One of the sweetest joys in life is to sit down with family or close friends to enjoy a delicious meal. The night before His crucifixion on a cruel Roman cross, Jesus also sat down to a private meal with His twelve disciples. Yet this particular meal was unlike any other His closest friends had ever experienced. Not only that, it was to be repeated by His followers until the end of time.
Today, we call it the Lord’s Supper. The Bible account reports:
While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”
Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:26–28).
the Lord’s Supper or the Eucharist?
This meal, instituted by Christ, has been celebrated by Christians ever since His death on the cross. Over the centuries, however, many theories, practices, and terms have become associated with the Lord’s Supper.
Roman Catholics call their ongoing celebration of this meal the Mass, and they refer to the bread as the Eucharist. For them, when Jesus stated, “Take and eat; this is my body,” He meant this literally, for He had somehow instantly converted that bread into His real (yet mystical) body. When their priests speak certain words at each Mass, supposedly, the physical bread is transformed into Christ’s literal body, a process Catholics call transubstantiation. When the transformed bread is broken, they also consider this to be another literal sacrifice of our Lord. Unfortunately, people have been killed for accepting or rejecting this Roman Catholic belief.
Protestants prefer a simpler approach and simpler language. They simply call the event the Lord’s Supper or Communion because the Bible says, “The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 10:16, KJV; emphasis added).
Did Jesus intend His words to be taken literally or spiritually? Protestants answer “spiritually” because Jesus often used physical objects to symbolize spiritual truths. For example, “Destroy this temple,” Jesus told some Jews “and I will raise it again in three days” (John 2:19). Some of His hearers mistakenly took His words literally. Yet the Scripture itself clarifies: “But the temple he had spoken of was His body” (verse 21).
Jesus also told a Jewish ruler, “No one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again,” but this leader in Israel also mistakenly took His words literally. “How can someone be born when they are old?” this elderly man replied. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” (see John 3:3, 4). But Jesus spoke of a spiritual birth through the Holy Spirit (verse 6), not a literal one.
Jesus also told another group of Jews that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood to have eternal life. Shocked, some replied, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” (John 6:52). But Jesus wasn’t advocating cannibalism; he was urging the act of spiritually digesting His words into one’s mind and heart (see verse 63).
These examples show how people in Christ’s day sometimes took His words literally when He meant them to be understood in a spiritual sense. It’s the same with the Lord’s Supper. Christ’s words, “Take and eat; this is my body” (Matthew 26:26), should be understood spiritually. The broken bread represented His broken body wounded for us on that cruel Roman cross, and the red liquid represented His dripping blood that was shed to cleanse us from sin. “Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (verses 27, 28).
It’s that simple.
Protestants don’t believe that each time bread is broken during a Communion service, our Savior is literally re-sacrificed. The Bible says, “Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many” (Hebrews 9:28; emphasis added). When Jesus suffered on that lonely hill outside Jerusalem, it was the one and only sacrifice for sin.
alcohol or grape juice?
Some churches distribute alcoholic wine during the Lord’s Supper because they assume Christ distributed fermented wine. This is tragic and has sadly resulted in some people relapsing to alcohol abuse after partaking of the tempting liquid. Untold damage has resulted.
Once again, the Scriptures bring clarity. After drinking the juice, Jesus told His disciples: “I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom” (Matthew 26:29; emphasis added).
Thus, Jesus clarified that it was the “fruit of the vine,” that is, pure grape juice, that He and His disciples sipped that holy night. How could it be otherwise? Only unfermented (nonalcoholic) juice could fitly represent His pure, cleansing blood. By contrast, alcohol is brewed from rotten grapes, which cannot represent our Savior.
how often?
How often should the Lord’s Supper be observed today? There is no direct New Testament statement indicating how often. The Bible says simply, “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26, NKJV; emphasis added). In Seventh-day Adventist churches, we typically partake of the bread and juice once a quarter, or four times a year.
Historical records indicate that after Jesus died, rose again, and ascended to heaven, early Christians continued to regularly celebrate the Lord’s Supper, but their practice was misunderstood by their enemies. Because they lived in Roman communities that were often unfavorable to this new religion, the Christians met privately to eat the bread and drink the juice. “What are those strange Christians doing behind closed doors?” many asked. “They’re eating flesh and drinking blood!” others suggested. False rumors began to circulate, which fueled further persecution against those early believers. Yet the Lord’s Supper has survived for centuries, even to this day.
why?
Let’s dive deeper into the meaning of the Lord’s Supper. Why did our heavenly Father allow His Son’s body to be whipped, beaten, and crucified on that cruel cross? Why was Christ’s precious blood shed? During the Lord’s Supper, Jesus answered those questions when He declared, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28; emphasis added).
Notice that last part, “for the forgiveness of sins.” It was to pay the awful penalty of human sin (in harmony with God’s plan) that our merciful Savior allowed His holy hands to be nailed to that Roman cross. “Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 15:3). “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2; emphasis added). Because of our Savior’s infinite sacrifice on our behalf, God can now legally remit, forgive, and remove our sins from us forever.
Here’s another question that few ask but which must be understood in order for us to fully grasp the deep meaning of the Lord’s Supper. What, exactly, is sin anyway? It is often said, “Sin is missing the mark.” In a general sense, that’s true, but the question remains: what mark? When we look closer at God’s Word, we discover that there is only one correct answer, and it has to do with God’s holy Ten Commandments. Notice carefully.
“Sin is the transgression of the law”(1 John 3:4, KJV).
“He who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’ Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law” (James 2:11, NKJV; emphasis added).
“Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20, NKJV; emphasis added).
Referring specifically to the Ten Commandments, the Bible also says, “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet’ ” (Romans 7:7, NKJV; emphasis added).
The Bible authors, John, James, and Paul, all agree that sin is breaking the Ten Commandments. And so it was that on the night He died, when Jesus met with His disciples in that private room in Jerusalem, He said, “This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:28, NKJV). He was explaining that He would die because human beings—including you and me—have broken the law of God.
In our morally confused, mixed-up world, the Ten Commandments (see Exodus 20:8–11) couldn’t be more relevant. They not only clarify what’s right and wrong but also reveal the true reason why Jesus Christ’s body was broken and His blood shed. The bottom line is that we ourselves—you and me—caused Christ’s death by our choices to break God’s law and thus sin against God.
worthy is the Lamb
A famous story is told of a man who dreamed he was standing in a boisterous crowd watching Christ being scourged. Again and again, the Roman tormentor flung his whip through the air into the innocent Victim’s bleeding back. Bits of pointed metal sank deep into His flesh. Finally, the onlooking man could endure the sight no longer. Leaping forward, he screamed loudly, “Stop!” But when the Roman soldier turned around so the man could behold his face, to his horror, he saw himself! Even so, as we look at the cross, we see ourselves and what our own sins have done to the Son of God.
The lyrics of a well-known Christian song bring the truth home to our hearts: “I’m the one to blame. I caused all the pain. He gave Himself the day He wore my crown.”
When Christians gather to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, they should not do so carelessly. Eating the bread and drinking the fruit of the vine should not be merely sitting down to enjoy a tasty meal with family or friends in a private dining room or restaurant. Instead, we should partake of the sacred emblems with a deep awareness of what our personal sins did to our Savior. With profound gratitude, we should take delight in the thought that He loves us still and that we can be completely forgiven through the merits of His broken body and shed blood.
Echoing the song of angels, we can say, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain!” (Revelation 5:12, KJV).
Pastor Steve Wohlberg is the speaker and director of White Horse Media.
