Body and blood

I've been thinking for a couple of years about Jesus's statement in John to the people gathered around listening to him teach: "Very truly I tell 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 them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them" (TNIV).

This morning, I taught a Sunday school class where we talked about the so-called Jerusalem council in Acts. Gentiles were wondering whether they needed to be circumcised to be part of the assembly of the Messiah. The leaders in Jerusalem kindly wrote back saying they didn't need to bother with that little matter. But they did need "to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality." While these particular prohibitions weren't the point of the class, it spawned an interesting discussion. What is it about these things that made them verboten? Some good thoughts that came out include the fact that each of these seem to be an integral part of pagan worship, and circumcision was the old way of differentiating yourself from the pagans. They seem to say that if you avoid these things, you will be distinct enough to avoid the cultural baggage (and physical pain) of circumcision.

What is it that's important about these animals and sexual immorality? The latter may be easier to start with. Sexual expression was a human enterprise that God created for various reasons, but for this argument, the prominent feature is that it is a covenantal act. It is very importantly that in its own right, but it is also a shadow of God's covenant with his creation. Deviant sexuality (or immorality, of any stripe) lampoons God's covenant with all creation. No wonder that's important. (And speaking of pagan practice, deviant sexual expression was a part of their worship in most cases.)

Now what about animals? Food sacrificed to idols was probably killed in an inappropriate way, and its obvious association with idols led the council to forbid eating it. (Note that Paul lifted this ban in 1 Corinthians, as long as it didn't lead people to sin. Hm.) Drinking blood was a direct violation of the levitical demand to not do so. The explanation for this prohibition: "For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life." Strangled animals still have the blood in them, so you would be eating the blood if you eat that meat. It seems that there is something incongruous about eating something where the life is kept inside it, even though it is dead.

That leads me to the revelation about what Jesus says in John about his flesh and blood. Given the preceding history about Jewish prohibitions on consuming blood, his hearers would have been very offended at his suggestion. I imagine they would have had a visceral reaction beyond mere offense. Why would any respectable person let such a thought out of their mouth? Jesus must have anticipated that "body" would be a metaphor for the assembly of his followers. Eating his flesh and drinking his blood would have been a sacramental and covenantal action on the heels of the Jewish sacrificial system. But this idea actually became what his followers called a "sacrament," that is, the fellowship meal, the great thanksgiving, the eucharist, holy communion.

It seems that the point of all this is, wherever there is an assembly of Jesus's followers, they can drink his blood as a way of taking in his life. He, being sinless, willingly offered for people to drink his blood (even if it is a metaphor). Jesus's life was in his blood, and in drinking it, we are taking in his life. And we partake of his body as well, to include ourselves in his body. The drinking of his blood then sacramentally animates his body here within his creation. If we ignore the sacrament, we ignore the fact that it is only through Jesus that life is restored. He is the resurrection and the life. He brings life, not only to humans, but also to the whole creation. We are now his body, animated by his blood and the Holy Spirit, here to bring life to all creation.