Poured out

We’re all familiar with the service of remembrance established by the Lord, where (at his command) we eat a bit of bread and drink a bit of wine. The Lord explicitly tells us they are symbols, and he explains them. Regarding the wine, he says:

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 26:27-28)

Mark’s account is the same, but Luke’s is slightly different:

And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” (Luke 22:20)

In Luke he refers to the wine being poured out into the cup, symbolic of the new covenant in his blood. In the other two he refers to his blood being poured out to establish the new covenant. (This new covenant is clearly the one foretold in Jeremiah 31:31-34 – a topic for another day.)

The difference between Luke and the other two is subtle. But the Lord’s statements take us in two different directions when we dig into the Old Testament background of wine being poured out, and blood being poured out.

In the Old Testament, wine was poured out as a “drink offering”, an act of worship. The practice actually predates the Law of Moses.

And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he [God] had spoken with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it and poured oil on it. (Genesis 35:14)

Then under the Law, drink offerings were established as an important part of Israel’s worship. For example, pouring out a drink offering was to accompany the daily morning and evening offerings. (Numbers 28:7)

Unfortunately, this act of worship was sometimes directed toward false gods, which greatly displeased the Living God of Israel. (Jeremiah 7:18 and a number of others)

Turning to the pouring out of blood, under the Law we find the blood of several sacrifices was to be poured out at base of the altar, notably for sin offerings (Leviticus 4:7 and others) and for the ordination of priests (Exodus 29:12).

These two kinds of pouring out were literal, but (one would hope) were not performed as mere ritual. The heart was supposed to be involved. The figurative pouring out of the heart is expressed by David:

Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. (Psalm 62:8)

The sacrificial blood of the sin offering was poured out—foreshadowing the pouring out of Jesus’s literal blood, sealing the new covenant. The drink offering was poured out—a symbolic act performed literally, given a different twist by Jesus. Instead of being a mere emptying, in his use of it, it was poured into a cup and then consumed and shared, once again sealing the covenant—but now also directly involving the worshipper. Binding us into that covenant. We really better be pouring out our heart too, if we hope to actually be beneficiaries of the covenant. And by the way, we’d better not be pouring ourselves out in service to another “god”.

There’s one further usage of pouring out, which I think is interesting. The apostle Paul writes this:

Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. (Philippians 2:17)

He was in prison, and says this in reference to the very real possibility that he would die for his faith, as he discusses in chapter 1. It didn’t happen that time, but later he was in prison again, and he knew this time he would be killed.

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. (2 Timothy 4:6)

Our blood is not poured out in sacrifice—that role is for Jesus alone. But it could be that we are called upon to pour out our lives as a drink offering. Something to think about, as we drink the wine poured out for us, in remembrance of the blood poured out for us, and in renewing the pouring out of our heart.

Love, Paul