Charles Spurgeon Commentary Mark 14:23-24

"And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave to them: and they all drank of it. And he said unto them, This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many." — Mark 14:23-24 (ASV)

There was no fear of their making the mistake, which had been made by Humanists, of taking these words literally, because Jesus Christ was sitting there. They could not imagine that, as He took bread, He would say literally, This bread is my body. Why, there was His body sitting there before them. Had He two bodies? When He gave them the cup and said, This is my blood in the new covenant, they never dreamed that the wine in the cup was really and literally His blood. His blood was in His veins. They saw Him living there, not bleeding.

No, it is an extraordinary thing that men who have the life of God in them, and have some spiritual discernment, have, nevertheless, in some instances, been found driving their faith into the belief of the absurd fable of transubstantiation.

Jesus Christ means "This represents my body. This represents my blood" – the usual way of expressing such a meaning both in the Old and New Testament, even as Christ said, I am the door. Yet nobody thought that He was a door. I am the way. Nobody thought He was a roadway. I am the shepherd, and yet nobody supposed that He carried a crook, and that He literally kept sheep.

So He says, This is my body, this is my blood, and those who sat there were in their senses, and they were not superstitious. They knew what He meant.