that there were always two elements: His body and His blood. The blood is for the forgiveness of our sins (Matt 26:28); the body was for the healing of our bodies (1 Peter 2:24). It’s that simple. The magnitude of Jesus’ work on the cross is so great no words can fully describe and explain, but the tangible benefits to us are found in the simplicity of the Last Supper. It basically has all our needs covered.  This is what He died to give us.

Good Friday is not a time to try to feel how Jesus felt in His suffering. It is a time to cash in on what He has paid for us. That is the best way to honour Him, don’t let His sacrifice be in vain.

So today eat His flesh and drink His blood.

Scripture link: BibleGateway.com