Bread & Wine: The Symbols of Our Salvation        Photo: © Gino SM  Lightstock.com

The Institution Of The Lord's Supper

MATTHEW 26:17-30; LUKE 22:7-38; 1 CORINTHIANS 11:17-34

These passages show us the origin of what we call The Lord's Supper, The Eucharist or Holy Communion. Controversy has raged down the centuries between different denominations within the Christian Church over the nature and meaning of this ordinance, which like baptism was initiated by Jesus himself. What is not in question, however, is the centrality of the celebration of the Lord's Supper to the faith of the Body of Christ. At the very least it symbolises the body and blood of Jesus and the institution of the New Covenant in his blood.

The Jewish Origin Of The Lord's Supper  -  The Passover Meal or seder

What Jesus and the Twelve, as devout Jews, were celebrating the night before his crucifixion was the Passover Meal. The Passover Meal, or seder as it is celebrated by devout Jews today, was instituted by God to celebrate the deliverance of the Children of Israel from bondage in Egypt through the Exodus.
It was to be celebrated the evening before the Passover festival began as a reminder of

•  God's miraculous deliverance of his children from their life of slavery in Egypt

•  Their journey to the Promised Land through the desert and God's provision for their needs