The institution of the ceremony which is known by a variety of titles such as the Lord’s Supper—the Breaking of Bread—Communion, is remarkable for its lack of detail. The two elements are bread and wine, but what kind or what quantities are nowhere specified.
It is possible to deduce from the time of the first supper and the Mosaic law that the bread was unleavened and some have attempted to argue about the nature of Christ on that basis. This is an example of looking for proof of a conviction rather than coming to a conclusion from an examination of the evidence.
The revisers point out that the Greek is not “bread” but “loaf.” So when Jesus said, “This is my body broken for you,” the symbolism lay not in the nature of the bread but in the wholeness of the loaf. The same idea of a whole was probably represented in the use of the word “cup” instead of wine, although it is clear that it was the contents of the cup that represented so vividly “by blood which is shed for you.”
Apart from these two connections with himself, Jesus linked the Last Supper with two of the unique features of the Mosaic Law—the Passover and the Covenant. Luke records how he expressed himself with an intensity of feeling which is not apparent in our English version, “With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” are words familiar to us as an introduction to the Emblems, and as such we tend to accept them without critical thought.
But what was the Passover referred to, was it the Jewish feast for which they had come to Jerusalem and which two disciples had made ready ? If it was why the intense desire ? Because it was the last Passover before Calvary or the last real Passover before the institution of the Lord’s Supper?
To accept it as the Mosaic Passover would settle the arguments as to whether Jesus kept the Passover or whether he died when the Passover lambs were slain. In support of the view that this was the Passover feast some have found records of the traditional ceremonial in which at least two cups of wine had a conspicuous part, and they have pointed to the two references in Luke’s account of the cup.
The wine is linked with the New Covenant in all the accounts. Luke says “Likewise also the cup after supper saying, “This cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you” (Luke 22, v. 20). The previous mention of the cup is connected with the Kingdom of God. “I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the Kingdom of God shall come.”
A similar assertion of abstinence was also made in connection with the Passover: “I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.”
There is then this series of parallels in Luke:
- (a) The Passover.
(b) The Covenant. - (a) No more eating the Passover
(b) No more drinking of Wine. - (a) Representation of His body in the bread
(b) Representation of His blood in the wine.
In Matthew the details of the two cups are combined thus : And he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them, saying, “Drink ye all of it ; for this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s Kingdom (Matt. 26: 27-29).
It appears possible that Luke for various reasons divided the saying of Jesus about the cup into two parts, and if that be so, he may have similarly divided the saying about the bread. So the record of Luke can be rearranged in chronological order thus:
He took bread and gave thanks and brake it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you : this do in remembrance of me. With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer: for I say unto you I will not any more cat thereof until it be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.”
Likewise, also he took the cup after supper and gave thanks and said, “Divide this among yourselves, this cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you : for I say unto you I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the Kingdom of God shall come.”
In so connecting the principal elements of this memorial rite with two of the major occasions in the Jewish calendar, Jesus was helping his first disciples in several ways. Firstly, the “new” is immediately familiar in its links with what is old. Secondly, the explanations of the “old” serve to illuminate the meaning of the “new.”
It had become part of the ritual of the Passover meal for the question to be asked, “What mean ye by this service ?” so that the answer could be given, “It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, who passed over the houses of the Children of Israel in Egypt when he smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses” (Exo. 12 :26- 27).
Unhappily our use of the word Passover rather hinders our understanding for we think of passing over in the sense of leaving alone, ignoring or overlooking, whereas the idea in the Hebrew is to hover over, like a bird over a nest. This is seen clearly when the words are recognised as applying, not to the Angel of Death but to the Lord, thus, “The Lord will pass over the door and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to destroy you” (Ex. 12: 23).
Isaiah uses the same word in depicting God’s care for Jerusalem when He delivered it from the Assyrian, “As birds flying so will the Lord of Hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also He will deliver it, and passing over He will preserve it” (Is. 31 :5).
There is then something dynamic in the idea of Passover, God actively preserving His people not merely passively overlooking their faults.
The new covenant is surely in harmony with the one at Sinai when Moses took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people; and they said, “All that the Lord hath spoken will we do, and be obedient” (Ex. 24:7). No doubt the disciples would have the same enthusiastic intentions as the Israelites, yet immediately they must have sobered under the words of Jesus that followed. “This is my blood of the covenant which is shed for many unto remission of sins” (Matt. 26:28).
Both Passover and covenant are related to the creation of the nation of Israel as God’s peculiar people and it was fitting that the new creation should take over the same ideas enlarged and ennobled. In the simple elements of the memorial service of the Lord’s Supper there is a wealth of meaning that goes backward and forward. Here is a reminder of all God’s loving care, His preserving hand that sent His only son that we might not perish, and his unfailing grace that in receiving the promise of willing service yet provided for the forgiveness of disobedience.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One