Is the blood of Christ kosher?

[Margarite]

A Jewish friend just explained kosher to me and told me that it means that all blood must be taken out of the animal. Basically, Jews are forbidden to consume any blood at any time. How do I explain why God would change his law, and actually order us to consume the blood of his Son, when he had expressly forbidden the consumption of blood in the Old Testament?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

A primary reason why the Jews were forbidden to consume blood is because the life of the animal was in its blood. (The separation of blood from the body can cause death.) With Christ though, we are commanded to have his life within us:

So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who 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 eats me will live because of me” (John 6:53-57).

The kosher laws taught the Jewish people to respect the lives that were sacrificed for their daily nourishment and could be said to turn the act of eating into a holy action. This was preparation for the sacrifice Christ made for the salvation of the world and the Eucharist that he gave for our daily food and drink.

As a side note, it would be worth noting to your friend the distinction between the appearances of bread and wine and their substance. When the bread and wine of the Eucharist are consecrated, all of the appearances of bread and wine remain (i.e., all that is apparent to the five senses is that of bread and wine) but their substance is changed into the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ. So while we truly receive Christ really present under the appearances of bread and wine, it is not a “cannibalistic” reception of his body and blood.

Recommended reading:

Christ in the Eucharist
The Institution of the Mass