Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it. “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them. “Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. “You will all fall away,” Jesus told them, “for it is written: “ ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’”
--Parallel verses:
Genesis 15:10-21
Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”
As we look at the parallel verses in Genesis, we see the blood covenant that God made with Abraham. He told him that the Jews would be as numerous as the sand on the shore of the sea and as numerous as the stars in the sky. And to confirm this covenant he has Abraham sacrifice animals and then he falls into a deep sleep. After he awoke, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch passed in the middle of the sacrificed animals. This, I believe, symbolized the presence of God.
This covenant stayed in place until Jesus' time. When Jesus came, he came as the “sacrificial lamb”. “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). He ushered in a new covenant, one not requiring the repeat sacrifices for the forgiveness of sins. The new covenant is that Jesus is our once for all sacrifice for sins. We just have to receive his free gift of salvation and follow him.
Jesus established a tradition of taking wine and remembering the sacrifice he made. It was a representation of his blood (soon to be spilt on the cross in payment for our sins). Jesus shared this meal with his disciples knowing that they would all fall away from him in his darkest hour. His love for them was truly unconditional and vast in its expanse.
So today when I take the juice or wine in remembrance of Jesus’ spilt blood for me, I remember that this love is for others too and I ask God to give me a love this great.
Dear Lord, what can I say or do to thank you appropriately for such an incomparable and great sacrifice which redeemed my life? You are my Savior and my Lord! I surrender to your will and ways in my life.
