‘And he took a cup, and gave thanks, and gave to them, saying, “Drink you all of it, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many unto remission of sins.”
Jesus then took the cup. It was the normal custom at Passover for each participant to have his own cup, but it would appear that here Jesus shares His cup with His disciples. The change was of deep significance. It was necessary that they all participate of His cup (compare Matthew 20:23), for it was His blood that was shed in order to establish the new covenant. It stressed that only in Him was there forgiveness and life.
‘He gave thanks.' In view of what He knew about the significance of that cup this was a sign of His ultimate faith in His Father. He was able to give thanks because He knew that all that was to happen was in His Father's will, and because He was giving thanks on behalf of them all. And He did it with full awareness of the significance of the cup for Him, as He now declares. For what this cup symbolised was what He would later seek to withdraw from as the horror of it struck home to His soul (Matthew 26:39; Matthew 26:42).
‘Drink you all of it.' All His disciples were being called on to participate to the full in what He was doing for them. If they would enjoy ‘the cup of salvation' (Psalms 116:13, part of the Hallel) they must do so by partaking of the benefits of His death as symbolised by that cup. All must drink of it.
‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many unto remission of sins.' The phrase ‘blood of the covenant' is found in Exodus 24:8 where it was closely connected with blood shed in sacrifices, and indicated the blood that had been shed and applied in order to ensure atonement (by whole burnt offerings and peace offerings). It was intended to seal the covenant and was applied to the people so as to bind them into that covenant. But here instead of the blood being sprinkled on them, they would partake of it symbolically through partaking of the wine. This was in order to bring home to them how much they must become involved with His death (compare Galatians 2:20, ‘I have been crucified with Christ'). They must ‘drink His blood', that is take on themselves responsibility for His death. So by it they were acknowledging their responsibility for His death.
But Jesus was also here indicating that His blood was sealing a new covenant, a better covenant, although connected with the old. This new covenant is mentioned in Jeremiah 31:31-34 and involved among other things is the imparting of righteousness to them through a spiritual transformation of their lives and through the guarantee of forgiveness (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:8-13), something which the old covenant had been unable to do. The same idea is found in Ezekiel 16:8; Ezekiel 16:59-60; Ezekiel 16:62-63, again connected with forgiveness (Matthew 26:63). In neither case, however, is it connected with a sacrifice.
The pouring out of blood in a covenant necessarily indicates a new, renewed covenant, and while we do not fully know what the shedding of blood in order to seal a covenant specifically indicated, it certainly indicated the life and death importance of the covenant. So to be a part of that covenant was a sacred thing. And as all offerings and sacrifices offered to God contained within them the idea of atonement in one way or another, that would also be included, and is inherent in the reference to the forgiveness of sins.
But the phrase ‘the blood of the covenant of you' is also found in Zechariah 9:11, which clearly refers back to Exodus 24:8, in the words ‘As for you also, because of the blood of your covenant I have sent forth your prisoners out of the pit in which is no water.' Here the blood of the covenant which they had with YHWH is specifically linked with the idea of God acting in deliverance, and this in a context continually in mind in Matthew's narrative (compare Zechariah 9:9 with Matthew 21:5; Zechariah 1:1 with Matthew 23:35; Zechariah 12:10 with Matthew 24:30; Zechariah 13:7 with Matthew 26:31; and Zechariah 11:13 with Matthew 26:15; Matthew 27:9). So ‘My blood of the covenant' indicates a covenant sealed by the blood of Jesus as He is offered on His people's behalf, which binds all who participate within that covenant to do the will of His Father, offers them full atonement and forgiveness, and promises full deliverance from God's judgments. And it should be noted here that the idea of the sealing of a new covenant connects very closely with the idea of the establishing of the Kingly Rule of Heaven. That was it purpose at the Exodus (Exodus 19:6). And this connection will here come out in the next verse in the reference to the Kingly Rule of His Father. Here then are the ‘sure mercies of David, the everlasting covenant' (Isaiah 55:3) obtained by eating bread and drinking wine provided by God without money and without price (Isaiah 55:1-2), something which is also there connected with the forgiveness of sins (Isaiah 55:6-7), an eating and drinking which as we have seen is closely involved with His death.
‘Poured out for many for the remission of sins.' Here we have a link with the One Who ‘poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors' (Isaiah 53:12; see also Mark 15:28; Luke 22:37), while the pouring out of blood is regularly connected in the Old Testament with violent death and with sacrificial death. The connection with forgiveness of sins guarantees the sacrificial connection, for forgiveness was obtained through sacrifices (e.g. Leviticus 4-5 regularly; Numbers 15:25-27). Here then was how Jesus would ‘save His people from their sins', which is the very significance of His Name (Matthew 1:21). He would offer Himself as an offering and sacrifice on their behalf (Matthew 20:28; Isaiah 53:10; John 1:29; 1 Corinthians 5:7; Hebrews 9:11-15; Hebrews 9:26-28; Hebrews 10:12-14).
‘For many.' This connects with Isaiah 53:11-12, where through His humiliation the Righteous Servant, Who had been given as a covenant to the people (Isaiah 49:8) declares many righteous, and where He bears the sins of many. This linking of forgiveness of sins with the covenant is a vital part of Jesus' teaching in Matthew. We have, for example, already seen forgiveness as closely associated with the formation of the new Israel in chapter 5-7 (see Matthew 6:12; Matthew 6:14-15) and chapter 18 (see Matthew 18:21-35), both of which are discourses preparing for the new future and the new Israel (Matthew 21:43). But the covenant also requires obedience. That is the very nature of a Biblical covenant with God. So Jesus' message is continually twofold, firstly that God's blessing comes on His own totally apart from man's deserving (Matthew 5:3-9; Matthew 11:6; Matthew 11:25-27; Matthew 13:16-17; Matthew 16:17), and secondly that by so blessing men and women God brings them into personal relationship with Himself through covenant, a relationship which binds them and enables them to do His will, and even demands it (Matthew 7:21; Matthew 12:50). To put it in more modern terms, there is no salvation without transformed lives and genuine moral response. That is why His demand to us that we live a life of heavenly servitude parallels with and results from His having offered Himself as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:25-28).
Thus by drinking of the wine believers declare their responsibility for His death, see themselves as dying with Him (Galatians 2:20; Romans 6:4; His shed blood being as it were mingled with their blood - 1 Corinthians 10:16), claim their participation in the benefits that result from His death, and confirm themselves as part of the covenant which demands obedience to His will. They thus lay claim to participation in the eternal life being offered to men by Him.
'And he took a CUP, and gave thanks, and gave to them, saying, Drink you all of it, for THIS IS MY BLOOD of THE COVENANT, which is poured out for many to remission of sins.'