Answer: Jesus said the "cup" is "My
blood of the covenant," (verses 27 and 28).
MORE INFORMATION AND/OR OTHER SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:
From
Word Pictures in the New Testament by A. T.
Robertson:
The covenant is an agreement or contract between two
parties. It is used also for will (Latin, testamentum)
which becomes operative at death (Hebrews
9:15-17). Hence our New Testament.
Either "covenant" or "will" makes sense
here. In the Hebrew to make a covenant was to cut up the
sacrifice and so ratify the agreement (Genesis
15:9-18). Jesus here uses the solemn words of
Exodux 24:8 "the blood of the covenant"
at Sinai. This is the New Covenant of Jeremiah
31:1ff; Hebrews 8:1ff.
Exodus 24:6-8: "Moses took half of
the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he sprinkled on
the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it
to the people. They responded, 'We will do everything the
Lord has said; we will obey.' Moses then took the
blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, 'This is the
blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance
with all these words.'"
Jeremiah 31:31: "'The time is
coming,' declares the Lord, 'when I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of
Judah.'" (Read all of Jeremiah
31. See Hebrews 8:8.)
Zechariah 9:11: [God said,] "As for
you, because of the blood of My covenant with you, I will free your
prisoners from the waterless pit."
Malachi 2:5-6: [God said,] "My
covenant was with him [Levi], a covenant of life and peace, and I
gave them to him; this called for reverence and he revered Me and
stood in awe of My Name. True instruction was in his mouth and
nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with Me in peace and
uprightness, and turned many from sin."
1 Corinthians 11:23-30: "For I
received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord
Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had
given thanks, He broke it and said, 'This is My body, which
is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.' In the same
way, after supper He took the cup, saying, 'This cup is the
new covenant in My blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in
remembrance of Me.' For whenever you eat this bread and
drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.
Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in
an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and
blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he
eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats
and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks
judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and
sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep."
Hebrews 7:20-22: "And it was not
without an oath! Others became priests without any oath, but He
[Jesus] became a priest with an oath when God said to Him:
'The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind:
"You are a priest forever."' Because of
this oath, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better
covenant."
Hebrews 9:11-22: "When Christ came
as high priest of the good things that are already here, He went
through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not
man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did
not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but He entered
the Most Holy Place once for all by His Own blood, having obtained
eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the
ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean
sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much
more, then, will the blood of Christ, Who through the eternal
Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences
from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living
God! For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new
covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised
eternal inheritance--now that He has died as a ransom to set
them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the
one who made it, because a will is in force only when somebody has
died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is
living. This is why even the first covenant was not put into
effect without blood. When Moses had proclaimed every commandment
of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together
with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the
scroll and all the people. He said, 'This is the blood
of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.'
In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle
and everything used in its ceremonies. In fact, the law
requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without
the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness."
Hebrews 10:29: "How much more
severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has
trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy
thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has
insulted the Spirit of grace?"
Hebrews 12:22-24: "But you have
come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the
living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in
joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are
written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all men, to
the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of
a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better
word than the blood of Abel."
Hebrews 13:20-21: "May the God of
peace, Who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back
from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep,
equip you with everything good for doing His Will, and may He work
in us what is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, to Whom be
glory for ever and ever. Amen."
