Jesus of Nazareth: What He Wanted, Who He Was

First of all: Jesus again refers to his imminent death. He interprets the cup of red wine as his blood, soon to be shed. “Shedding blood” means “killing.” Jesus will be killed. But here again the saying does not remain merely a prophecy of death. The text does not simply speak of Jesus’ blood, but of his blood of the covenant, and “blood of the covenant” alludes to the event in Exodus 24:4-11. That is the story of the act of Israel’s founding. Moses builds an altar at the foot of Sinai and sets up twelve pillars, dashes the blood of sacrifices against the altar, and reads the book of the covenant in the hearing of the twelve tribes. Finally, he also sprinkles the people with the blood and says, “See the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words” (Exod 24:8). After that, Moses and the elders of Israel are permitted to eat a meal with God himself on the mountain. At this point we do not need to ask about the original meaning of this sprinkling with blood; probably it was intended to show that Israel had become a nation of priests in the sense of Exodus 19:6: “You shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.”

Crucial to the later understanding of Exodus 24:8 is that it combines three motifs: the common meal, God’s covenant with Israel, and the blood with which the covenant is sealed. In the Jewish interpretive tradition in Jesus’ time this blood dashed onto the altar at the foot of Sinai was a means of atonement for the sins of Israel.²⁰

Against this background Jesus’ saying about the cup of blessing in Mark 14:24 can only mean that his life is being surrendered to death. But his blood, which flows out as a result, is not shed in vain and without meaning; it is “blood of the covenant,” that is, it renews and perfects the covenant God once made with Israel at Sinai. This eschatological renewal of the covenant, which is simultaneously a new creation and a new founding of Israel, takes place through the blood of Jesus, which frees Israel from its sins and atones for it.

If we take seriously the connection to Exodus 24:8 the “many” of whom the cup saying in Mark speaks can initially refer only to Israel. Jesus interprets his violent death as dying for Israel, as an atoning surrender of his life for the life of the people of God. That reference to Israel was clear from the very fact that Jesus gave the cup of blessing to the Twelve, his chosen representatives of the people of the twelve tribes. But the reference to Israel is equally clear from the background of the Sinai covenant. That covenant was made with Israel, and if it is renewed, then it is renewed with Israel. The “many” are, then, in the first place, the people of the twelve tribes.

We cannot be content to say that, however, because the saying about the “many” comes from Isaiah 52:13-53:12, the so-called Fourth Servant Song. The Servant ²¹ suffers as representative of the many, and in this song, in which “many” is a leitmotif, they are clearly the Gentile nations.²² So in redacting the Last Supper tradition available to him Mark must have had the nations in view in addition to Israel. That is not a problem, for Israel, in the theology of the Old Testament, is representative of the nations. It was not chosen for its own sake but for that of the world. The salvation that spreads throughout Israel is to become salvation for the whole world. Therefore the many can be Israel first of all, and then beyond Israel the nations as well. This universal statement becomes false only if it passes over the reference to Israel. And that is certainly not the case for Mark, nor is it for the other New Testament authors.

So we can also say that, according to Mark, in the course of the Paschal meal Jesus interprets the loaf of bread torn asunder and the red wine in terms of his approaching death, and by handing the bread and wine to the Twelve he gives them, and so Israel, a share in the power of his death. For this death is at the same time interpreted as atonement for Israel, which has fallen into sin, and as a renewal of the Sinai covenant. And by way of the eschatological Israel this new and ultimate salvation is to reach the many nations.