This Is My Body

Transcript

Hello, my friend… so glad you're with me today. This is By God's Call — day 298, This Is My Body.

"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.'" Matthew 26, verses 26 through 28.

This is the last night. Jesus knows exactly what is coming in the next few hours — the betrayal, the arrest, the trial, the cross. And look at what He chooses to do with the time He has left. He doesn't give a farewell speech full of complicated instructions. He institutes a meal. Something simple, something the disciples will do again and again, for the rest of their lives, to remember Him.

This meal was the Jewish Passover — a tradition over a thousand years old, celebrating the deliverance out of Egypt. Every devout Jew knew that bread, that cup, that liturgy by heart. And it's exactly in that familiar moment that Jesus does something entirely new. He takes bread that had always meant one thing, and says something never said before: "this is my body." He places Himself at the very center of Israel's own story of salvation.

And then comes the cup. "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." Notice the word poured out. Not blood kept back, hidden, preserved. Poured out, on purpose, given. Jesus' death was not a tragic accident that God later tried to fix. It was an act of deliberate giving — He knew, He chose, He offered.

And Jesus doesn't stop at "remember me." He says this blood is "for the forgiveness of sins." That changes everything. The meal is not merely an emotional memory of someone we loved and lost. It is a sign of real forgiveness, already won, already paid for, already sealed at the cross. When you take part in this meal, you aren't just recalling a historical fact — you are receiving, again, the assurance that your sins have been covered.

And there's a detail that always moves me: "drink of it, all of you." All of you. Judas was sitting at that table. Jesus knew the betrayal that was coming within hours, and He still held out the bread and the cup to him too. Christ's offer arrives before we even know whether we'll receive it well, before we deserve it, before we're ready. That is pure grace.

So today I want to invite you to something simple, but profound. At your next meal, before the first bite, pause for a moment. Just a moment. And thank Jesus out loud for the body and blood given for you. It doesn't need to be a ceremony. It needs to be true.

Stay close to God. Pray — then act. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend.