December 1
…My blood is drink indeed. John 6:55
This is the centre of the Christian’s faith. We celebrate it by the elements of the bread and the wine. A Christian has ‘drunk the blood of Christ’. This is of course a shocking image, and it is only the incredible power of habit that robs it of its force. What, then, does it really mean to ‘drink His blood’? No-one drank His physical blood, nor ever shall. The answer is that the blood is the essence of Christ. It is what He is on the deepest level. It is what He is when tested to the utmost. It is His deepest instincts, when subjected to the most awful pressure. It is not some passing, superficial whim or thought. No! The blood is pure God, distilled by the fires of suffering, and by the white heat of hell’s furious onslaught. The blood is what pours out of God when He is cut to the heart. That is the cup that He places to our lips and invites us to drink deeply. We are to receive into our beings what God is and has always been. This is sobering, for it lifts a human being to fellowship with the Eternal, the Unchangeable. God has opened up His veins and poured out His essence – not merely that His physical blood should stain a piece of wood outside Jerusalem, but that pure God should be poured into our hearts, and wash and cleanse all else by Himself. Do it reverently, do it consciously, do it definitely, do it by faith – drink His blood!
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