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Author: Stephen Weller
684 words, 4 minutes read time

The Lord’s Supper

Scripture: Matthew 26:26-28; Mark 14:23; Luke 22:19-20

With the previous lesson we finished the section covering the announcement of the betrayal of Jesus. With this lesson we will cover a short lesson on the Lord’s Supper.

^{Mt 26:26} Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body ^{Lk 22:19} which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Judas has left to go do his evil work and Jesus and the remaining disciples continue with their meal. As they were eating, Jesus took some of the bread they were eating and blessed it and then broke it into pieces and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

As the Passover lamb, Jesus is offering himself as a once and for all fulfillment of the ceremonies surrounding the Passover lamb and other Old Testament sacrifices. In so doing, he will become the sacrificial atonement for our sins. This bread that the disciples were eating was to be repeated in the future as a remembrance of this atoning sacrifice of Jesus.

^{Lk 22:20} And likewise the cup after they had eaten, ^{Mt 26:27} and [after giving] thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, ²⁸ for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

In lesson H641, It appeared that Jesus refused to eat the Passover meal with his disciples at this time and told them that he would not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. According to our diagram this Passover celebration is one day early because as the Passover Lamb himself, Jesus would be dead and in the grave during the regular Passover meal. Jesus used this cup to introduce the disciples to what lay ahead; events that we have been writing about and others yet to come.

In this lesson, Jesus takes the cup again and gives thanks, and as before gives it to them to drink, explaining to them that this represented his blood of the covenant. This cup foreshadows the shedding of Jesus’ blood and the absorbing of God’s wrath. This act opens the way for the redemption of all people through the new covenant relationship with God that was promised to the people of Israel in Jeremiah 31:31 – 34 ESV: ³¹ “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, ³² not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. ³³ For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴ And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

^{Mk 14:23} And they all drank of it.

The disciples drank from the cup and then Jesus continued to inform his disciples of what lay ahead.

Conclusion

Jesus introduced the Lord’s Supper to the disciples as a means of remembering his sacrifice on the cross as our Passover Lamb. The bread was to represent his body given as the perfect sacrifice and the cup as a foreshadow of the blood Jesus would shed in redeeming us through a new covenant relationship with God.