A SPIRITUAL TRUTH. 277 They give of their out of the perversions, of the root symbolisms of that rite. But, in the light of all these customs, the words of Jesus have a clearer meaning. It was as though he had said: "Men everywhere long for life. They seek a share in the life of God. own blood, or of substitute blood, and they taste of substitute blood, or they receive its touch, in evidence of their desire for oneness of nature with God. They crave communion with God, and they eat of the flesh of their sacrifices accordingly. All that they thus reach out after, I supply. In me is life. If they will become partakers of my life, of my nature, they shall be sharers of the life of God." Then he added, in assurance of the fact that it was a profound spiritual truth which he was enunciating: "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life."1 The divine-human inter-union and the divine-human inter-communion are spiritual, and they are spiritually wrought; or they are nothing. How can this man But this was not because The words of Jesus on this subject were not understood by those who heard him. "The Jews therefore strove one with another, saying, give us his flesh to eat?" 2 the Jews had never heard of eating the flesh of a sacrificial victim, and of drinking blood in a sacred covenant: 1 John 6: 63. 2 John 6: 60. it was, rather, because they did not realize that Jesus was to be the crowning sacrifice for the human race; nor did they comprehend his right and power to make those who were one with him through faith thereby one with God in spiritual nature. "Many," even "of his disciples, when they heard" these words of his, "said, This is a hard saying; who can hear it?"1 Nor are questioners at this point lacking among his disciples to-day. Before Jesus Christ was formally made an offering in sacrifice, as a means of man's inter-union and intercommunion with God, there were two illustrations of his mission, in the giving of his blood for the bringing of man into right relations with God. These were, his circumcision, and his agony in Gethsemane. By his circumcision, Jesus brought his humanity into the blood-covenant which was between God and the seed of God's friend, Abraham, of whose nature, according to the flesh, Jesus had become a partaker;2 Jesus thereby pledged his own blood in fidelity to that covenant; so that all who should thereafter become his by their faith, might, through him, be heirs of faithful Abraham.3 The sweet singer of the Christian Year' seems to find this thought in this incident in the life of the Holy Child: 1 1 John 6: 60. 3 Gal. 3: 6-9, 16, 29. 2 Heb. 1: 14-16. * Keble. THE BLOODY SWEAT. "Like sacrificial wine Poured on a victim's head, Are those few precious drops of thine, "They are the pledge and seal Of Christ's unswerving faith, "They, to his Church of old, To each true Jewish heart, In gospel graces manifold, Communion blest impart." 279 In Gethsemane, the sins and the needs of humanity so pressed upon the burdened soul of Jesus that his very life was forced out, as it were, from his aching, breaking heart, in his boundless sympathy with his loved ones, and in his infinite longings for their union with God, through their union with himself, in the covenant of blood he was consummating in their behalf. "And being in an agony, he prayed more earn 1" In the garden of Gethsemane, Christ endured mental agony so intense that, had it not been limited by divine interposition, it would probably have destroyed his life without the aid of any other sufferings; but having been thus mitigated, its effects were confined to violent palpitation of the heart accompanied with bloody sweat. . . . Dr. Millingen's explanation of bloody sweat is judicious. It is probable,' says he, 'that this strange disorder arises from a violent commotion of the nervous system, turning the streams of blood out of their natural course, and forcing the red particles into the cutaneous excretories.'" (Stroud's Physical Cause of the Death of Christ, pp. 74, 380). . estly: and his sweat became as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground."' Because of his God-ward purpose of bringing men into a loving covenant with God, Jesus gave of his blood in the covenant-rite of circumcision. Because of his man-ward sympathy with the needs and the trials of those whom he had come to save, and because of the crushing burden of their death-bringing sins, Jesus gave of his blood in an agony of intercessory suffering. Therefore it is that the Litany cry of the ages goes up to him in fulness of meaning: "By the mystery of thy holy incarnation; by thy holy nativity and circumcision; . . by thine agony and bloody sweat, Good Lord, deliver us." In process of time, the hour drew nigh that the true covenant of blood between God and man should be consummated finally, in its perfectness. The period chosen was the passover-feast-the feast observed by the Jews in commemoration of that blood-covenanting occasion in Egypt when God evidenced anew his fidelity to his promises to the seed of Abraham, his blood-covenanted friend. "Now before the feast of the passover, Jesus knowing that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end."2 "And when the hour 1 Luke 22: 44. 2 John 13: 1. THE COMMUNION FEAST. 281 was come, he sat down, and the apostles with him. And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer." Whether he actually partook of the passover meal at that time. or not is a point still in dispute;2 but as to that which follows there is no question. supper; "As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it; and he gave to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body." "This do in remembrance of me. And the cup in like manner after "4" and when he had given thanks, he gave [it] to them," "saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the covenant," or, as another Evangelist records, "this cup is the new covenant in my blood,"7 "which is shed for many unto remission of sins" [unto the putting away of sins]. "This do, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me." drank of it.' 10 "And they all Here was the covenant of blood; here was the communion feast, in partaking of the flesh of the fitting and accepted sacrifice;-toward which all rite and symbol, and all heart yearning and inspired 1 Luke 22: 14, 15. 2 As to the points in this dispute, see Andrews's Life of our Lord, pp. 425-460, and Farrar's Life of Christ, Excursus X., Appendix. 3 Matt. 26: 26. 91 Cor. II: 25. 4 Luke 22: 19, 20. 5 Mark 14: 23. 8 Matt. 26: 28. 10 Mark 14: 23. |