53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life in you.

54 Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

— John 6:53-54

10 “If any one of the house of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn among them eats any blood, I will set My face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from among his people.

11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.

12 Therefore I say to the Israelites, ‘None of you may eat blood, nor may any foreigner living among you eat blood.’

— John 17:10-12

Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

— 1 Corinthians 5:7

Thoughts on Today’s Reading

God’s love and mercy be your blessings!

For teaching spiritual truth, Jesus escalated His challenge, using physical imagery of His own flesh and blood, to the Jews who remained repulsed and angered because they failed to understand the symbolism of Jesus’ words. In the law of Moses, God forbade drinking blood or eating meat with blood remaining in it. Blood represents the source of life designed by God to be precious and valuable. The only permissible use of blood in the Old Testament was to make atonement for sin. Yet Jesus now said, “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.”

This shocked and deeply offended the people, who refused to acknowledge the spiritual meaning of His words. Here Jesus described Himself as the Passover Lamb. He would shed His blood and die on cross for redeeming the world. To “drink” Jesus’ blood is to participate personally and spiritually in His death. This means trusting that Jesus died for forgiveness of sins. Jesus’ blood also delivers believers from sin’s power. In faith, to “drink Christ’s blood” means counting oneself as having died with Him to the old sinful nature within. Hallelujah! Jesus, not sin, becomes your master!