This is my blood of the covenant! (Mark 14.12-25)

[Stephan Choe]

09 October 2025

Key verses: 22-24: „And when they ate, Jesus took the bread, and gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, Take; this is my body: and he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them; and they all drank from it. And he said unto them, This is my blood of the covenant, which is shed for many.“

October 5th was Thanksgiving in Germany. October 6th was Thanksgiving Day in Korea, an important holiday in Korea.

On Maundy Thursday before Passover, Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with his disciples. The Lord's Supper clearly shows us the core of the Gospel. That's why today we want to get to know the meaning of the Lord's Supper.

The celebration of the Lord's Supper connects the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt with the death of Christ on the cross and our future celebration in the Kingdom of Heaven.

May God fill each of us with the Holy Spirit and renew our faith in the blood of Christ.

1. The preparation of the Lord's Supper (12-16)

Verse 12 reads: „On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, <Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?>”

Jesus came to Jerusalem with his disciples for the Passover. He had his disciples make preparations for the Passover.

The Passover was celebrated on 14 Nisan according to the Jewish calendar to commemorate the Exodus from Egypt, as written in 3 Moses 23.5: „The Lord’s Passover begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month.“

The Jewish calendar at that time was a lunar calendar in which the first narrow new moon becomes visible on the first day of the month and a new day begins at sunset. And a month has 29 days or 30 days.

At that time the first month of the year was called „Nisan“. Nisan was a spring month, around mid-March to mid-April. This month was called „Abib“ in the time of Moses. So, Passover begins on Nisan 14, the day of the full moon.

The lamb plays a central role in this celebration. When the angel of death visited Egypt, he spared only the firstborn sons of the Israelites. At that time, the Israelites had previously marked their doorposts with lamb's blood.

In the week before Easter, Christians celebrate the Lord's Supper to commemorate the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus.

On the evening of Maundy Thursday, Jesus ate his last supper on this earth with his disciples. Maundy Thursday is the Thursday before Easter Sunday.

At this Last Supper, Jesus explained in advance to his 12 disciples the meaning of his death and bloodshed.

That night Jesus is captured, judged before the Jewish High Council early on Friday morning, and then handed over to the Roman governor Pilate. Finally he is judged before Pilate, sentenced to death, crucified shortly before noon and dies on the cross around 15 o'clock.

Jesus and his 12 disciples wanted to celebrate Passover. On Thursday during the day, i.e. Nisan 13, Jesus and his disciples (probably) stayed in Bethany, a suburb of Jerusalem. But Jesus wanted to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem, but he had no dwelling of his own in Jerusalem, for he and his disciples all came from Galilee. Therefore his disciples asked Jesus: „Where do we want to go and celebrate the Passover?“

Jesus said to Peter and John (s. Lk. 22:8): „Go into the city, and you will meet a man carrying a jug of water. Follow him where he goes and say to the master of the house: <The master of the house tells you: Where is the room where I can eat the Passover lamb with my disciples?> Then he shows you a large room above, covered with upholstery and prepared (for the feast). Prepare Passover for us there.“

2. „This is my body!“ (22-23)

On Thursday evening Jesus came into the house with the twelve disciples to have dinner. As they sat at the table and ate together, Jesus explained to them: „Verily I say to you, one of you who eats with me will betray me“ (18).

This explanation seemed like a bomb attack to the disciples They looked at each other and one by one asked Jesus, „Do you mean me?“

Jesus answered, „One of you who dips his bread with me in the bowl. The Son of Man goes as it is written about him. But woe to the man through whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would be better for this person if he had never been born.“

Jesus knew full well that Judas Iscariot wanted to betray him.

But why did Jesus speak of Judah's treachery in the run-up to his death through treachery?

He had a double intention. On the one hand, he wanted to explain to his disciples in advance that he would die as a sacrificial lamb of God in obedience to the will of God. If he wanted to avoid his death, he could have escaped. But no. He wanted to obey the will of God and die for the salvation of men and shed his blood.

On the other hand, Jesus wanted to offer Judas an opportunity to repent with his prediction. Judas should repent of his evil intentions. Unfortunately, Judas threw the offered opportunity for repentance to the wind and did not regret it.

When we plan something evil in our hearts, we should immediately seize the opportunity to repent.

That Jesus broke the bread and distributed it to his disciples – that was his vivid explanation of the meaning of his death.

You eat bread to live. Jesus is the bread of life, for He gives us eternal, meaningful life through His death and resurrection, as He said in John 6:35:

„I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will not go hungry; and whoever believes in me will never thirst again.“

How can we eat Jesus? By believing in Jesus. By accepting Jesus as Christ and Son of God, that is, „to believe in Jesus as Christ and Son of God“. By believing in Jesus as the Son of God, we can have eternal life. 

Every person is hungry for a meaningful, eternal life. Unfortunately, we cannot satisfy this hunger with worldly things like wealth, career or pleasure. Such things cannot allow us to live forever, meaningfully.

When I was an elementary school student, people in my village celebrated according to the lunar calendar from January 1st to 15th, I played various interesting games with friends until midnight, for example four wooden stick games. I returned home at midnight. Then the feeling of emptiness came to me like waves.

After believing in Jesus Christ, Jesus gave me meaning in life and eternal life and filled my emptiness. That's why I'm not attached to money or worldly honor. I cling to Jesus, who filled my emptiness with meaning and life. That's why I stayed in Germany to spread the good news about Jesus.

While studying in Korea, I had a friend from home. He and I started university study at the same time, sharing the same room, I invited him to Bible study and worship. Unfortunately, he did not believe in the Gospel, but was more interested in Buddhism. While I worked almost every day inviting students to Bible study and worship, he was fully focused on the state examination for prosecutor or judge. He also had a pretty fiancee. He had told his parents at home that I was „wasting“ my time through church activities. His parents told my older brother about it. But my brother trusted me After completing his studies, he joined the military service. One day, I learned through my brother that the friend had died in an accident in the military. This was a painful incident.

3. „This is my blood of the covenant!“ (23-25)

At Jesus' Last Supper, the slaughtered Passover lamb was missing because it was still Thursday evening, the Passover lamb is only slaughtered on Friday and eaten on Friday evening. Had Jesus and his disciples already eaten the Passover Lamb on Thursday evening, Jesus could have declared: „Behold, this is the Passover Lamb that sheds blood for you.“

But Jesus explained the meaning of his impending death through bread and red wine.

After Jesus had given the disciples divided bread to eat, he took the cup of red wine, thanked God for it, handed it to them and said: „This is my blood of the covenant that will be shed for many“ (23-24).

What did Jesus mean by his word „my blood of the covenant“?
To understand the meaning of this word, we must first understand the word „covenant“. We call the first part of the Bible „the Old Testament“ and the second part „the New Testament“. The New Testament was originally written in Greek. In Greek, „testament” and „covenant” were the same word. So the main theme of the Old Testament is the Old Covenant and the main theme of the New Testament is the New Covenant.

After the Israelites left Egypt, the Old Covenant between God and Israel was made based on the blood of the sacrificial animal. Then Moses sprinkled the Israelites with the blood of the sacrificial animal, saying: „Behold, this is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you because of all these words.“
In this covenant, the blood of animals had to be sprinkled on people again and again in order to forgive sins. That's why animal sacrifices were necessary again and again.
But the New Covenant was made because of the blood of Jesus Christ, for Jesus shed His blood on the cross to forgive men their sins once and for all.
Therefore, all people in the world can obtain forgiveness and eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ (Hebrew 9:12).

Therefore, God's word in Hebrews 9:13-14 is: „For if the blood of goats („goat“ here means a male sheep) and bulls and the ashes of the cow sanctify the unclean by sprinkling them so that they are clean outside, how much more will the blood of Christ become, who offered himself as a flawless sacrifice by the eternal Spirit through the eternal Spirit who cleansed our conscience of the dead works of service to the living God.“

The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sins if we believe in the bloodshed of Christ for our sins. So Jesus delivered us from the power of death and Satan and made us children of God. We are really free.

Therefore the Bible says: „If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old has passed away, behold, the new has become“ (2. Cor. 5,17).

Our old life will be crucified and buried with Christ. We are living a whole new life now. We will always win, even though our situation often looks like we are losers, we have a glorious future, because we will come to the kingdom of heaven and rule with Christ.

Jesus says: „This is my blood of the covenant shed for many.“

Through Christ's bloodshed, we have a new identity as God's children and God's people, as Peter says:

„But you are the chosen race, the royal priesthood, the holy people, the people of His property, to proclaim the blessing of Him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.“ (1. Peter 2.9).

As God's people, we have a calling to bear witness to God's blessings. We should bear witness to Christ together. We should work through our lives and our words to „make all nations disciples of Christ“ (Matthew 28:29).

Eat the body of Jesus and drink his blood

I would like to briefly summarize the meaning of the Lord's Supper. Jesus divided the bread, gave it to his disciples and said: „Take, this is my body.“ He also gave them the cup of red wine and said: „This is my blood of the covenant“.

All people who believe that Jesus is God's Son and died bleeding for their sins receive forgiveness, eternal life and the kingdom of heaven. This is the good news for you and me. By believing in this message, we, as children of God and people of God, make an eternal covenant with God.

Today we learned the meaning of Christ's death through Jesus' communion celebration with his disciples. May God fill each of us with His Holy Spirit and help us to personally embrace the meaning of Christ's blood and death and make the covenant with God. May God fill our hearts with great gratitude for His bloodshed. Amen!