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Mark 14:22-26
Jesus made a very controversial statement in John 6:35 (NKJV) as He declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” He goes on in John 6:53-58, “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. For My flesh is food indeed, and My Blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven – not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.” Because of this statement, many people turned away from following Jesus (John 6:66), but it was because they did not understand His words; they took them literally as to eat His physical body and to drink His physical blood. Jesus declared in John 6:63-64, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” In John 4:23-24 at the beginning of Jesus’ earthly, physical ministry He declared to the woman at the well, “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” This leads us to the words of Jesus in Mark 14:22-26, “22And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”
23Then He took the cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. 24And He said to them, “This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many. 25Assuredly, I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
26And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
This is the true meaning of the Passover, not to physically eat but to spiritually eat of Jesus – of His body and of His blood that He gave for us so that we may spiritually live.
The Passover as God explains through Moses in Exodus 12:12-13 is spiritual. The ordinance of the Passover in that “No foreigner shall eat it.”, as noted in Exodus 12:43 is further explained in Exodus 12:48-49 as the “native-born” and the “stranger” shall have one law for both. This does not mean that the stranger/foreigner has a physical change and becomes an Israelite, but that the native-born and the foreigner both “believe” in God and make the choice to follow Him. The spiritual aspect of salvation is found in God’s commandments before the “Law” was ever given in Exodus 20. God is Spirit, and He is seeking such to worship Him in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24). To eat of the bread and to drink of the wine is a symbolism of taking the gift of life that Jesus provides for us into our lives – into our innermost parts – into our souls through His Holy Spirit who He sends to live within all who believe in Him (John 14:15-18, 23, 26).
Dear LORD,
Please help us to realize and understand that to eat the bread and to drink the wine is not a simple tradition to follow but a real spiritual acceptance of the body and the blood of Jesus coming into our lives and into our souls in remembrance of what Your One and only Son has done for us on the cross and of the salvation that we have spiritually through Him. In Jesus name I pray, amen.