Practical Proverbial, from Matthew, 27 August 2025. Today's topic: By His Blood
His Word, Our Journey
Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Matthew 26:27-28 (NIV).
Having blessed and shared His body, the bread of communion, now Jesus shares His blood, the wine. To be frank, if you’ve ever taken Holy Communion and been underwhelmed at it, perhaps you weren’t taught the full meaning of it. I think, perhaps, the words Jesus speaks here may be some of the most impactful and profound of any words ever spoken in any language. They’re deeply moving and meaningful, tying ancient deep knowledge and ritual to God’s immediate presence in our lives.
Once again, Jesus gives thanks to the Father, this time for the wine…and for life. In that moment, right after Judas has departed and before the meal is over and the group departs for Gethsemene, Jesus is thanking His Father – our Father – for the provided wine and for His life. He’s doing this in the presence of His friends, knowing they will contemplate it, seeking to better understand.
He uses wine for what He’s doing. Blood is life and the wine is Jesus’ blood. Jesus’ first miracle was to turn simple water, necessary to life, into wine for a wedding celebration. Now, He takes another wine, commanded by tradition for use in the Passover, and dedicates it for a new purpose. Not coincidentally, in the Seder, this particular cup is “the cup of redemption.” Jesus transforms this into His blood and uses both the fact and symbology of it to dedicate this new covenant by personifying the old one. This is all deeply meaningful, ancient in its impact, because the original covenant was for atonement, going back to how, every year on the Day of Atonement, the Jewish high priest would sprinkle the blood of a lamb onto the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant.
Jesus specifically does this because it will become a means of grace in which we who believe in Him might receive His forgiveness of sins…by His blood. The chief problem faced by mankind isn’t disease, poverty, war, or famine. It is sin; it has always been sin, ever since Adam and Eve introduced it into the world. When we drink the blood of Jesus that is the instituted communion wine, we’re re-affirming His presence, God’s life, in our daily lives here and now. We’re affirming that Jesus willingly poured out His own life-blood, ‘sprinkled’ into us, so that we might be forgiven of our base sins, then stand blameless before our maker.
For more, read Exodus 24:6-8, Zechariah 9:11, Malachi 2:5, Mark 14:23-24, Luke 22:20, 1 Corinthians 10:16, Hebrews 9:20, Hebrews 10:29, Matthew 26:29
Lord Jesus, all praise and blessing and thanks to You for Your giving communion blood wine to us