Understanding The Lord's Supper

Bobby Jamieson, Jonathan Leeman

• Publisher: B&H Books
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781433688959
• eBook ISBN: 9781433689062
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Why did Jesus give the church a meal to eat together? The Lord's Supper isn't just something churches do together, it's something that binds us together, making many into one. This accessible work biblically explains what the Lord's Supper is, how it relates to a local church's life together, who should celebrate the Lord's Supper, and how we should approach it.

Chapter 1

Takeout

When God took his people out of the land of Egypt, he told them to get takeout. Or at least to get some fast food. And that meal on the go defined a nation. It told them who they were, where they came from, and what God did to save them.

Jacob’s descendants were being crushed under Pharaoh’s heel, and God had had enough. He remembered the promise he made to Abraham, to bring his offspring into the land of Canaan (Gen. 15:12–17; Exod. 2:23–25). So he sent Moses and Aaron to demand that Pharaoh release the people. But Pharaoh wouldn’t let his precious slaves go. So God hurled plague after plague on the Egyptians (Exod. 4–10). Finally, God declared that he would kill all the firstborn sons of Egypt, because Pharaoh refused to let Israel, God’s firstborn, go (Exod. 4:22–23; 11:1–10).

The stage is set for Israel’s flight. And on the eve of their deliverance, God tells the people to slaughter a year-old sheep or goat, smear its blood over their front doors, roast the animal, and eat the meat—all of it—that night (Exod. 12:1–8). They’re to roast it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs (v. 8). The Lord even tells them how they are to eat it: “you must be dressed for travel, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You are to eat it in a hurry; it is the Lord’s Passover” (v. 11). This is no languid feast; it’s food for the road.

But this is more than a meal. The blood on their doors is the people’s salvation:

“I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and strike every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. I am Yahweh; I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a distinguishing mark for you; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will be among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.” (vv. 12–13)

Why did God spare his people? Not because they deserved to live while the Egyptians didn’t. The reason God passed over his people was that they were covered by the blood of a sacrifice.

God commanded his people to celebrate this Passover meal as a yearly memorial (vv. 14–20, 24–27). This same time every year the Israelites were to clear yeast out of their homes, slaughter the Passover animal, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

Every year this festival would celebrate how God delivered them from Egypt. Children would learn from this meal how God saved and spared his people (vv. 26–27). Every year the Israelites would celebrate the day when God freed them, delivered them, made good on his promise to make them his people.

This meal marked the birth of their nation. Who is Israel? The people rescued by God from Egypt. And the Passover reminded them year by year that they were a people—the only people—whom God freed from slavery and made his own.

This is why only Israelites, not foreigners, could eat the Passover (v. 43). If a foreigner wanted to celebrate the Passover, he and the males in his household had to be circumcised first, becoming “like a native of the land” (v. 48). The Passover defined the identity of Israel and therefore the membership of Israel: “The whole community of Israel must celebrate it” (v. 47), and only the community of Israel may celebrate it.

So, year by year, generation by generation, the people of Israel were to celebrate the Passover. God told that first generation, “On that day explain to your son, ‘This is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt’” (Exod. 13:8). But of course, not just the first generation of Israelite fathers were to say this. At another yearly festival, later generations of Israel were commanded to see themselves in the exodus from Egypt, saying: “The Egyptians mistreated and afflicted us . . . and the Lord heard our cry” (Deut. 26:5–8). Similarly, every generation of Israel was to say, “This Passover is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt. This redemption wasn’t just for them, then; it is for us, now.”

In the exodus, God saved a people for himself through the blood of a sacrifice. He freed them from slavery and made them his own. And on the night before that great act of deliverance, he gave them a meal to celebrate ever after. This meal defined the people. They all celebrated it, and no one else could. By retelling the story of their salvation, this meal brought God’s past act of deliverance into the present. It told every Israelite that they had been a slave, and that their God is a God who rescues.

Chapter 2

Sealed in Blood

What’s the most serious promise you’ve ever made? How did you confirm or attest that promise?

When you purchase a home, your promise to pay the owner takes the form of a signed contract that legally binds you to your word. When you get married, husband and wife pronounce vows before witnesses, and often exchange rings as a sign of their promise.

When Jesus made good on God’s greatest promise to his people, he sealed it in his blood. The night before he was crucified, Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples (Luke 22:14–15). But he turned that Passover into something new, something that looks not to deliverance from Egypt, but to the deliverance God achieved on the cross (Matt. 26:17–28; Mark 14:12–26; Luke 22:7–22).

Luke tells us that Jesus longed for this meal with his disciples: “When the hour came, He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him. Then He said to them, ‘I have fervently desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer’” (Luke 22:14–15). The biblical teaching on the Passover assumes that families will celebrate the meal together. That’s why fathers are told to explain its meaning to their sons (Exod. 13:14). But this Passover is different. By celebrating the Passover with his disciples, Jesus turns friends into family. Jesus is saying that his family are those who receive his sacrifice.

In the midst of this Passover meal, Jesus “took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, ‘This is My body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me’” (Luke 22:19). After this, “In the same way He also took the cup after supper and said, ‘This cup is the new covenant established by My blood; it is shed for you’” (Luke 22:20). Jesus is re-making the Passover in order to tell his disciples how to understand the death he’s about to die. It’s no accident, no mistake. It’s not taking Jesus by surprise or happening against his will. Instead, Jesus is going to give his body for his disciples (Luke 22:19). He is going to shed his blood “for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matt. 26:28).

Jesus’ death will, at long last, bring God’s promised new covenant to life: “This cup is the new covenant established by My blood; it is shed for you” (Luke 22:20). Centuries before, God had promised to make a new covenant with his people (Jer. 31:31–34). In this new covenant, God would write his law on the people’s hearts, transforming them from the inside out so that they love what he loves and do what he commands. They would all know him, from the least to the greatest. He would forgive their sins fully and finally, remembering them no more.

All this, Jesus is saying, is now going to happen through his death. God is going to seal his new covenant promise in Jesus’ blood.

Jesus took the bread and said, “This is My body.” He took the cup and said, “This is My blood” (Matt. 26:26–28). How can he identify the elements of this meal with himself like this? He is making the bread and wine a sign of the new covenant. He is tying them to God’s new covenant promi...

Table of contents

• Church Basics Series Preface
• Part 1: Snapshots
• Part 2: Spelling out the Sign
• Part 3: Meal Planning
• Notes