" I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world." The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?" Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me." (John. 6:51-57) How can we to eat His Flesh and drink His blood? Is there a way? YES.

On the night before His crucifixion, Christ sat down with His disciples to keep the Passover. Luke 22 records that evening as follows: "When the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him. Then He said to them, "With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God." Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, "Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes." And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me." Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you." (Luke 22:14-20)

So we see the full meaning of what Christ was saying in John 6. We figuratively eat Christ's body and we figuratively drink His blood. The bread is a type of His body and the drink is a type of His blood. Paul adds to our understanding of what Christ did by saying in I Cor.11:26 - "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes." When He comes, one of the things He does is grant eternal life, in a glorifed spiritual body, to those He abides in.

Now the question arises, Which bread do we eat at Christ's Passover? For the answer to this question we turn to Duet.16:3 - "You shall eat no leavened bread with it (The Passover Lamb..."). We learn in John 1:29 and 36 that Christ is the lamb of God. Further, Paul says in I Cor.5:7 - "For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us." Christ took the place of the OT passover Lamb by being slain at the time of the slaying of the lambs. The OT lamb was to be without blemish as indeed the NT lamb was. Unleavened bread is what is to be partaken of at the New Testament Passover.

Another question to ask is What was in the cup he served. Very clearly the Bible states Fruit of the Vine. You can find this in Matt. 26:29; Luke 22:18, and Mark 14:25. What is Fruit of the Vine? Most people will say wine. Some will say grape juice. Does the Bible give the answer? Yes it does. Is there a specific scripture that says fruit of the vine is wine? No. Is there a specific scripture that says fruit of the vine is grape juice? No. Since no clear scripture exists that says it is one or the other, we must look at other scriptures to make a clear picture.

As with the bread, lets look at the Passover instructions of Ex.12. Verses 8-9 tell what is to be eaten with the Passover lamb - Unleavened Bread and Bitter Herbs. There is no mention of a drink associated with Passover. There is however mention of a liquid at the Passover, it is in verse 7. Blood from the slain lamb was to be put on the doorpost.

During the Passover of Christ's time, 4 cups of wine were served with the meal. It is generally thought that Christ blessed the third cup of wine and gave it to the disciples as the symbol for His blood. These 4 cups of wine were not established by God, but rather by man. Additionally, Christ kept the Passover one day earlier than the Jews did. So to say Jesus kept a Jewish Passover in Luke 22 would not be accurate. It was not until the time of Nehemiah, that wine was added to the meal. Since cups of wine were added by man and not ordained by God, it does not help our understanding of what Fruit of the Vine is. We must look at what the scriptures say. How does God's word define the Fruit of the Vine?

"... and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying 'Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe.' So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress..." Rev.14:18-19 Notice that closely - fully ripe grapes are pressed and come out as blood. We see from this scripture that the juice of a grape represents blood. ADD MORE

Luke 22:44 says "And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground." He prayed this in the garden of Gethsemane which means oil-press. Christ is like a fruit that is pressed and brings forth drops of blood. Yet a squezzed fruit produces juice, not blood. In like manner we are told to eat his body and drink his blood. We cannot do that literally.

Deut. 32:14 says "...and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape." The juice of the grape is likened to blood. Now the word pure means fermented. The children of Israel drank fermented juice (blood) of the grape - wine. Verses 15-42 show the results of the misuse of what God gave them.

Now as we read in Deut 32:14 it said Israel drank the pure (fermented) blood of the grape. There is a scrpiture that clearly shows a seperation between wine and juice. It is in Gen.49:11b -"He washed his garments in wine, And his clothes in the blood of grapes." The blood of a grape can be turned into wine. Wine cannot return to being the blood of the grape. Some might argue that garments and clothes are the same thing. In the New Testament, John 19 also shows that there is a difference. In verse 23 they take Jesus' garments and divided them into four parts. His tunic (clothing) is not torn, instead the soilders cast lots for it. In doing this they have fulfilled Ps.22:18. There is a difference between the two.

Another example of grape juice in the Bible is in Gen.40:9-11 "Then the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, 'Behold in my dream a vine was before me, and in the vine were three branches; it was as though it budded, its bloddoms shot forth, and its clusters brought forth ripe grapes. Then Pharaoh's cup was in my hand; and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and placed the cup in Pharoah's hand.'" Now what did the butler hand the Pharaoh? A cup of wine or grape juice? What comes out of a grape first - grape juice. Only after the juice is removed from the grape can it be used to make wine. If you pick an apple off the tree and squeze it what comes out? Apple juice or Apple cider? The juice is used to make the cider.

In the example of we saw clusters of ripe grapes.

Paul in I Cor. 10:16 calls the cup a cup of blessing. We know from what we have seen that the liquid contents of the cup represent the blood of Christ. With that in mind look at Isa.65:8. "Thus says the LORD: 'As the new wine is found in the cluster, And one says, Do not destroy it, For a blessing is in it...'" This new wine is the Hebrew word Tirosh and means fresh pressed juice of the grape. A cluster of grapes will not yield alcoholic wine for up to 40 days after it has been pressed out, and then only if care is taken to convert the juice into wine correctly. God says that a cluster of grapes has a blessing in it and identifies that blessing as new wine - juice (blood) of the grape. There are many bible scholars who notice the relationship of this verse in connection to I Cor.10:16 - "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion (fellowship or sharing) of the blood of Christ?" If the wine in Isa. 65:8 was yayin - alcoholic (fermented) wine - then clearly that is what should be used for passover. But yayin is not the word used for the blessing in the cluster. What can we conlude from this - unferment wine is found in the cluster of grapes, there is a blessing upon the cluster and there is a blessing on the contents of the cup used at Christ's passover. Clearly the bible is showing a direct relation between unfermented grape juice and the contents of the passover cup.

What are the particluar Greek words for fruit of the vine and wine. The word for wine is Oinos oy'-nos a primary word (or perhaps of Hebrew origin (3196)); "wine" (literally or figuratively):--wine (Thayer Lexicon states that oinos can also mean must or new wine) . Fruit of the Vine - fruit - gennema ghen'-nay-mah from 1080; offspring; by analogy, produce (literally or figuratively):--fruit, generation - of the vine - ampelos am'-pel-os probably from the base of 297 and that of 257; a vine (as coiling about a support):--vine. Fruit of the vine in greek is not oinos but rather gennema ampelos - offspring or produce of a vine. It is what the vine grows - grapes. But in this case we are takling about the fruit of the vine that can be drunk from a cup. What is the offspring of the vine that you can put in a cup? Juice or wine correct? Remember that wine is just fermented juice.

Now some may want to turn to Ps. 75:8 to show wine in the passover cup. "For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine (yayin) is red..." Therefore some will assume that alcoholic wine should be in the Passover cup. Continue with verse 8 to see what is done with the cup of fermented wine - "...It is fully mixed, and He pours it out; Surely its dregs shall all the wicked of the earth drain and drink down." The wicked of the earth, not God' people, drink this cup of wine. You see this done in Rev.14:9-10 - "Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, 'If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation....'" We do not see support for using wine in the cup from these verses, rather we see wine symbolizing the wrath of God.

Finally take a look at John 18:33-37 and we know from Revelation that he is King of Kings. Notice Isa 9:6-7. God has recorded a scripture in Proverbs that pertains to kings Pro.31:4-5 Christ would not have chosen a fermented wine to be the symbol of His blood. It says fermented wine clouds the judgement of a king. Luke 22:29-30.

Here are a few more examples of alcoholic wine used in a negative context. Rev.17:2 - "...and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication." and in Rev.18:3 it says "For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication..."