Symbolic objects in biblical worship continues with blood, the bread and cup, and the cross.
Blood
In the Scripture, blood is a symbol of life (Gen. 9:4). While the spirit or breath is the life force, blood is the life substance. For this reason the Lord forbade Israel to eat or drink the blood of animals; it was to be poured out into the ground, symbolically returning it to God, who had given them life (Lev. 17:10–14). Because blood represents life, it was used for sanctification ceremonies in Israel's rituals. Even before the law was given, while the Hebrews were still in Egypt, the Lord gave instructions for killing a lamb and smearing its blood over their doorways for protection. The blood "sanctified," or set apart, the family within; the messenger of death recognized that the occupants of the house belonged to Yahweh and refrained from killing their firstborn (Exod. 12:13).
This same symbolism is at the heart of the various sprinklings of blood required by the Mosaic Law. A sacrifice made to the Lord was holy, or set apart, for him. Whatever touched it also became holy (Exod. 30:29). When the various altars, tables, utensils, and the tabernacle itself were sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice, they were sanctified (Lev. 16:11–20). The covenant theme underlies this practice; those persons entering into covenant typically kill an animal and either sprinkle the blood on themselves or drink it as a way of identifying with the animal. The idea is that they will share the fate of the slain beast if they break the stipulations of the treaty. As worshipers of Yahweh, the people of Israel were prohibited from drinking blood; when they offered sacrifices the priest sprinkled the animal's blood on them as an identification with the covenant, but they substituted drinking wine for drinking blood in the covenant meal. Being bound to Yahweh made Israel holy; since he is holy, all that belongs to him is holy as well (Lev. 11:44–45; Deut. 7:6, 14:2, 21; 26:19).
The author of Hebrews states that the blood of Jesus Christ is the blood of the new covenant. He is the Passover Lamb, sacrificed for the new covenant people. As the priest carried the blood of the sacrificed animal into the Most Holy Place on the Day of Atonement and sprinkled it on the cover of the ark, so Jesus, the High Priest and Mediator of the new covenant, entered the heavenly sanctuary with his own blood to make atonement for his people (Heb. 9:11–15; 10:29; 13:20).
Jesus said that those who eat his flesh and drink his blood will receive his life (John 6:54–56), a reference to the idea that blood is the life substance. When instituting the Lord's Supper, he used wine to symbolize the shedding of his blood. Wine was known to be a cleansing agent in the case of flesh wounds (Luke 10:34), while blood was the Old Testament agent for spiritual cleansing (Heb. 9:22). Under the new covenant it is Jesus' blood that provides cleansing for all who believe in him (1 Pet. 1:18–19; 1 John 1:7; Rev. 1:5), and that blood is symbolized by the wine of the Eucharist (Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25).
John visualizes the victorious Christ clothed in a "robe dipped in blood" (Rev. 19:13), while the great company of the redeemed are wearing garments that have been washed and made "white in the blood of the Lamb" (Rev. 7:14). Obviously the blood of Christ is a verbal, not a visual, symbol in New Testament usage; washing in literal blood would not make things white. Even the wine or grape juice of the Lord's Supper is not important as a visual symbol of Jesus' blood; it is the corporate action of partaking of the cup and the loaf that conveys the meaning of the ordinance as the covenant meal and the emblem of cleansing.
Bread and Cup
Both bread, or the loaf, and the cup are biblical symbols having several meanings. When combined, as the emblems of the Lord's Supper, they take on additional significance in Christian worship.
Bread and Life
Bread, which in the Bible often stands for all food, is a symbol for the Word of God, and by extension, for the covenant relationship it governs and the life that flows from the covenant. In the Lord's name, Isaiah appeals to Israel to "eat what is good," the true bread of the "everlasting covenant" (Isa. 55:2–3). Moses compared the Word of the Lord to bread as the true basis for life in the covenant (Deut. 8:3); his words are quoted by Jesus in resisting the tempter (Matt. 4:4). In speaking of bread, Moses was referring to the manna that fell during Israel's wanderings, by which the people were miraculously fed in a barren wilderness. Jesus also mentions the manna, contrasting it with himself as the "Bread of Life," or living bread (John 6:49–51). This discourse of Jesus is filled with overlapping symbols: the manna is a token of the "true bread out of heaven," yet the bread represents Jesus' flesh, which he gives in dying that the world might live (John 6:32–33, 51). The discourse is occasioned by the feeding of the multitude, in which Jesus "gave thanks"; John pointedly records this twice (John 6:11, 23), suggesting that the entire chapter is an interpretation of the Eucharist. (Mention of the impending Passover celebration in the introduction to the account [John 6:4] reinforces this hypothesis.) Yet, in the end, it is neither the manna, nor the bread, nor his flesh, nor any ceremonial act that Jesus has in mind, but a spiritual reality symbols can only suggest: "the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life" (John 6:63).
Bread of the Presence (Shewbread)
In the sanctuary, the "bread of the presence," or shewbread (le?empanim, literally "bread of face"), was to be set out on a table before the Lord at all times (Exod. 25:30), being replaced each Sabbath. Since there were twelve loaves, placed with frankincense as a "memorial," the bread may have been symbolic of the continual covenant between Yahweh and Israel. The bread of the presence was sacrosanct, and only the priests could eat it (Lev. 24:9; 1 Sam. 21:4). However, David and his soldiers, being in a consecrated state, were allowed to eat it when no other food was available (1 Sam. 21:6). Jesus cites this incident to prove to the Pharisees that the institutions of Israel's religion, especially the Sabbath, were created to benefit the people of God and not to bind them (Mark 2:25–28).
Unleavened Bread
The unleavened bread eaten during the observance of the Passover (Exod. 12:15–30; 13:3–7) is a reminder of the Exodus from Egypt and especially of the haste in which the Israelites had to depart, there being no time on the journey to allow the dough to rise before baking (Exod. 12:39). As a memorial of the Lord's mighty act of deliverance, through which he created a people for himself (Exod. 19:4), the unleavened bread and the entire Passover are a covenant meal, celebrating the relationship God has decreed with his sons and daughters. The Lord's Supper transfers the same symbolism to the new covenant as Jesus relates the bread to his body given in death to enact it (Luke 22:19). Although some interpreters, in administering the Lord's Supper, have associated the striped appearance of modern commercial matzah with Isaiah's words, "with his stripes we are healed" (Isa. 53:5 kjv), there is no scriptural evidence that the unleavened bread had this appearance or that the Lord's Supper was associated with physical healing.
The Bread of Communion
Paul, writing of the Lord's Supper, refers to the broken bread as "a koin?nia in the body of Christ" (1 Cor. 10:16). The term koin?nia, sometimes translated "fellowship" or "sharing," indicates mutual participation at a more than superficial level. The broken loaf symbolizes an inward communion in the body of Christ, both his body on the cross in death and his body the church: "we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf" (1 Cor. 10:17). Not only is the loaf an inadequate symbol of this communion, but the word koin?nia and its English equivalents cannot really encompass it; the unity of Christ's body, as energized by the Spirit of the living Lord, is a numinous reality that must be apprehended intuitively through corporate worship and the deeper bonding of covenanted lives.
The Cup of Wrath
Symbolism of the cup in Scripture includes the negative symbolism of God's wrath and judgment on the unfaithful; yet even this is relevant to worship, since biblical worship celebrates the covenant and employs its structure. The prophet Jeremiah is told to take from the Lord's hand the "cup filled with the wine of my wrath" and administer it to the disobedient nations of the world, including Jerusalem and Judah (Jer. 25:15–18). Ezekiel also proclaims the judgment of the Lord God against the harlot sister nations of Israel and Judah, using the figure of "the cup of ruin and desolation" (Ezek. 23:31–34). The background for such language is the use of cup symbolism in the sanctions of ancient treaties; one of the curses pronounced on the traitor is that he must drink the cup of poison (a practice with which we are familiar from Plato's account of the death of Socrates). As the Judge, God administers his poison cup to the wicked of the land (Ps. 75:8), the prideful who refuse to recognize his sovereignty (Ps. 75:4–5; cf. Ps. 11:6). When Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me" (Luke 22:42), he is referring to the penalty for unfaithfulness to the covenant that he himself is to bear on the cross that others might be released from its curse (cf. Gal. 3:13).
The Cup of Blessing
The cup is also, of course, a positive symbol of fellowship with the Lord and of his blessing. David celebrates the abundance of Yahweh his Shepherd in singing, "My cup overflows. Surely goodness and love [?esed] will follow me all the days of my life" (Ps. 23:5–6). In Psalm 16 he testifies, "Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup" (Ps. 16:5), perhaps in contrast to the libations, or drink offerings, of those who have exchanged Yahweh for another god (Ps. 16:4). Such a libation offered to Yahweh may be intended in Psalm 116:13, in which the speaker says, "I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord," in fulfillment of a vow. In ancient Jewish custom, a meal was concluded by a prayer of thanksgiving over a cup of wine, called the "cup of blessing"; Paul borrows this phrase in describing the cup of the Lord's Supper: "Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing [koin?nia] in the blood of Christ?" (1 Cor. 10:16 nasb). Like the common loaf, the cup of the Eucharist is a token of a deeper communion in the death of Christ, symbolized by his blood.
Eucharistic Symbols: The Bread and the Cup
The bread and the cup together are the visual tokens of the Lord's Supper, physical objects that do not stand in isolation but are part of a larger whole, a corporate act of worship that is the real sacramental symbol. It is significant that in the New Testament accounts of the institution of the Last Supper it is not the wine but the cup of which Jesus speaks. Had he spoken of the wine itself, the focus would be on the substance, a visual representation of his literal blood. In focusing on the cup, Jesus calls attention instead to the action by which his assembled worshipers are to memorialize and represent his death. The bread, which bore less resemblance to his physical body, could be mentioned directly without compromising the deeper symbolism intended. When the second-century church began to produce visual symbols, one of the favorite motifs in catacomb frescoes was the symbol of the Eucharist; typically it took the form, not of the loaf and cup, but of the loaves and fish of the feeding of the multitude (John 6:4–14), with the chalice of wine sometimes faintly visible in the background (Walter Lowrie, Art in the Early Church, 2nd ed. [New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1965], plate 13).
The Cross
The church did not use the cross as a visual symbol until around the fifth century a.d. In the New Testament, the cross is a physical object, the instrument of Jesus' execution. But it is also a word picture in apostolic teaching, and Jesus spoke of it symbolically.
Appearance of the Cross
The shape of the cross on which Jesus died is unknown. The Greek word stauros indicates the instrument of crucifixion but not necessarily the arrangement of "crossed" wooden beams that has become familiar from later Christian art, the so-called Latin cross. Although the Romans may have used crosses in this form, crucifixion was usually on a simple vertical stake without a cross arm. Several New Testament passages speak of Christ's death on a "tree" (xulon, Acts 5:30; Gal. 3:13; 1 Pet. 2:24) in fulfillment of Deuteronomy 21:22, suggesting a wooden stake.
Use of the cross as a visual symbol originated in paganism; it is found throughout the ancient world in cultures that preceded the Christian era. A common cross in the eastern Mediterranean world was that used in the worship of the god Tammuz. The symbol of Tammuz was the initial letter of his name, the Greek letter tau, shaped like a "T," with a circle over it representing the sun. Along with many pagan symbols and customs, the "T" cross and other cross symbols eventually passed into Christian usage, introducing the horizontal arm.
The Cross As Instrument of Execution
Roman officials used the cross as a means of execution in certain cases. An especially cruel method of torture and punishment, crucifixion was the penalty for acts of rebellion against authority, such as the revolt of slaves or of subject nations. The victim hung on the cross might linger for several days, alternating between periods of half-consciousness and agonizing pain. Josephus, the Jewish historian who deserted to the Romans during the revolt of a.d. 66–70, tells of encountering several of his friends, crucified, while traveling with the Roman commander; at his request the men were taken down, and some survived. The Jewish method of capital punishment was not crucifixion but stoning; however, the apostolic preaching of Acts holds the Jewish authorities ultimately responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus, with the Romans as their willing agents (Acts 2:23, 36; 3:13–15; 4:10).
Jesus' Use of the Symbolism of the Cross
In the discourse recorded in Matthew 16:21–28, Jesus predicted his own suffering at the hands of the religious establishment. When Peter protested, Jesus replied, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Matt. 16:24). In this imagery, the "cross" does not mean trials and problems in general, but persecution for the sake of the kingdom of God, as the context of Jesus' words makes clear. The cross is emblematic of the truth that one must "lose his life" in the present order of things in order to gain it in the new order to come (Matt. 16:25–26). Those entering the new order are considered traitors to the old institutions and are made the objects of abuse, a theme found elsewhere in Jesus' teaching (for example, Matt. 5:10–12; John 15:18–20) and throughout the New Testament. The author of Hebrews, for instance, reminds his readers that Jesus "suffered outside the city gate," adding, "let us, then, go out to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore" (Heb. 13:12–13). According to Jesus, the new kingdom is to make its appearance while some of those hearing his words are still living (Matt. 16:27–28), suggesting that the events of a.d. 70, the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, are pivotal. At that time the victory of the one crucified will be manifest, and the persecuted of the new order will prevail over their persecutors of the old.
The Cross in Apostolic Teaching
Thus, in the proclamation and teaching of the apostles, the cross stands not only for Jesus' suffering, but also for his triumph over the forces opposed to the kingdom of God. Paul, in a remarkable turnabout of symbolism, declares that it is Jesus who nails to the cross "the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us"; in the cross, Jesus exposed and disarmed the "rulers and authorities" of the old system which had held people captive "through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men" (Col. 2:8–15 nasb). The powers of the old order, "the rulers of this age, who are passing away," were defeated when they "crucified the Lord of glory" (1 Cor. 2:6–8 nasb). It is not the cross, but the identity of the one crucified, which is the crucial factor. In taking upon himself the curse of the old covenant (Gal. 3:13), the Son of God cancelled its effect, making it possible for both Jew and Gentile to enter the new covenant by faith (Gal. 3:22). "By making peace through his blood shed on the cross," Jesus has reconciled all people to God the Father (Col. 1:19–22). The cross of Christ, then, is his victory, one reality with his resurrection and exaltation, all summed up in Jesus' words: "But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself" (John 12:32, italics added).
The preaching of the cross is an offense. The image of an instrument of torture is not a pretty one, nor is the message of the cross the clever and entertaining speech of the polished orator. To the world it is offensive and foolish (1 Cor. 1:17–23). But this is exactly the potency of the cross as a verbal image. As a mere image, the cross may degenerate into a decoration, a repetitive ornamental motif, or a magical talisman. In itself it is insignificant, unintelligible, even repulsive. As a true symbol, however, it can only direct beyond itself to the reality it represents, and that is its power.
