“Do this to remember me,” Jesus said to his disciples when he first instituted the Lord’s Supper. And so his followers have done ever since. Across cultures, countries, and centuries, the worship ritual known also as the Eucharist or Communion has been a thread of grace tying all believers together.
When I ponder the meaning of the Lord’s Supper, there are three words that often come to mind. The first is Miracle. Not meaning that the bread and wine (or juice) is transformed into Christ’s actual body and blood, as some Christians believe. When Jesus said, “Take eat, this is my body” or “I am the Bread of Life”, it’s sufficient to believe that he is speaking spiritually, not literally. He said lots of things on that order. (When he said, “I am the light of the world”, he wasn’t suggesting that we approach him with sunglasses on.)
The miracle of the Lord’s Supper is rather that there in the Upper Room, we are witnessing the fulfillment of the greatest Old Testament feast, the Passover, and with its fulfillment, the birth of the literal new covenant that God promised for centuries would come (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
The Passover was a feast that God instituted on Israel’s last day in Egypt as slaves. This was their last supper. God would visit Egypt that night with the tenth and final plague of judgment, where every firstborn in the land would be struck down and die. But God provided a way to be spared that judgment. They were to have a meal that night in which they were to sacrifice a lamb, a lamb “without blemish”. Then they were to take the blood from that sacrificed lamb and literally coat the wood around the door of their house with that blood. That night when the Angel of Death visited Egypt, everyone who remained inside the homes where the blood was visible would be spared that judgment.
1,500 years later, here is Jesus, keeping the Passover with his disciples. But unexpectedly, Jesus takes the bread and the wine which were central elements of the Passover ritual, and declares, “This is my body given for you. This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” As if to say: This Passover feast that you’ve been celebrating for 1,500 years? It all points to me.
The Hebrews really didn’t know at any sort of deep level what the Passover meant. They did it because God commanded them to do it, and something about it would help them look back and remember that night of their great deliverance. They had little clue that it was meant more to help them look forward. It was like being given only some of the pieces of a puzzle, but without the other pieces you had no idea what it was picturing. It’s only when you are shown the other pieces that it all suddenly makes sense.
Fast forward to Good Friday. Anyone who knew Jesus, heard his words, saw his sinless life, then watched him die that day should have said (if they were putting the puzzle of salvation together), “It’s Him! He’s the Passover Lamb! He’s the lamb without blemish! His is the blood that causes the judgment of God that I deserve to pass over me! My Lord and my God, it’s Him!”
All this we should think about when we take Communion. It should fill us with awe and leave us speechless. I can’t explain it. I can’t explain him. I can only fall down and worship him, and say, “You’re the bread of life. The light of the world. The door to life. I’m lost without you.”
If you want proof that Christianity is true, then here you go. In the Lord’s Supper, you’re looking at something that is unquestionably miraculous.