Passion Week

Matthew 26:26 ¶ Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is my body." ²⁷ And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, "Drink of it, all of you, ²⁸ for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. ²⁹ I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." ³⁰ ¶ And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

So the disciples are told to drink the cup.  Why are we to drink the cup?

1.      It is Jesus blood.

Repungnant for Jews to drink blood as it would be for most of us, even Islam forbids this.  Blood contained the life of the victim.  If you don’t have blood in you, you’re dead.  We give blood so others may live healthy.  And this is not just animal’s blood, but Jesus blood.  He gives His life away, and we are taking it.  Isn’t this what Passover was?  Isn’t this what the gospel is?  The only way we can live is to take the life of Jesus. 

2.      It is Jesus blood of the new covenant.

A promise, a commitment.  Matthew is the only gospel to use the term “covenant”.  It is important and almost certainly a reference to Exodus 24:8 where Moses says, This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you.  Hundreds of years passed, in which the people forsook God, broke his covenant and provoked his judgment, until one day in the seventh century BC the word of the Lord came Jeremiah (see Jeremiah 31:31-34).

More than six centuries passed, years of patient waiting and growing expectancy, until one evening in an upper room in Jerusalem a Galilean peasant, carpenter by trade and preacher by vocation, dared to say in effect, this is the new covenant…distinct blessings will be made available, and the sacrifice to seal this covenant and procure this forgiveness will be shedding of my blood in death.  This is Jesus view of his death.  It is the divinely appointed sacrifice by which the new covenant with its promise of forgiveness will be ratified.  He is going to die in order to bring his people into a new covenant relationship with God. 

Paul will write, this cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in rememberance of me.  Jesus death was the fulfillment and the end of millions of blood sacrifices that had been to seal and maintain the old covenant.  (see Jeremiah 31:31, 33-34)

Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.