When was the last time you awaited some important moment eagerly, some event that – as we usually say – means a lot to you personally?
On the feast of the Precious Blood of Christ, we hear in the Gospel how the Lord speaks directly from the depths of his heart: “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you.” Before, when he was in front of the crowd, which remained without food on the third day, he spoke about his sympathy and compassion, about the mercy he carries in his soul; he wept over Jerusalem and over the grave of his friend Lazarus; he exclaimed joyfully in the Holy Spirit and glorified the Father with thanksgiving. In the similar way now, here, at the beginning of the Last Supper, Jesus opens his soul and reveals to the apostles his ardent, living, burning longing. It is a classic Hebrew way of expression: he repeats the same word twice in order to highlight it, to emphasize its strength: With the greatest longing he has longed for the celebration of the Passover.
Surely, he already sees how things are in a human way. But Jesus is not only looking at farewell and departure. He does not just say: “I shall not eat it again. I shall not drink of the fruit of the vine”, but he announces something far more interesting, more important, and appealing. The Passover will be fulfilled; the Father will fulfil it inside the holy domain, where he himself reigns. When the kingdom of God comes, Jesus will again drink from the fruit of the vine. The Psalm proclaims with confidence: “For you do not give me up to underworld or let your faithful one see the decay. You show me the path of life, the fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” That is why, both Peter and Paul return to this psalm when they talk about the Resurrection.
History remembers the ritual and sequence of serving the cups one after the other at Passover. But, while we adore the Blood of Christ, we deliberately stop and notice how in this account the cup – the chalice – is mentioned twice. For the cup the Lord gives thanks, as well as for the bread. Thanksgiving is the Eucharist. He asks his disciples to share the cup among themselves. The Apostle will interpret that: it is the communion of the Blood of Christ.
With the cup, not with the bread, Jesus states the key words that God announced a long time ago through the prophet Jeremiah: “I will make a new Covenant”. In that old time God announced it before the terrible Babylonian exile would take place, which was the historical great flood by its biblical proportions. Now Jesus says this before his Passion and Cross. During the agony in the Garden of Olives, His sweat will be like drops of blood. Under the whips and the crown of thorns the blood will gush out; at the crucifixion and when the spear pierced his side, the Lord will shed his blood.
Now, in this paschal chalice, Jesus sees the New Covenant made by his blood, which he sheds for those who belong to him. The Scripture is acquainted with blood from the beginning. In the time of Noah, the Bible says: blood is the life – the one that flows in our heart and in our veins; blood is like our human soul. We have known it in this way since we were little; that is how we naturally feel as human beings. In fact, the Bible first looks at the shed blood, the blood of brother Abel, crying out to God.
When the Old Covenant was being established, the blood was the confirmation. From the burnt offerings and communion sacrifices, half of the blood was used by Moses to sprinkle the altar, half to sprinkle the people. Even then, Moses declares that it is the Blood of the Covenant with God. It is so because he conveyed all God’s words to the people, then wrote them down and then read them once more. On their own initiative, people decided freely, they said: “Everything the Lord has said we will do”. Moreover, when they repeat it once again, they put “listening” in second place so that it is not only about formal external execution but about obedience of the will and heart. By all the words of God that Moses conveyed to the people, God made a Covenant with them, and the blood confirms it, puts a seal on it. Blood is God’s signature on it.
In the New Testament, it is no longer the blood of sacrificial animals that are offered to God, but Jesus defines it openly, directly, and clearly: “This is my blood – my blood of the Covenant.” Through the blood shed by Messiah – this is what the Apostle explains to the disciples of Christ in Ephesus – that prodigal son who was in a distant land is now coming back. He comes close to God, he is an inmate in a house where God is the head of the family. The Messianic blood is so strong that it breaks down the wall which separates pious believers from pagans, consecrated and zealous Pharisees, such as Paul himself, from tax collectors and sinners. Indeed, when Jesus speaks about the lost sheep, about the lost drachma and about the lost son, then this is the lesson that He is giving to both groups – to tax collectors and sinners, as well as to Pharisees and scribes.
The gospel that Jesus brings is peace to both. Both, to those who are very close and also to those who have moved far away. The blood of Christ – the blood of the Anointed One, who is the Son of the living God – is so capable on one hand with the old sinner, who runs away from God like Jonah even though he knows that God is merciful and gracious; on the other hand, with the fiery God-fighter Elijah, who calls down God’s fire from heaven in front of everyone and fiercely proves God’s authority. Out of both of them the precious Blood of Christ is able to create a new man – a new humanity according to the measure of God‘s heart. The new man knows from experience that Jesus is our peace .
The Law on the one hand and foreigners on the other – that is a thing of the past. The new man Jesus reconciled with God through his Messianic blood. We are freed from hostility, from that dividing wall. Jesus overcame it, removed it, so that we are no longer divided from within. The cup of the Blood of Christ brings us the Holy Spirit and gives us direct access to the Father.
That is why Jesus longs so much to eat the Passover with his apostles, to drink the cup of the New Covenant with them.
