drink blood?

Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you cannot be my disciple.
Blood to the jew was forbidden.
After Jesus said this[4 times] many of his disciples walked with him no more.
Somehow innocent blood moves heaven.
It would almost seem that whatever justice comes out of this there automatically requires injustice.
[innocence pays for guilty]
They walked no more with him only at the thought of it.
Had they known the true depth of it maybe ALL would have left.
[eventually they did]
my question is,did Jesus mean what he said?

David

Jesus always 'means' what He says. I believe our difficulty lies in trying to understand Him with our natural man mind/human intellect.So many have turned aside from the reality of Christ's path because they could not fit the basic qualifications He speaks of into the system of this world..even there 'church world',especially if they met religion before they met the Spirit of the Living God..when man teaches man how to walk talk and listen to Jesus..He creates a clone of himself...when we are blessed to have been trained by God primarily, we are accustomed to asking Him to explain ,expecting Him to answer and recieveing the answer..in His timing of course.These spiritually discerned sayings must be brought into the forefront as He would teach us ..not just in the sitting there and reading the phrases...when He is ready to teach you something He will cause all of life around you/within you to resonate with the truth of His Living Word...logos..rhema..the word made fully alive,active ..not some concept that we are batting back and forth across some intellectual ping pong table...recreational perhaps..but play none the less...there are many who believe themselves surrendered..but are still standing at the controls..trying to push the river. their motives for wanting to know so much is not pure,sometimes. I wonder if the difference in how we are trained to walk with Him determines how much easier it is to trust all those questions to Him,and to simply be, being, filled like a glass waiting to be filled ...to be poured into..not much for the vessel to do but yeild and wait.

We sometimes get so much knowledge in our heads that our heads get so big we cannot get out the door to do the work of the great commission...we do not have power because we do not spend the life we have already been given on those who need it the most ..we've become too concerned with our own small circle..family,church ,work...To be poured out as He was..if you are following Jesus yet have never left all, given up all,or given to the one who asks or takes,forgiven all,taken a beating or suffered a humiliation righteously..I would seriously consider going on a walk about. All these things/sayings He will ask you at one time or another as you walk with him..If he said it He meant it ..and it is important more important that anything anyone can say ...anyone,ever ...are we worthy,willing or have these become trite and quaint sayings that once might have been possible to pull off but now would only land you in the loony bin? or the left foot of fellowship booting you out the door...I believe too many have swept these more difficult sayings into the category 'reserved for the dustbin'...'not for this era circular file'..in regards to ever having applied them,or allowed Him to apply them ...after all we can only obey and say yes Lord! as He shows us what to do..He is alot more literal than most of us cowards are willing to believe/accept...poured out as a drink offering...a living sacrifice...Broken..we are His body...broken and given to be devoured by others for their food,their bread their sustenance, their refreshing drink...Mostly we are too me me me oriented...my walk, my understanding,my wretched sin,my salvation,my calling, my ministry,even my relationship to the point of lunacy in regards to the way it needs to be or what is plumb with the mind of Christ/which is for us..we get to put this on providing us with perfect focus and sanity ...when the Spirit of the Living God is moving powerfully through your life for others...it is God we are listening to and growing by and learning from ,in constant communion with ,no seperation..and the rest flows,abundant and overflowing towards those who are in need...and also the Holy Spirit using you to pray and to intercede...Hebrews says He has perfected those whom He has sanctified with the one sacrifice..there is not a whole lot of need to be me oriented it does not cross your mind..unless He makes you deal with old wounds but even then there is the others He brings ,divinely appointed to come alongside and need what you have just been given.So evn then we do not become to me oriented..self centered.If we will recieve this and rejoice in the freedom ,the liberty of the true easy yoke of Christ, we don't have to struggle and strive to achieve our own perfection ...all the while complaining or resignedly proclaiming that we cannot achieve this until we die and go on to our reward..there is no reward there, that is not also here...He is the reward...you can have as much of Him as you desire...or rather as much as you believe ..have faith for ...I will come into him and sup with him and he with Me. I will never leave you nor forsake you...My sheep shall hear my voice..and these were given the power to become the sons of God and so we believe and so recieve the peace that passes understanding which is ours yes! it is ours..not as the world gives, that comes and goes,hinges on how we feel during whatever situation...but peace in knowing that we get to learn at our own pace according to His divine plan and timing and we are perfect right where we are in our growth and developement in accordance with His perfect plan and will because God sees us through the blood of Jesus not through our own merit...this is crucial ..we are not in control and nor would we want to be..as this is what pulls us out of harmony, out of sync...We can be in alignment with His perfect will..this is doable..my God does not tease me with impossible to attain goals or promises..Jesus does not do this...He will do it through me ,...that is why He lives in me..this is why I had to give all..and die to my old life ..so He could put my feet upon His perfect course for me.. if I could do it on my own strength what need would I have for Him? Drink in the blood and all it provides and believe He moves through you ..easy..light..those who make it more complicated are simply darkened in their understanding...too much knowledge in their heads bouncing around causing trouble for them ..they need to get out of their rooms and walk out /exercise that which they have been learning..use the gifts they have been given..get their eyes off of themselves. He tells me people are unbalanced in this way and have become constipated...the bowels of Christ the deepest and most unpleasant aspects of the kingdom..where the waste moves out what has been eaten ,digested and processed so as to get all the body needs from the balanced diet he provides and then so natually(supernaturally-naturally) yes ..what is no longer needed is discarded..eliminated..left behind as is the sin it has to move too..and it does in the healthy body...sorry if this offends..but those who become constipated like this are full of a consciousness of sin more than of the blood..and see themselves in this defeated way..like dung -colored glasses..rose colored are ok as long as they are the Rose of Sharon ..but God speaks to me of the workings of everything that I don't understand ..I don't understand how people say He does not explain Himself very well...He loves to suprise us with revelation as to what He means ...He knows we are helpless without Him,His guidance and counsel...do not they know you as Counselor Lord?...or maybe that is why they don't hear...they do not believe that they can do all things throuigh Christ who strengthens us and so they can't or that nothing is impossible with God and so for them a sinless life becomes impossible...He has given us all things pertaining to godliness..Christ in us the hope of glory... we are expected to be Jesus...this is His perfection ..Him in us is ours.Faith is the evidence,the substance of Christ hoped for..have faith that it no longer needs to be you but Christ who dwells in you... more of Him and less of us.Being continuously filled...transforming at a steady and perfect pace..in accordance with the washing of the water of His word, in His season in His way..no worries.Rejoice and pass the blood! Cheers

this verse is like an itch that i cant reach .
I cant find anywhere where blood is not forbidden except for the heathen.

Also remember the passover meal they were commanded to eat the whole animal,I suppose organs and all.
But not the blood.
pass the brains please [no pun intended] LOL

can you imagine if you were in church and the pastor said.."unless you drink my blood you cannot be a member here"?..........

David

Again it is a matter of natural religious mind vs the mind of Christ...lose your mind to find it.

God has just spoken to me about these verses in John 6:53-54 today while I pondered over the fact that a number of people that I know backslid severely. This is how I interpret it:

There are many who hear read the Word of God or study and explain and even preach it. However, you only eat Jesus flesh when you take in the word of God to the degree that you digest it and it becomes part of yourself. You agree with it completely and your life becomes a living witness and example of it.

Drinking his blood means to live in forgiveness of with your brother. Just as blood circulates through the human body and keeps it alive, so does Jesus Blood circulate in the Body of Christ. Any limb that is not receive blood dies. The brother who trusts in his own godliness and withdraws himself from the forgiveness of sins is in danger of spiritual death. Forgiveness must be sincerely, specific and must envolve the people who sinned or were wronged.

1 John 1:7
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

Philip

I just wanted to clarify something.

My question seems rhetorical in that of course he ment what he said but my human mind says "run that by me again"
I am not asking what he said or what did he mean.
I am asking if he ment what he said.
But we all should know he did in fact mean what he said.
This is the dillema as i see it......this concept is heretical. To drink blood.
Jesus instead of modifying his statement says "does this offend you?"
Thereby adding what seems to me to be a departure from any hope of this being a parable or analogy.
When he said"anyone having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is not worthy to be my disciple."......This is impossible to misinterpret
There has to be a parralel truth some where doesnt there?

David

I am reminded of what happened to so many who were following Him after hearing this hard saying...they turned away. These had no faith to follow..they could not wrap their minds around it. How fortunate for these disciples who decided to stay..what was the option they queried..He was the real thing and they knew it ..they didn't understand their coming redemption but followed without understanding. Our faith in Him as Messiah is founded upon His Blood shed for us. He says those of us who believe in Him who sent Him shall not come into judgement..(John 5:26)What is it we need to believe concerning His Blood in particular?

Hebrews 8 and 9 is full of insight as to the fact that there was need to bring a more exellent ministry..New Covenant..faultless unlike the old.Pure this blood of Christ..the old being obsolete was ready to vanish away 2000 yrs ago...where does that leave it now?

The letter of the law(old)kills
The spirit of the law of heaven produces life.

Jesus was(is) always taking their ideas about the kingdom (and the lesser laws) and turning them upside down...it is not suprising that due to what His blood actually is...God's blood..that He would use this (what has bought us our redemption)to seperate those who would follow Him by faith from those who would adhere to the law and lean on their own understanding...those who remained chose to believe Him even though they did noy have the heavenly wisdom to understand what He meant. Earthly wisdom in comparison is demonic at worst and sophomoronic at best.

If He could take upon Himself..His perfect pure Self.. all of our wickedness..delivering us from all curses by becoming all curses..He became sin it is written...He had to pull it into Himself and bear it,drink it into Himself ...it couldn't just enter Him on it's own...and then face the horror we all would have had to face ,this seperation from God the Father...and this act of divine intercession has proven to be the one thing of power to deliver us from darkness and tranfer us into the kingdom of God...this Blood the one thing that gives us the power to become the sons of God. This does offend the darkness..yes it truly does! Redemption when understood more fully reveals just how this particular blood ,the Blood of Jesus the Christ, simply does not fall into the same category as any other blood there ever was or ever will be. This Blood is Life!

If He could drink the cup of my defiled rebellion..suffer the punishment of the death I've deserved,I consider it an honor to drink His Blood...may you ...dear David.. find peace in this offering as well.

Littlegift, thank you and I promise to do better.
Have you read the passover story in ex.?
I reread that and was wondering if they still apply the blood to the door post?
This was actually my starting place on the blood subject.
When Jesus said eat my flesh and drink my blood he was referring to passover.[last supper]
This I think we all understand.

The drink blood part seems elusive to me.
If you examine the eat flesh part it fits nice and neat. They ate the passover lamb.
But the blood was forbidden.
They did however do something special with the blood.
Have you noticed that it forms a cross?

Types and shadows are somehow necessary players in Gods unveiling.He wants us to see hidden treasures in his word.[he interpreted the parables only to the disciples] The religious and unbelieving stayed in the dark.
This is Gods added intrigue in our walk.
He hides things and sometimes hides himself.
The "drink my blood" statement appears to lack a type-antitype .
I kinda figured someone here has looked into this.
Maybe it is not the right time to explore it?

Concerning illuminaation....yes I agree if we are taught without the Holy Spirit we remain untaught.
It is spirit to spirit.

Our minds cannot cmprehend.....
The other side of that coin is......Ever seen a brain dead person follow the Lord?
A sound mind evidently comes into play at some point?
[I think I need help in both realms!!!] LOL

David

I got stuck on that phrase "i will do better" raising my kids.
They would tell me "I'm sorry" so many times it started to be a cliche'.
I Began to do it myself as an example to my children.
Anyway ,I know it seems kinda preschool but I feel humbled when I say it so now i do it before the Lord more than any thing else.
When my children would tell me that it really, really warmed my heart.
Wouldnt it be funny if it caught on here and everyone got frustrated with it?....Just kidding!

David

After many days of prayerfully searching the scriptures and meditating on this statement of Jesus....It just hit me what this meant 'to drink my blood'.
Its like we have been so used to associating the wine with the blood,that the obvious becomes elusive!
What was being said was 'there is going to be a CHANGE in the blood.
The blood you formerly knew as acceptable will soon be totally unacceptable.
My blood will not be caught in a basin to be used on a earthly temple.
my blood will be drank by the earth.
The earth will not reject my blood.
The earth will obediently drink my blood.
[accept my blood]
Now man is required to drink [accept] my blood.
He was specifically referring to the priesthood, the change of sacrifice, and the requirement of God to accept [drink] this new sacrifice.

The main clue was Isa 49;26

David