Matthew 26:26-29

Matthew 26:26-29

And while they ate, Jesus took bread and after giving thanks He broke it and after giving it to the disciples He said, “Take.  Eat.  This is my body.”  And after taking the cup and after giving thanks He gave it to them while saying, “Drink out of it, all of you.  For this is my blood of the covenant which is being poured out for many into a forgiveness of sins.  And I say to you all, I should surely not drink out of this fruit of the vine from this time forward until that day whenever I should drink this same cup new with you all in the kingdom of my Father.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

Let’s talk basics that we need to remember because our Christian culture is not the same as Jewish culture.  We need to remember that the Passover is a celebration of remembering.  The Passover is the time when the Jews remember how God was with their forefathers and how He miraculously brought them out of bondage in Egypt.  The Passover was a time for the Jewish people to humble themselves before God and remember how God rescued them at a time when they did not deserve it.  This is why it is such a neat symbolic act to have right before the crucifixion of Christ.  Jesus literally sits down and remembers with His disciples how gracious God was toward an undeserving and ungrateful generation.  Then Christ Himself goes out and dies for the world, saving us from our bondage to sin.  In my opinion, you don’t get very many symbolic acts in the entire Bible than this.  In these verses we realize that even fifteen hundred years prior to Jesus when God was working with Moses God still had His eye on this precise moment in time in human history.  Fifteen hundred years before Christ, God used Moses to set up Jesus to make a significant point about His own death and our salvation that comes through it.

Is it important for you to realize that Jesus’ death was not just God’s plan during the life of Christ but to hearken back and realize that Jesus’ death was God’s plan for thousands of years of human history?  What can this teach us about God’s character?

Second Thought:

The bread.  Within the awesomeness of the Passover that I speak about in the first point, I think the bread is my favorite teaching.  Within the Passover celebration there are three pieces of unleavened bread that are put together at the head of the table.  Near the beginning of the meal, the middle piece is broken in half.  Half is put back with the other two pieces while the other half is taken somewhere in the house and hidden.  In the middle of the meal, the head of the house invited the children to go through the house looking for the hidden piece.  When that piece is found, it is brought back to the head of the house.  The head of the house then ransoms the bread back from the child – typically using a piece of candy or some such pleasure as a trade.  The bread is then reunited and made whole.  Remember that this practice had gone on for hundreds of years before Jesus.  Knowing this, now realize that it would be at the point in the meal where the bread is hunted for and found that Jesus would have said, “This is my body.”  And think about all that is going on there.  The middle piece of bread is broken; and we teach in the church about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  The piece is broken; Jesus was broken upon the cross.  The piece of bread is hidden; Jesus was buried away in a tomb.  The piece is hunted for; the women come to the tomb to look for the body.  The piece is ransomed for something pleasurable; Jesus is our ransom against sin.  The piece is made whole; Jesus was resurrected.  When Jesus says, “This is my body,” He isn’t just talking about a symbolic representation that the bread represents his body on the cross.  He is speaking symbolically about the whole act from being a part of the Trinity to becoming man to dying on the cross to being resurrected.  And as I said in the first thought, Jesus is doing this through a tradition that had been carried among the Jewish people for hundreds of years and the disciples would have understood at a great communal depth.

How does understanding this historical tradition help you understand communion at a newer and richer level?  Why should communion be so much more than a remembrance of Jesus’ death and instead it should be a remembrance of the whole process of God becoming man, dying, and being restored once more?

Third Thought:

Within the cups, there is also a really cool teaching.  In the Passover, there are five cups, although only four are actually drunk during the meal.  The fifth and last is the cup of Elijah, which is a symbol of anticipation for the return of Elijah – and thus the coming of God’s Messiah.  This one is left not drunk because the Jewish people are still waiting for the Messiah to come.  The four prior cups are cups that are drunk at significant points of the meal to commemorate especially important teachings.  These teachings are: we are sanctified, through the plagues God acted and freed us, we are redeemed, we give praise to God for what He has done.  What is really neat is that the cup that is drunk immediately following the meal is the third cup, which commemorates the fact that we are redeemed.  You will notice that while Matthew does not give us the context of the cup, Luke does.  Luke 22:20 tells us rather clearly that it was after they had eaten that Jesus takes the cup.  Luke wants to make sure we understand that the cup that Jesus identifies as His blood is the cup of redemption.  I’m pretty sure you don’t need me to go much further than this, but I will just to make sure.  Jesus is using the Jewish tradition to make sure His disciples understand that the shedding of His blood is deeply connected to our redemption.  He is the true Passover Lamb.  He is the only true way to the Father.

How does understanding about the cups add to your understanding of communion?  Why is it neat to understand to which of the four cups at Passover Jesus is referring when He speaks?  How will this impact your next remembrance of Jesus at communion?

Passage for Tomorrow: Matthew 26:30-35