How Do We “Eat” Jesus Christ, and What Does That Even Mean?

As we approach Passover (Pesach) and the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Chag HaMatztot), I like to think about Jesus Christ’s sacrifice and the symbolism associated with that. For New Covenant believers, the principal symbols of Passover are foot washing, eating unleavened bread, and drinking red wine. Those are the three things Jesus did at His last Passover here on earth that He told His followers to continue doing (John 13:1-17; Luke 22:14-20).

Today, I want to specifically focus on the bread that symbolizes Jesus’s body. At first, I’d intended to study altars in the New Testament to dig into Hebrews 13:10 more deeply, but I was only a few minutes into that study when I felt prompted to take things in a different direction this week. We’ll still go to Hebrews, but from a different direction than I’d expected when I first started thinking about the topic.

The Bread of Life

Because of my focused interest in covenants, I typically spend more time in my Passover studies focused on the wine that Jesus described as “the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20, NET). Today, though, let’s take a look at the bread part of the Passover service. Matthew and Mark’s accounts are nearly identical, so I’ll just quote one of them and Luke.

 So the disciples did as Jesus had instructed them, and they prepared the Passover. When it was evening, he took his place at the table with the twelve. … While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after giving thanks he broke it, gave it to his disciples, and said, “Take, eat, this is my body.” 

Matthew 26:19-20, 26 NET

Now when the hour came, Jesus took his place at the table and the apostles joined him. And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. … Then he took bread, and after giving thanks he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 

Luke 22:14-15, 19, NET

Here, Jesus and His disciples were observing the first holy time of the year on God’s sacred calendar. As commanded, they’re eating the Passover meal on the evening that begins Nisan 14 on the Hebrew calendar. Per Exodus 12:8, that meal includes “bread made without yeast” or “unleavened bread.” The bread was already there, but Jesus assigned a new, deeper meaning to it. Now when we take Passover, the unleavened bread we eat reminds us of Jesus’s body and His sacrifice. It might also remind us of a discussion recorded in John’s gospel.

Jesus’s miraculous feeding 5,000 people is recorded in every gospel (Matt. 14:13-21; Mark 6:30-34; Luke 9:10-16; John 6:1-13). Interestingly, John includes an extra piece of information: “Now the Jewish Feast of the Passover was near” (John 6:4, NET). This would be the Passover one year before Jesus’s death (NET footnote on John 6:4). John also goes on to describe what happened after the miracle. The crowds followed Jesus to the other side of the lake, hoping for more food. Jesus used the opportunity to talk to them about “food that remains to eternal life—the food which the Son of Man will give to you” (John 6:27, NET). Now, they thought this sounded like a pretty good deal, maybe even better than the manna in the wilderness (Ex. 16.4-36; John 6:28-34). They challenged Him to perform a miracle, and He challenged them to understand at a deeper level.

“I tell you the solemn truth, the one who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that has come down from heaven, so that a person may eat from it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats from this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

 Then the Jews who were hostile to Jesus began to argue with one another, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood resides in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so the one who consumes me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the bread your ancestors ate, but then later died. The one who eats this bread will live forever.”

John 6:47-58, NET

My guess is that Jesus was thinking ahead one year, to the next Passover when He would tell His disciples the unleavened bread represented His body and the red wine His blood. He wants us to understand how much we need Him. Physical food keeps us alive for a while, but “eating” Him–taking Him inside us and accepting His sacrifice–is far more important. A real relationship with Jesus will keep us alive forever.

Inheritance and Sacrifice

The author of Hebrews spends a lot of time explaining how the Old Testament sacrifices, tabernacle/temple, and priesthood all pointed to Jesus. Near the end of the book, the author says, “We have an altar that those who serve in the tabernacle have no right to eat from” (Heb. 13:10, NET). This hearkens back to an Old Covenant practice: the priests serving in the tabernacle or temple ate from the meat of the sacrifices offered in the temple (Lev. 10:10-18; Num. 18:22-24; 1 Cor. 9:13-14).

The priests and the Levites—all the tribe of Levi—shall have no portion nor inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the offerings of Yahweh made by fire and his portion. They shall have no inheritance among their brothers. Yahweh is their inheritance, as he has spoken to them. This shall be the priests’ due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep, that they shall give to the priest: the shoulder, the two cheeks, and the inner parts. You shall give him the first fruits of your grain, of your new wine, and of your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep. For Yahweh your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand to minister in Yahweh’s name, him and his sons forever.

Deuteronomy 18:1-5, WEB

The Levites–the tribe that all priests came from under the Old Covenant–didn’t inherit land with the rest of the tribes of Israel. Instead, they inherited a special relationship with Yahweh God. New Covenant believers do not directly correlate to the Old Testament priesthood, but we do have similarities with them and the Levites. Peter tells us we’re part of a “priesthood” and Revelation describes the saints as “priests” (1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:5-6; 20:5-6). We also don’t have an inheritance or citizenship on this earth; our citizenship is in heaven and our inheritance is connected with Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:16-17; Phil. 3:20). The verse we opened with from Hebrews indicates we have another similarity with them as well: we’re allowed to “eat from” the altar.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever! Do not be carried away by all sorts of strange teachings. For it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not ritual meals, which have never benefited those who participated in them. We have an altar that those who serve in the tabernacle have no right to eat from. For the bodies of those animals whose blood the high priest brings into the sanctuary as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore, to sanctify the people by his own blood, Jesus also suffered outside the camp. We must go out to him, then, outside the camp, bearing the abuse he experienced.

Hebrews 13:8-14, NET

The author of Hebrews just spent a huge section of this letter explaining that Jesus Christ is both the High Priest and the perfect, once-for-all-time sacrifice offered for sins (Heb. 8-10). If we get to “eat from” the altar where He offered His sacrifice, then we’re eating from Jesus Himself. It’s about partaking of His sacrifice, just like we do at Passover.

Our Participation in Passover

1 Corinthians is a letter closely tied to Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. In that letter, Paul asks a rhetorical question about the Israelite priesthood: “Are not those who eat the sacrifices partners in the altar?” (1 Cor. 10:18, NET). The Greek word translated “partners” is koinonos (G2844), which also means “associate, comrade, companion … sharer, in anything” (Thayer’s Dictionary). It is the root word of “fellowship,” the Greek word koinonia (G2842), which describes a believer’s proper relationship with God and His whole family as a “fellowship, association, community, communion, joint participation” (Thayer’s Dictionary; see 1 John 1:3-7). It’s the word that’s translated “sharing” in the verses leading up to the one we just quoted:

 I am speaking to thoughtful people. Consider what I say. Is not the cup of blessing that we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread that we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all share the one bread. Look at the people of Israel. Are not those who eat the sacrifices partners in the altar?

1 Corinthians 10:15-18, NET

When we “eat” Jesus Christ’s symbolic body, we’re participating in the altar. Our part in the Passover service is to accept deliverance from God and confirm our covenant commitment to Him. Jesus is the only way to salvation; His sacrifice atones for our sins (Acts 4:11-12; 1 John 2:1-3; 4:9-10). It doesn’t just happen automatically, though: we’re expected to participate to a certain degree, namely, by repenting and believing and committing to follow Him (Mark 1:14-15; 16:16; Acts 2:37-38; Rom. 10:8-11). Once we do that, our lives should change. Passover reminds us of that every year.

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread, and after he had given thanks he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, he also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, every time you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For every time you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

For this reason, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself first, and in this way let him eat the bread and drink of the cup. For the one who eats and drinks without careful regard for the body eats and drinks judgment against himself. That is why many of you are weak and sick, and quite a few are dead. But if we examined ourselves, we would not be judged.  But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned with the world.

1 Corinthians 11:23-32, NET

As Thayer’s Dictionary says when defining koinonia, our fellowship with God as part of His body of believers involves “joint participation.” When we participate in Passover, symbolically taking in the body of Jesus that He sacrificed for us, we’re part of something much bigger than ourselves. We’re reminding ourselves of the covenant commitment we made with God, of His sacrifice that we’ve accepted on our behalf, and of the way we ought to live as people transformed by Jesus. That’s one of the reasons we’re supposed to examine ourselves before taking the Passover–to make sure we’re doing so “in a worthy manner” that correctly values Jesus’s sacrifice and the fellowship God invites us into as part of His family.

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