Communion--The Lord's Supper

In this article we look at the Lord's Supper in more detail.  It is an important commemoration that should not be overlooked or avoided, based on the fact that Jesus made a specific command of it.

It is interesting that Jesus was observing the Jewish Passover feast with His disciples at the time that He instituted this memorial.  The Passover was an important feast to the Jews, instituted by God to remember deliverance from Egyptian bondage.  It was originally begun by the Jewish families putting the blood of a lamb at the doorway of their homes.  All who did this were not subject to God's taking the lives of all firstborns in the land of Egypt.  By observing this feast, even right before His death, Jesus was showing His respect for the Jewish Law since He was a Jew. 

We read of the account of His new commandment to His disciples regarding the future taking the Lord's Supper in 4 places in the New Testament:  Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, and 1 Corinthians 11.  In the first 3, commonly called the Gospels, the occurrence falls 2 chapters before the end of each book.  Each of these 3 are essentially the same, just told by a different author.  The account in 1 Corinthians is told by Paul and goes into more detail about how the supper should be taken.

In the taking of the Passover feast, the items served were unleavened bread and wine, or some form of juice of the vine.  Thus, when Jesus told His disciples to take of the bread in remembrance of His body, and the wine to remember the giving of His blood, he served them the unleavened bread and wine or juice and told them to do that in the future.  This is why unleavened bread and wine or grape juice is served today in the continued remembrance. 

We read in the book of Acts that the Christians were meeting each Sunday, the first day of the week, to take the supper as Jesus had commanded.  And this is why today, churches all over the world meet on Sunday to weekly partake of this commemoration. 

Jesus instituted this practice at a time when He was about to be tried, tortured and crucified.  He wanted to have this remembrance established so that Christians forever would remember Him and what He did for each of us.  It is a beautiful gift.

Thanks for reading.  Feel the love.