THURSDAY 9th
Matthew 26:26-29, Mark 14:22-25, Luke 22:14-20, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
The Jewish Passover in the Old Testament becomes the Lord’s Table in the New Testament!
Today in our readings we are in the Upper Room, which we read was borrowed for the Lord Jesus to celebrate the Passover with his disciples.
The Passover is a feast that the Children of Israel celebrated every year to remember the deliverance that God gave them when they came up out of Egypt after over four hundred years of slavery. We can read all about this in Exodus 12, in verses 43-51.
Throughout his life on earth Jesus would have celebrated the Passover, (Luke 2:41-42) and here, before he would go to the Cross, he wanted to continue the practise for the final time with his disciples.
But something special happened on that night – what was the Jewish Passover became what is now known as the Lord’s Supper or believer’s communion. As they were eating and drinking, the Lord Jesus took bread and broke it and gave it to the disciples and said this do in remembrance of me, likewise he took the cup with wine in it and gave it to the disciples and said this is my blood, do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
The Children of Israel were commanded to celebrate the Passover, but we the Church of Jesus are instructed to take the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper.
In the re-enacting of the Passover the Children of Egypt were celebrating their deliverance from the bondage of Egypt, at the Lord’s Table, we the Church celebrate our deliverance from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. We don’t celebrate and don’t need to celebrate the Passover for it was a command specifically for the Children of Israel because they had been delivered from Egypt. We the Church, are called to celebrate the Lord’s Supper because we are the ones who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. In the Exodus story a lamb was found and slain and the blood placed on the lintels and posts of the doors so that when the angel of death visited that night, when he saw the blood he would pass over. In the Upper Room at the inauguration of Communion, Christ was about to become our Passover Lamb. (1 Corinthians 5:7)
Jesus in celebrating the Passover and bringing about in its place what we call the Lord’s Supper, ( or Christian Communion, Eucharist etc.) was declaring that something new was about to happen, the old was being made into something new, the old covenant was being replaced with a new and a better covenant. The old testament order of sacrifices would no longer achieve anything because in its place there was about to be a far better and more perfect and permanent sacrifice, that of the Lord Jesus Christ. Three years earlier, John the Baptist on seeing Jesus had said, ‘Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’ (John 1:29) Immediately after this ‘Passover which became Communion’ in the Upper Room, Jesus would be taken and within a few hours become the Lamb that was slain.
What do the two emblems we partake of represent? We take communion together nearly every Sunday and have an understanding of what it is all about, but it is good to be refreshed. What Jesus established in Communion was a simple meal of bread and wine that speak of two important things. The Body and Blood of Jesus.
The bread is symbolic of the body of Jesus, remember that in John 6 after the feeding of the 5000, Jesus made a very bold claim about himself, ‘I am the bread of life,’ (John 6:48) and he as the bread of life would become broken. He was beaten, marred, his flesh pierced by whips, thorns, nails and spears. The one who broke bread to feed others, himself became the broken bread to feed mankind, bread that if we partake of through redemption at the cross would give us eternal life.
The wine is symbolic of the blood of Jesus, blood that was poured (Matthew 26:28) out though the wounds he bore on our behalf as he hung on the cross, blood that was perfect blood, blood that was atoning blood, blood that was sufficient to take away the sin not of just a few, and just for a year, but of the whole world if they are willing to believe and is sufficient for eternity.
Regarding Communion, we read in 1 Corinthians 11:26 ‘For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he come.’ It is a privilege to be able to share communion together, to be able to proclaim, remember, acknowledge his death and all that it has meant for us who believe, and we do it until he comes again. It is a reminder not only of his death, but also of his resurrection for it stands to reason that someone who his dead cannot come again, so in doing this until he comes again it is a reminder that the Lamb that was slain, also rose as a mighty victor over death. He is alive and he is coming again. But we will consider these things more over the next few days.
For today, imagine how Jesus must have been feeling in that upper room, knowing exactly what lay ahead of him and yet firstly because of his love for you and me he was willing and secondly as we are reminded in Hebrews ‘Who for the joy set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame.’ (12:2) Spent some time in contemplating the cost of our redemption and may it draw us closer to him, who gave himself for us.
We come as guests invited
when Jesus bids us dine,
his friends on earth united
to share the bread and wine;
the bread of life is broken,
the wine is freely poured
for us, in solemn token
of Christ our dying Lord.
We eat and drink, receiving
from Christ the grace we need,
and in our hearts believing
on him by faith we feed;
with wonder and thanksgiving
for love that knows no end,
we find in Jesus living
our ever-present friend.
One bread is ours for sharing,
one single fruitful vine,
our fellowship declaring
renewed in bread and wine:
renewed, sustained and given
by token, sign and word,
the pledge and seal of heaven,
the love of Christ our Lord.
Words © 1984 Hope Publishing Company CCLI 788682