In the
OT laws about food and drink one of the best known says that blood was
absolutely forbidden (Lev 17:10-14). Consequently, a complex system of kosher
butchering was designed with its chief aim being that no blood should remain in
the animal and so risk being eaten or drunk.
In
light of this prohibition, statements by David and later by Jesus are
remarkable. David’s came when he was at war with Philistines who were encamped
in his home town of Bethlehem. He was hot and thirsty and was heard to say how
much he would like to have water from the well at Bethlehem – which was of
course inaccessible due to the Philistines. But that didn’t stop three of his
stalwart fighting men. They broke through the Philistine army, got water from
the well at Bethlehem and brought it back to David. But David didn’t drink it.
His shrewd sense of political judgment was even sharper than his thirst. “God forbid,” he said, “that I should drink the blood of these men,
who went at risk of their lives” (2 Sam 23:17). He didn’t want to profit
from their readiness to put their lives on the line for him. To drink the water
would be equivalent to drinking their blood. He couldn’t, and he wouldn’t do
that. He poured the water on the ground (N.T.
Wright, John For Everyone, 85).
Jesus
also spoke about drinking blood. Although he did not speak literally anymore
than David did, his words were even more shocking and remarkable. In John 6
Jesus says to a skeptical crowd, “I’m
telling you the solemn truth. Anyone who believes in me has eternal life. I am
the bread of life…. And the bread which I shall give is my flesh, given for the
life of the world…. I’m telling you the solemn truth, if you don’t eat the
flesh of the son of man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Anyone
who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up
on the last day.”
Whereas
David refused to profit from the risk of life made by the young men by drinking
the water, which would be like drinking their blood, Jesus wants everyone to
profit from the sacrifice of his life. “Easily the best explanation for this,”
says N.T. Wright, is that John understands Jesus’ language here to refer to the
eucharist, the Lord’s supper, the sacrament in which Jesus’ body and blood are,
in a mysterious way, offered to believers to be eaten and drunk” (Wright, 86).
Paul
put it in concisely in 1 Cor 10:16: “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it
not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a
sharing in the body of Christ?” I don’t understand this mystery, but it seems
to all come down to faith. As Jesus said, “Anyone
who believes in me has eternal life. I am the bread of life.” Do you believe? If so, let us confess our
faith and receive his body and blood.
