The Crucifixion Was Not Physical 

I am the living bread which has come down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, they
will live for ever; and more, the bread that I give is my flesh, given for the life of the world.
            The Jews wrangled with one another saying, "How can he give us his flesh to eat?" So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life within you. Those who feed on my flesh and drink my blood possess eternal life..for my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Those who feed on my flesh and drink my blood remain within me, as I remain within them. Even as the living God sent me, and I live by God, so those who feed on me will also live by me. Such is the bread which has come down from heaven.   --Gospel of St. John, 6,51

            This passage shows the kind of death Christ was talking about. It also shows that he was already crucified – but he was physically alive. 

            The blood of Christ was the blood shed at the crucifixion. As Saint Paul said, (Colossians, 1,19) For God was pleased to have all Their fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to Them all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

            It is clear that Christ was saying to drink his blood that was shed on the cross!

            This is the same “blood” that St. Paul spoke of throughout his writings. E.g.: (1Corinthians, 10,15), The blessing-cup that we bless is a communion with the blood of Christ; (Ephesians, 2,13), But now you who used to be so far apart from us have been brought very close by the blood of Christ.

            In other words – the crucifixion was not a physical death – he was still alive physically while he was talking about it.

            In another passage Christ said, (St. Matthew, 16,24): Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any of you want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

            This passage was said while he was physically alive, again, showing that the crucifixion was not physical. 

            Oh, the wonder of joy!
            I am the food of life, and I am he who eats the food of life; I am the two in one.
            I am the first-born of the world of truth, born before the gods, born in the center of immortality.
            Those who give me are my salvation.
            I am that food which eats the eater of food..
                    --Taittiriya Upanishad 3.10.6