The Lord's Supper Part 1

"This Bread Is My Body"

One of the greatest privileges we have as Christians is being able to partake in the Lord’s Supper.  When we partake in this sacred meal we partake in a memorial: we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes (I Corinthians 11:26).  In partaking in the Lord’s Supper each Sunday we continue a pattern that was given to the first century church (Acts 20:7).  We are fulfilling the Lord’s command to worship in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24).

Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper during the Jewish Passover, this has a great significance for us when we study the Lord’s Supper.  The Passover is also called the Feast of Unleavened bread (Matthew 26:17).  The significance of this is that it determined the items that could be in the house and therefore used during the Lord’s Supper.

It was called the Feast of Unleavened bread because the Jews had to only use unleavened bread in the feast, in fact they were to have no leavening in the house at all!  In preparation for their departure from Egypt Moses told the children of Israel to remove all leaven from their houses and prepare unleavened bread (Exodus 12:15).  These were part of the instructions for the first Passover and became a perpetual law for the Jews (Exodus 12:14).  Thus there would have been no leavening in the house when Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper.

Therefore we know the bread that Jesus used was unleavened: it contained no leavening (or yeast).  This is important for us as we continue this God given tradition.

Jesus gave the bread of the Lord’s Supper very important spiritual significance.  He said of the bread, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” (Luke 22:19). Jesus’ body was pure just like the pure unleavened bread. His body was not tainted with the leavening of sin.
For this reason the bread which we partake in the Lord’s Supper needs to be unleavened, just like the bread Jesus used in that first memorial meal.

When Jesus taught us that the bread represents His body (I Corinthians 11:24), He points us to his physical body that was nailed to the cross and the church which is His body today on the earth (Ephesians 1:22-23).

When Jesus was crucified, along side of Him were two thieves.  Towards the end of their torment the thieves legs were broken.  When the soldiers came to Jesus they saw He had already died, so they did not break His legs (John 19:32-33).  This was to fulfill the Scripture, “not a bone of Him shall be broken” (John 19:36).  Jesus' unbroken body gives us an important picture today as we consider the Lord’s Supper.

We are taught that today the church is Christ’s body: “He is also head of the body, the church…” (Colossians 1:18).  As there is only one head, so too there is only one body (Ephesians 4:4).  The church is to be unified, without any divisions (John 17:20-21, I Corithians 1:13).

Once again we can see this is an important picture that can be seen in the Lord’s Supper.

I Corinthians 10:16–17
(16) Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? (17) Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread.

As there is one body (Ephesians 4:4) so too there is one bread (loaf) on the table as we partake in the Lord’s Supper. This bread is not divided (that would signify a divided body). We each share in the body by breaking the bread. As the undivided loaf is passed to us we see unity symbolised. We then break a piece of the bread to eat, thereby sharing in the body of Christ.

The one unbroken loaf of unleavened bread has great significance us each Lord’s Day, as we partake in the Lord’s Supper.