Question #9: Why Would Jesus Want You To Eat His Body and Drink His Blood?

It has been a while since my last post, but now that the semester is over and Christmas has passed I want to get back into the swing of things and get back to answering the "10 questions every intelligent Christian must answer". I have posted the video above for those who are not familiar with the video and I have already responded to Question #10 (here) in a previous post.

So, with that being said let us move on to Question #9 "Why would Jesus want you to eat his body and drink his blood?" Before I begin to actually answer the question being asked it is interesting how the person in the video asks the questions. It is almost as if he tries to strip the questions of their religious context in an attempt to make the actions sound really strange. In his mentioning of this question he makes no mention of the Lord's Supper or communion or any of the various views that Christians have held over time. I do not mean this to be disrespectful in any way, but the person on the video opens the video by commenting on how these questions are for intelligent Christians, however these do not come off as intelligent questions! That being said do to the popularity of the video on the internet the video should still be addressed.

The narrator of the video asks Question #9 and then says, "It sounds totally grotesque, doesn't it? Why would an all-powerful God want you to do something that, in any other context, sounds like a disgusting, cannibalistic, satanic ritual?" It is interesting that he says in any other "context"... However, with an issue like this, is context not extremely important? Let me move forward and begin to answer the question.

There are three important points that I will make in response to this question: (1) Jesus did not ask his followers to literally ask us to eat his body and drink his blood, (2) there are reasons why Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper, and (3) this question does not logically lead one to the conclusion drawn by the video.

There are three major texts that deal with the topic at hand:

"So Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.'" (John 6:53 ESV)

"Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, 'Take, eat; this is my body.' And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, 'Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.'" (Matthew 26:26-29)

"For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when 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, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.' For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." (1 Corinthians 11:23-26).

While different traditions of Christianity are going to have different interpretations I think there is good reason to believe that Jesus was not speaking literally in John 6:53. Rather he was speaking in a spiritual sense. Eating of Jesus's "body" and drinking his "blood" serves as a spiritual nourishment to the Christian. It is worth noting that there is no historical account of Jesus' audience literally eating his body an drinking his blood, so it would appear his audience also understood this was not meant literally.

In his Systematic Theology, Wayne Grudem offers 7 different things that are symbolized and affirmed in the Lord's Supper (pp. 990-991):

1. Christ's Death

2. Our Participation in the Benefits of Christ's Death

3. Spiritual Nourishment

4. The Unity of Believers

5. Christ Affirms His Love for Me

6. Christ Affirms That All the Blessings of Salvation Are Reserved for Me

7. I Affirm My Faith in Christ

So in direct response to the original question, the above 7 points offered by Grudem are why we participate in the Lord's Supper. Perhaps even more concisely we look to Paul's mention of the tradition where he writes, "For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes". In the Christian Worldview doesn't this make complete since? If Christ's death atoned for our sins, doesn't it make since that Christ would put in place practices that will remind us of this while we go through this life in a fallen world so that we both remember to be thankful for what he has done and that he will return again? It doesn't seem as bizarre as this video would lead you to believe once put in it's proper context.

Finally, I will take issue with the question. This video tries to lead it's viewers to the conclusion that God is imaginary. How does this question have anything to do with that? How does finding something odd about a religion lead one to the conclusion that God must be imaginary? It's almost as if those making the video are saying, "I don't understand God, therefore he does not exist" or "God does things I wouldn't do, therefore he is imaginary". This is a video who asks for intelligent Christians to watch but fails to offer intelligent questions.