The Lord’s Supper

For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come....

1 Corinthians 11:26

As we commemorate the Lord's death during this season of the year, what impact does it have on our life? Do we understand its true meaning? The New Testament Passover reminds us of a rescue far superseding that of Israel from Egypt. Through His life, death and resurrection Jesus has delivered us from the bondage of sin and its power in our life. He has united all Christianity into His body of believers.

Most of Christendom today looks upon the celebration of “Easter” as a Friday, Saturday, Sunday event, but is this truly how it began? The strife over how or when to keep this celebration actually came about in the second century due to a great controversy over the Sabbath/Sunday issue. When the disagreement began, it already had become widely customary among some Christians to celebrate the anniversary of Christ’s death by holding an annual ecclesiastical commemoration then called Pascha - a sort of Christian “Passover” — which the English in later times called “Easter”. This yearly observance originally was on the “fourteenth” day of the first lunar month of the Hebrew calendar (March/April of our calendar)—the “date” on which Christ was crucified—whatever day of the week it happened to fall on (Exodus 12:1-8,25,28). Christ himself instituted the Lord’s Supper on that “date” in order that His followers might eat it afterwards “in remembrance” of Him; thus “showing the Lord’s death till He come”....(1 Corinthians 11:25,26). So as we can see the Passover was originally celebrated on a certain “date” not a day, and Christ established the celebration of His sacrifice on the same date.

The fact that both the ecclesiastical Pascha and the Jewish Passover were observed on the same date each year must have been embarrassing to Christians who celebrated the anniversary in Rome during the terrible war between the Romans and the Jews. Hatred for everything Jewish then rose to such a high pitch among the Romans that the Emperor Hadrian in his fury prohibited, under penalty of death, the observance of the Sabbath, the Passover and every other festival kept by the Jews. Since Christianity had originated in Palestine and had spread to other parts of the Roman Empire, and since its Author was a Jew, it was easy for hostile pagan Gentiles to regard the observance of the ecclesiastical Pascha by Gentile Christians on the date of the Jewish Passover as Judaizing. Because the observance of the ecclesiastical Pascha had not been established by law, the leaders of the church in Rome felt at liberty to modify the celebrating of the festival so that it would not coincide exactly with the time of the celebration of the Passover by the Jews. Anciently, the day on which the Passover lamb was killed was followed immediately by the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread (Nisan 15 to 21). The Passover lamb, slain and roasted on Nisan 14, was actually eaten after sunset, which was the night portion or beginning of Nisan 15 (the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread), a day being reckoned from sunset to sunset (Genesis 1:5). Hence the Hebrew Passover was one of eight days’ duration. The Roman church, however, introduced the following: 1) because Christ died on the sixth day of the week, the church in Rome would commemorate His death every year on the ensuing Friday rather than precisely on the “fourteenth” day of the first lunar month, 2) In those years in which the fourteenth day of the first lunar month should fall on Friday, the Roman church would defer its celebration of the ecclesiastical Pascha until the next Friday (seven days later). This would still be within the eight-day seasonal limits of the old Passover season, yet it would enabled them to avoid observing exactly the same date on which the Jews were accustomed to beginning their Paschal festivities, and 3) the church in Rome would climax its Paschal celebration of the Lord’s passion every year by holding the communion on Sunday, the day in which He rose from the grave, rather than on Friday, the day of the week on which He was slain. Thus there developed a tendency to extend the Paschal fasting of Friday over into the Sabbath in order to end the fasting by partaking of the Lord’s Supper early on Sunday morning. This resulted in making that particular Sabbath a fast day, in simulated mourning for the slain Lord whose body had lain in the tomb on that holy day while His disciples spent it in grief and sorrow. At the same time the partaking of the Lord’s Supper on that particular Sunday marked it as a yearly church festival, in joyous memory of the Lord’s resurrection. The Roman church’s innovation became, by varies means and with some modifications, almost universally adopted by Christendom. Hence, the popular churches today yearly observe a Holy Week, in which Good Friday is regarded as the anniversary of the Savior’s death, Holy Saturday as that of His resting in the tomb, and Easter Sunday as that of His resurrection.

Jesus transformed the Passover to focus on His gospel. The bread and wine of the New Testament Passover, also called the Lord’s Supper and Communion, are the emblems of Christ’s great sacrifice for mankind. Jesus bore our sins on the cross so those who live by faith in Him may escape the penalty of sin. Christ’s church went on keeping the Lord’s Supper as a memorial of His death. For Christians, the New Testament Passover service or Lord’s Supper combines spiritual reflection and joyful appreciation as we contemplate the forgiveness and cleansing we have through Christ’s broken body and shed blood.

Paul in his Epistle to the Corinthians states: I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which He was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, He brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also He took the cup when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come (1 Corinthians 23 thru 1 Corinthians 26). As we contemplate the agony and suffering of Christ this Passover season, drink deeply of His passion, His pain and His purpose for such self-sacrifice. Envision the stripes, the thorns, the nails and the humiliation He endured for us. Though He suffered enormous physical pain at the hands of the Roman soldiers, driven on by the hatred and envy of the Jewish leaders, nothing could outweigh the pain of His broken heart. Separated from the glory of His Father by the sin that He bore for all humanity, He was scorned and rejected by those He longed to save, those He was willing to die for, His own creation. Even in this hour of His greatest trial, His heart of love still yearned for His people. In labored breaths of love and compassion He cries out “ Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34). What unfathomable love!

Isaiah 53 vividly portrays the Savior in His affliction, brought as a lamb to the slaughter, silent, suffering and submissive. His sacrifice is the greatest event in history, fulfilling the promise to Adam in Genesis 3:15 of a coming redeemer. It is only by His humiliation, His sacrifice, His death on Calvary that mankind can be healed from the disease of sin. This is what Christ desires His children to see and understand. And Satan! He would have us blind and ignorant of this powerful message. Christ paid the ultimate price for man’s disobedience to God’s holy law.....death! He was bruised, beaten and betrayed by His own creation, but He will some day see the travail of His soul and be satisfied. On that great resurrection morning when the graves open with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God calling us forth to everlasting life, the Savior will descend to greet His righteous throng (1 Thessalonians 4:6).

Christ’s broken body and shed blood are the true essence of this Passover season. He has redeemed us from the bondage of sin and opened the portals of heaven to God’s eternal grace and glory. His willingness to give His life a sacrifice for mankind will forever occupy the minds of the redeemed throughout all eternity. He is the true Lamb of God, the fulfillment of all the types and shadows that pointed forward to this great moment when Christ, the Son of God, would lay down His life for the salvation of His creation. The price of the broken law was now forever paid, and mankind can conquer sin and death as he beholds the cross and sees the only hope of salvation. Satan has lost his hold. Satan has been defeated and has no access to those who bind their hearts to the Father by beholding Christ and Him crucified. The cross is a picture of true agape love, the unconditional, unfailing, everlasting love of God the Father. A love that will not let us go and that mankind needs so desperately today. But only as we accept this great sacrifice and realize that Christ died in our place, mine and yours, will we understand the incredible price of the Cross. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life ( John 3:16). Angels watched in awe as they saw their commander suffer the cruel fate of crucifixion. They hid their face in utter disbelief as the very creation that Christ so desperately wanted to save, spits in the face of blessed hope, crying out for His blood to be upon them and their children (Matthew 27:25). How much He desired to give, how little they would accept of the precious gift of life. Walk with me down the Via Dolorosa, that sorrowful road to Calvary, and behold His agony as life drains from his aching body. Beaten and bleeding from the cruel lashes of the Roman soldier, a mock crown of thorns upon His bleeding brow, he bore the burden of our punishment. Listen to the crowd as they call for His death. He walked that road out of love, love that would set aside His glory, His deity and walk that lonely path of self denial and suffering. The Lamb, silent and suffering, was lead to the slaughter. Weak and weary He can go no more. His humanity is drained of its strength emotionally and physically. Look into those eyes of divine mercy and see the pain, the mercy, the forgiveness and the unconditional love. Can we reject such love? Truly nothing more important has ever happened on earth than the death of Jesus Christ. In contemplating the final hours of Christ’s life, in lingering at the foot of the cross until we understand what really broke His heart and crushed out His life, we learn the secret of what it means to be a Christian. There we discover the awesome power of utterly selfless love.