5.22.26 – The Lord's Supper, Part 1

One of the weirdest verses in the entire New Testament cannot be understood unless we stop sounding like Yeshua is asking everyone to become cannibals:

"I tell you: unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life in yourselves. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood…"
(John 6:53–57)

That is weird, isn't it? People have wrestled with this and worried about it. It was strange then, and it is strange now. The disciples were certainly confused about it. But after the supper—after seeing Yeshua as the shelamim (peace offering) of the Passover, whose meal the people share as the tzaddik (righteous one) through whom God's life is given—John 6 looks different. It is the same logic that Yeshua gives at the Last Supper table, but He gave it in advance in John 6. Now it is being realized at the table. His people are participating in His life. They receive it. They abide in Him, and He abides in them. The point is union, communion, participation in the life of the Son. The Lamb gives life to the people, and the people receive life!

A few verses later, after John says, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29), he stands with two of his disciples. John walks by and says, "Behold the Lamb of God" (John 1:36). The majority of the world responds, "Yeah, so what?" Everybody knows Jesus is the Lamb of God. Everyone moves past that because it is so familiar; people do not stop to understand what John is really doing. Maybe they simply do not have the information. So I am going to give you that in this morning's study :-)

When John says "Lamb of God," he is taking us somewhere very specific: to the Exodus, to Passover, to the lamb, to the doorposts, to the blood, deliverance from death, freedom from slavery, and the birth of a redeemed people. That is where John is pointing. He invokes this repeatedly with Passover imagery—he keeps connecting Yeshua to Passover throughout this gospel. In John 6, the feeding of the 5,000 happens near Passover. In the same Passover setting, Yeshua says that strange thing about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. Later, when John tells the story of Yeshua's death, he gives us many Passover details that point to the cross: the timing, the imagery, the language. John wants you to see Yeshua as the Lamb.

So when we come to the final story—the Last Supper or the Lord's Supper—we should not be surprised that it occurs at Passover. Yeshua's most climactic moment on earth is not at Yom Kippur (which often seems to make the most sense), nor is it staged with the imagery of the Holy of Holies. It does not have the blood of the chattat (sin offering) being applied to a sanctuary. It is a table. It is staged at a table at Passover with bread and wine—a meal with remembrance and covenant language. That means we have to pay very close attention to the sacrificial grammar that Yeshua Himself gives us. Before we rush to later theological interpretations and categories that have been superimposed, let us start with His words at the table and a restatement from last week's study: Yeshua's death matters. Of course it matters. The question is, how does Yeshua teach us to understand that death at this table—the table of the Lamb of God? What imagery does He use? What story is He placing Himself within? What ritual practices is He drawing from, and why?

By this point in our Counting of the Omer studies (Day 48), I hope you know some things about the Passover lamb. It is not a sin offering. It is not a chattat. It is not a purification offering. (If you do not remember those truths, let me have you go back and read the previous studies. If you have no idea what I am talking about, go back and start at the very beginning.) The Passover lamb—the pesach—is also not the Yom Kippur goat. The Passover lamb is tied to deliverance, redemption, protection from death, remembrance, and the birth of Israel as a redeemed people. After the first Passover took place, the pesach became a memorial meal, eaten by people, accompanied by wine, celebrating the story of God's great deliverance. This is familiar to you, right? As we have learned, all of this belongs much more naturally with the well-being offering, the shelamim, than with the sin offering (chattat). The shelamim is a shared meal of communion, peace, fellowship, celebration, thanksgiving, and covenant bonding. It is a sacrifice, but the focus is not on death and payment for guilt. The focus is on a shared meal in the presence of God. And that matters because Yeshua is not taking these elements into the Holy of Holies—He takes the elements of the table.

Remember that Passover begins with the Exodus, but Sinai is the fulfillment of that—the completion. (You can use the word "fulfilling" as better.) Passover is the beginning of Israel's liberation. The lamb is slaughtered, the blood marks the houses, death passes over, and Israel leaves Egypt. But that is not the end of the story. The goal of the Exodus is not simply to escape slavery; the goal is covenant with God. The goal is to become God's people. The goal is His presence. That journey reaches its climax at Mount Sinai. In Exodus 24, Moses reads the words of the covenant to the people. The people answer, "All that the Lord has spoken, we will do and obey" (Ex. 24:3, 7). Then Moses takes the blood. Where does he apply it? To the people and the altar. And he says, "Behold the blood of the covenant which the LORD has cut with you" (Ex. 24:8).

Now we are talking about the Lord's Supper. That phrase should ring in your ears. When Yeshua takes the cup and says, "This is My blood of the covenant" (Matt. 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20), He is not reaching for anything related to Yom Kippur, sin sacrifice, or death. He is reaching for Exodus 24. Passover begins the deliverance. Sinai seals the covenant. The lamb begins the journey; the blood of the covenant binds God's people. Yeshua is placing His death inside that story of covenant inauguration. Are you with me? At the Lord's Supper, He brings these together.

It is tempting to hear "blood of the covenant" or "new covenant in My blood" and immediately think of atoning sacrifice, but the phrase from Exodus 24 is covenant inauguration language. Yeshua is not saying, "My death is a sin offering like a chattat." He is saying something much deeper, broader, and more covenantal: "My death will be the event through which God brings the promised deliverance. My death will be the event through which God brings forgiveness, cleansing, Spirit, and the renewal that the prophets promised you. And this meal will become the way My people remember those things, participate in those things, and renew their covenant identity in Me."

A question is certainly on people's minds. In Matthew's account, he adds the phrase "for the forgiveness of sins": "This is My blood of the covenant for the forgiveness of sins." Does that not prove that this is the sacrifice? I will let you think about that. See you tomorrow.

Happy Preparation Day!

Shalom,
Alan