Bible Study Page

Symbols are all over the news these days, and it has us asking lots of questions about what these symbols mean or whether they mean anything at all:

• Is the Confederate flag a display of heritage or in-your-face racism?
• Should Confederate statues come down?
• Should statues of anyone with presumed ties to historical bigotry come down?
• Is it offensive to take a knee during the national anthem?
• Should the president use the Bible as a photo prop?
• Is it cultural appropriation for congressional leaders to wear African garb at a photo op?
• Should the president wear a face mask in public even if the risks are minimal?

Symbols can be powerful. They remind us of important events and people. But symbols also can become superficial.

That’s true for the symbols before us now. Christ instituted them to remind us of his sacrifice – the bread as a representation of His body and the fruit of the vine as a symbol of the blood He shed to cleanse men’s souls. But it’s possible, for all of us collectively and each of us individually, to rob these symbols of their meaning.

The Corinthians did, and Paul admonished them for it.

Now in giving this next instruction I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better, but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you; and in part I believe it. For there also have to be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you. Therefore when you come together it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper, for when you eat, each one takes his own supper first; and one goes hungry while another gets drunk. What! Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What am I to say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I do not praise you. (I Corinthians 11:17-22)

… Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy way, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a person must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For the one who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not properly recognize the body. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number are asleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world. So then, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, have him eat at home, so that you do not come together for judgment. As to the remaining matters, I will give instructions when I come. (11:27-34)

In other words, the burden is on us to keep the substance in these symbols. Christ’s death is important enough that God gave us a weekly reminder of it. But we can turn it into something superficial or meaningless, and condemn ourselves in the process. Let’s make sure our heads and hearts are in the right place this morning and every Lord’s Day.

One element of Absalom’s rebellion against his father, King David, involved Ahithophel. He was one of David’s trusted counselors, but he sided with Absalom instead.

The deep hurt that David felt from this betrayal was evident in Psalm 55:12-14. “For it is not an enemy who reproaches me, then I could bear it,” David wrote. “Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me, then I could hide myself from him. But it is you, a man my equal, my companion and my familiar friend;we who had sweet fellowship together walked in the house of God in the throng.”

Ahithophel was a prototype of Judas, Jesus’ betrayer in the New Testament. But one of the differences in the situations is that Jesus knew beforehand that he would be betrayed — and he knew his betrayer. He called out Judas at the Last Supper, the prototype for this memorial that we partake of this morning.

I merged the accounts of that story in the gospels and will read it now:

When the hour had come, He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him. And He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.”

When Jesus had said this, He became troubled in spirit, and testified and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you will betray Me. Behold, the hand of the one betraying Me is with Mine on the table. For indeed, the Son of Man is going as it has been determined; but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed!”

The disciples began looking at one another, at a loss to know of which one He was speaking. Being deeply grieved, they each one began to say to Him, “Surely not I, Lord?” There was reclining on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved. So Simon Peter gestured to him, and said to him, “Tell us who it is of whom He is speaking.” He, leaning back thus on Jesus’ bosom, said to Him, “Lord, who is it?” Jesus then answered, “That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him.” The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.”

And Judas, who was betraying Him, said, “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” Jesus said to him, “You have said it yourself.” So when He had dipped the morsel, He took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. After the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Therefore Jesus said to him, “What you do, do quickly.” So after receiving the morsel he went out immediately; andit was night.

… Then He came to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!” While He was still speaking, behold, Judas, one of the twelve, came up accompanied by a large crowd with swords and clubs, who came from the chief priests and elders of the people. Judas was preceding them. Now he who was betraying Him gave them a sign, saying, “Whomever I kiss, He is the one; seize Him.” And he approached Jesus to kiss Him. But Jesus said to him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss? Friend, do what you have come for.” Immediately Judas went to Jesus and said, “Hail, Rabbi!” and kissed Him. Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and seized Him.

Jesus felt the sting of that betrayal, just as David felt the sting of Ahithophel’s betrayal. And it was actually just one of multiple betrayals Jesus endured. Peter denied him three times, and most of His disciples left Jesus that night. Yet He went through with the crucifixion — for all of us, who betray Him still every time we sin.

Let’s think about that this morning as we remember the emblems of His broken body and blood, given for us so that we could have the hope of heaven.

Back in 1951, an Australian man named James Harrison needed 13 pints of other people’s blood to endure a major chest operation that took hours. After hearing that, he vowed to become a blood donor as soon as he was eligible at age 18.

At about this time health officials in the country were trying to figure out how to prevent thousands of miscarriages caused by hemolytic disease. Known as HDN, it often occurs when a mother with Rh-negative blood becomes pregnant with a child of Rh-positive blood. The mother’s body is incompatible for the child’s blood and attacks it.

Doctors determined that donated plasma with a rare antibody could prevent this rejection. They searched blood banks and found what they wanted in James Harrison, who had been donating blood regularly for a decade.

Harrison donated plasma from his blood for the first time in 1967. It was such a perfect match that the government built an entire program around it, creating an injection for pregnant women called Anti-D. Harrison donated his blood and plasma regularly over the next 60 years, helping more than 2.4 million Australian babies survive in the womb. One of them was his own grandchild.

His blood saved millions of lives. You may see where I’m going with this.

About 2,000 years ago, the Son of Man in Israel fulfilled His destiny to become a blood donor for the whole world. The imperfect blood of sacrificial bulls and goats had fulfilled their purpose for a time, but they could never be redemptive. Mankind needed the pure, perfect blood of Jesus for that.

Heb. 9:11-14
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

The Great Physician gave His own blood and His own body to save all of us and everyone else who comes to Him. And He gave us this memorial to remember every week what He did – the unleavened bread, which represents His broken body on the cross, and the fruit of the vine, which represents the blood that reconciled us to God.

May we partake of this spiritual feast today in a manner pleasing to God and befitting the greatest blood donation of all time.

This morning I want to talk about a dichotomy in scripture. Dichotomy is one of those big words that I recall in vague terms but always have to look up before I use it to make sure I remembered the meaning correctly. It describes something with seemingly contradictory qualities.

The Lord’s Supper is a dichotomy in a sense.

On the one hand, it’s a solemn memorial. We gather each week to remember the sacrificial death of the perfect, sinless Son of God and the agony he endured on the cross. On the other hand, it’s a hopeful reminder of the promise of everlasting life.

As Paul wrote in I Corinthians 15:54-57: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Jesus didn’t deserve to have His body, which is represented by this bread, marred, mutilated and mocked. But He rose in, and from, that dead body and then went home to His Father. So can we.

As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man. (I Corinthians 15:48-49)

The Messiah didn’t deserve to have His blood, which is represented by this cup, dripping from his feet, his hands and his brow, or pouring from His pierced side. But there is life in His blood; there is power in His blood.

“For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:13-14)

“Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” (Romans 5:9)

So as we do every week, let’s remember the death of Jesus — and the life we have in Him.