It’s amazing how sometimes the simplest things can have the most profound meaning. If we think about it, our lives are full of these simple things. I wear a wedding ring on my hand. In symbol it relates the never-ending love I share with my wife of five years. But absent the meaning I attach to it, it is an over-priced piece of metal, which I purchased from Robbins Brothers, a local jewelry store.
I use that example for its obviousness. But we’ll all agree that symbols have meaning to the extent that we consciously grant them meaning. We come together on Sunday morning week after week to share a very simple ceremony, to which we attach meaning. That ceremony is taking the bread and the wine. And if we are honest with ourselves, we would probably say that some weeks we strain to see the meaning in these symbols that we know that they deserve. Indeed, I’ve had discussions with newly baptized young people where I ask them they think about when they take the bread. The answers vary, but in general they say that they think about all the rotten things they’ve done for the past week. I ask about the wine then, and the answer is the same. “Why,” I ask “do you think about same the rotten things you’ve done this past week when taking the bread and the wine?” “I don’t know,” the answer goes, “No one ever mentioned what I should be thinking about.”
We will look closely at the Bread and the Wine in the symbolic sense. By doing so, we hope to find ourselves better able to appreciate our Lord Jesus and the incredible blessings on the table before us every first day of the week.
The Passover in the Upper Room
Jesus asks two of his disciples, Peter and John, to go and prepare the Passover. When considering the feast in symbol before us, one of first questions we’re faced with is this; was the meal that Jesus shared in that upper room the Jewish Passover? The answer is (probably) simply no. John in chapter 13:1-2 begins his recounting of the last supper by saying: “Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end and supper being ended.”
John later calls the crucifixion day the “Preparation of the Passover” in John 19: 14. Jesus died according to Matthew after the 9th hour (Matt 27:46) which would have been about the time the Passover lamb was slain, as scripture commanded for it to be done between the evenings. Note as well that the Jewish authorities were in a hurry to apprehend and try Jesus so that they could eat the Passover.
This Passover
Yet we cannot deny Jesus words, Luke 22:15, “And he said unto them, “With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”
So there was a sense in which the meal itself was a Passover. It was our Passover and the symbol is very important. We’ve already noticed the great lengths the Father took to ensure that his son was offered up at the same time as the Passover lamb. And we are to be reminded each Sunday that death has passed over us as well and that we have a responsibility as a result. Paul in 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 calls Christ our Passover lamb:
“Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our [Passover] lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us, therefore, celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
The Symbol of Bread
In the process of calling Jesus our Passover, Paul points us directly to the symbol of bread. As you know there are two general types of bread, leavened and unleavened. Paul makes clear that the leavened bread represents malice and evil, whereas the unleavened bread represents sincerity and truth. And from the Greek it is quite likely that it was leavened bread that was broken by Jesus in the upper room, although there is no explicit New Testament requirement for this as part of the memorial service.
To better understand the symbol of the bread, it is helpful to recall where it is first mentioned in the Scriptures. That is in Genesis 3: 19:
“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
We see the first mention of bread is in relation to mortality and the punishment for sin. It’s no wonder Paul associates bread with malice and evil in 1 Corinthians. But why is bread with its sinful connotations an appropriate symbol for Jesus’ body?
To answer that question, let me ask another. It’s a well-established principle that Jesus was tempted in all ways like us. What does that mean practically?
Temptation to me feels like a motivating heat in my body. I get excited and tense. I want to release that bodily tension by getting the object of my desire. Sometimes, the temptation is an agitated and angry feeling and makes me want to lash out and hurt others. Sometimes my temptation is a proud heart that wants to make me feel self-important.
The common theme with most of all temptations is that they are felt in our bodies. The body, as it moves us to satisfy its cravings, is cast as the source of sin. Christ was tempted in all ways like us, meaning that he felt the same cravings and lusts in his body.
So what was Christ communicating in that upper room before when he said of the bread “This is my body which is given for you?”
Paul remains consistent when he comments later in Romans 6:6, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with [him], that the body of sin might be destroyed.”
The body is related to sin, death, and the crucifixion.
So bread here, specifically Christ’s body on the cross, is that body of sin that must be put to death. Why is that so important? Because it takes us squarely to where our mind should be as we prepare and partake of the bread.
According to Paul in 1Cor 11:24, Jesus says, “This is my body which is broken for you.” But what was broken? The power of sin and the body of sin was destroyed. It’s important to note that when Jesus said that this was his body given for us, he was speaking if his natural body for he had not yet his glorified body.
What do we think of when we see others break off a small piece of bread? What about when we break our own? We must get this analogy right. Christ died once, but sin, by symbol, is broken for the saints repeatedly. As we contemplate this, we think of our own bodies and the sin that rages through and we compare our sinful bodies, desires, lusts, and passions to Christ and think about how he put down every rebellious thought and submitted, despite himself.
Paul goes on to say in 1 Corinthians 11:28, “Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.”
But it’s not just an examination; scripture also says it’s a remembrance of Christ. So the examination must be in the context of remembering Christ.
The Symbol of the Wine
Just as Christ’s body was symbolized in the bread, his blood is symbolized in the wine. We’re given a curious note with the wine in Matthew 26:27–28:
“And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
What are those curious notes?
- Firstly, the wine is associated with a covenant. In Luke 22:20 it’s called the New Covenant. That’s not the case with the bread. The bread is never associated with the new covenant. Did you ever notice that?
- Secondly, the wine is specifically associated with the forgiveness of sin
- And lastly, the wine is poured out.
Why is the wine associated with salvation and the new covenant? Romans 6:4 gives us an insight here.
Recognizing now that the bread represents the body of death that Christ destroyed, we see that Paul makes the analogy two fold, not just concerning death but also resurrection.
“We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life…. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
So as the bread represents the body of death, the wine represents the resurrection to life — thus its association with the new covenant and forgiveness.
Think back to your baptism, you’re probably thankful that the baptizing brother didn’t decide to just leave you underwater. And if, when we entered the water and went under, it was a symbolic death, what was coming up out of the water? It’s a symbolic resurrection. And so Paul says in Romans 6:4 that we are symbolically raised from the death (represented by bread) that we too might walk in newness of life (represented by wine).
The old covenant of sin and death thus dies. But the new covenant symbolized in our risen Lord lives. The malice and evil of leaven can no longer hurt him or sway him. Paul puts it that “Death no longer has dominion over him.” So the life he lives he lives to God and Paul says that we must consider ourselves dead to sin — and alive to God.
So in breaking bread you recognize that the body of sin was broken, now the question remains: are we alive to God? The new covenant in the wine is symbolized by a new man and looking at the character of the new man in Colossians 3:12-14 can help us determine if we are alive:
“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”
Perhaps I can offer you another object lesson to help you as you focus on the new covenant you have in Christ as symbolized in wine (i.e., being poured out). As Christ was poured out for many, we also must be poured out for others.
- I mean your body could compel you to be angry, but you are kind.
- Your body could compel you to hold a bitter grudge, but you forgive.
- Your body could compel you to be proud, but you are lowly.
- Your body could compel you to be callous, but you love.
You pour yourself out, just as our Lord did in providing us an example. We’d like to be selfish with our lives and keep things in, but we cannot. We must pour outward even as we have been poured into that others may share in the gift we’ve been given. By doing so you are sharing life and living the new covenant, where the power of sin is broken.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One