Twenty-Five PromisesMatthew 26:26-28 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” 27Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Every time we take communion we are rehearsing one of the greatest of all promises: the promise of redemption; the promise of substitution, the promise of atonement. Jesus offered his body and his blood as the payment of our sins.
Remember two things: this promise was made in the context of a Passover celebration, in which the Jewish people remembered that the blood of a lamb on their doors had allowed the angel of death to pass over their houses without requiring the death of the firstborn. Now, Jesus says, his blood does the same: the death of the firstborn Son of God, His one and only Son allows God to look on us with forgiveness, not judgment.
Second, this promise is given as a new covenant: under the old covenant with Moses the blood of lambs and bulls was given to symbolically pay the ‘wages’ of sin – death. But under the new covenant the blood of Jesus truly makes this payment, so that by the shedding of his blood there is forgivness of sins.
The bread and the wine are a visual, touchable tastable promise: “this is my body broken for you; this is my blood, shed for you.”
We Remember You by Matt Maher
Behold the Lamb – by Keith and Kristyn Getty