Luke 22:19–20 “[Jesus]
took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them,
saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of
me.’ And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, ‘This cup that is
poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood’ ”.
The next lesson in this
Bible Study of the Christian Sacraments was on the Lord’s Supper. IT states
that condescending to our frailties and our existence as embodied creatures, God
in Christ instituted baptism as a visible, tangible communication of spiritual
truth and means of grace. Under the new covenant, however, baptism is not the
only sacrament given to God’s people in order to depict gospel realities and
strengthen us in the grace of the Lord Jesus. Christ has also given us the
Lord’s Supper to strengthen our faith and union with Him.
We read the account of
Christ’s institution of the Lord’s Supper in several places in the New
Testament, including today’s lesson passage. From Luke 22:14–20 we learn
several things about the supper. First, we must note its connection to the Passover.
Jesus commanded us to observe the Lord’s Supper in the context of the Passover
meal, suggesting that the supper is in some way a replacement for that old
covenant feast. Paul confirms this in 1 Corinthians 5:7, where he states
that “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been
sacrificed.” As the Lord’s Supper commemorates the sacrifice of Christ, who
died during the Passover feast and is the fulfillment of the Passover
celebration, we see that the Lord’s Supper will serve some of the same purposes
that the Passover meal served under the old covenant. In other words, as we
will see in due time, we will need to understand the old covenant Passover in
order to understand the Lord’s Supper.
Because the Lord’s Supper
took place at a Passover celebration, we also know that the elements to which
Jesus refers are bread and wine. That these foods are consumed in the supper
also points us toward the spiritual reality represented in the sacrament. Just
as physical food nourishes our physical bodies, so do we find spiritual
nourishment for our souls at the Lord’s Table when we gather in His name to eat
the bread and drink the wine. At the table, as we will see, we feed on Jesus
spiritually.
Finally, as we begin our
look at the Lord’s Supper, we note that the sacrament is a visible depiction of
the death of our Savior. As Jesus says in today’s lesson passage, the broken
bread represents His body and the poured wine in the cup represents His blood
shed to institute the new covenant with His people . When we taste the bread
and drink the wine, we are reminded of the high cost that our Lord paid to
redeem us from sin and death.
The preaching of the Word of
God delivers the message of the cross to us audibly. Partaking of the Lord’s
Supper delivers the message of the cross via our sight, smell, taste, and
touch. As we partake of the supper, we should think on what the elements
represent and ask the Lord to make us grateful for saving us.
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