Leviticus 3:17 'It is a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings: you shall not eat any fat or any blood.' That wording is PERPETUAL STATUTE. As far as we know, Jesus IS in the generations of those descended from Abraham, so this statute is upon Him also.Leviticus 7:26 And wherever you live, you must not eat the blood of any bird or animal.
Leviticus 17:10 'I will set my face against any Israelite or any foreigner residing among them who eats blood, and I will cut them off from the people.
In the first great church council the issue of drinking blood was specifically addressed, and we know this refers to the Laws of Moses because James states: Acts 15:21 "For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath."
Acts 15:20 Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. 21 "For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath."
When God commands you to eat His Body and Blood, how is it cannibalism?
Is God a corpse? Is His body mere dead flesh?
Or is He Life itself?
The Mosaic Law forbade unclean foods.
But Christ's Body and Blood is not an unclean food.
Christ is both God and Man. He is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. When we eat His Body and drink His Blood we are nourished by the living God Himself.
God is not to be likened to some ritually unclean meat. Being nourished by and upon God Himself is neither unclean nor evil.
Think of a baby with his mother. Is a baby nourished at the breast unclean, because he eats and drinks of his own mother?
We wouldn't equate breast-feeding with cannibalism or ritual uncleanness - why then would anyone condemn God's gift of Himself as unclean?
Finally - and most importantly - God commands us to eat of Him.
Christ the Son of God instituted the sacrament of the Eucharist - the Bread and Wine becoming His Body and Blood - at the Last Supper.
Just to remind the thread about the institution of the Eucharist, and to show its provenance in the early Church.
From Luke:
And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood."
If any corroborating evidence were needed, St Paul speaks about the Eucharist in Corinthians.
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 also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.
Which I quote at length because it shows that the Eucharist was celebrated in the extremely early Church.
In summary: Christ commanded us to eat His Body and drink His Blood: He also commanded us to re-enact the Eucharist.
Let us do as He commanded - not take refuge in a misapplied nostrum of the Mosaic Law.
A cannibal was walking in the jungle one day when he passed his enemy along the trail.