1 Corinthians 11:23, commentary and pictures

The Lord Jesus Himself instituted the bread-and-cup service on the same night in which He was betrayed, sharing it with His disciples just before His crucifixion. In doing so He fulfilled the Passover that pointed to Him as the spotless Lamb of God and replaced that Jewish festival and its ceremonies with His final ordinance for His followers in every land until He comes again. The unleavened bread represents His body given and broken and the pure fruit of the vine His blood shed for cleansing and remission of sins, not converted into His actual body and blood nor offered as an actual sacrifice. It is a memorial to be celebrated often to keep fresh the memory of His love, humiliation, suffering and death, proclaiming His death until He comes and reminding believers of their continual dependence on His cleansing blood. Received after the preparation of humility, confession, forgiveness and unity, it softens and subdues the soul, unites believers to Christ and to one another, and brings His presence, peace and Holy Spirit.

Night of Betrayal Institution

Jesus Himself instituted the bread-and-cup service, the Lord's Supper, on the same night in which He was betrayed. He shared it with His disciples after eating the Passover with them, just before His crucifixion. The ordinance of humility and the Lord's Supper belong together, and their observance recalls the circumstances of the night when these ordinances were instituted.

Judas the betrayer was present that night and received the sacramental emblems, with the bread given as a memorial of Christ's body given for His followers. Jesus knew his treachery, yet still offered him mercy and opportunity to repent. The sacrament was not withheld from a known sinner, showing Christ's patient ministry toward the erring as an example for believers.

Passover Fulfilled and Replaced

Jesus ate the Passover with His disciples just before His crucifixion and instituted the Lord's Supper that same night as a memorial of His death. The Passover recalled Israel's deliverance from Egypt and pointed forward to Christ as the spotless, unblemished Lamb of God whose death redeemed fallen humanity. When Christ died on the cross that Passover type reached its fulfillment in His death.

That fulfillment ended the binding force of Jewish rites and ceremonies, because their types were fulfilled in Christ as the only effective offering for the sins of the world. The bread-and-cup service replaced the Jewish national festival and the system of ceremonies that had pointed forward to His death. It became His final ordinance with His disciples and His final legacy to the church, a memorial of His sacrifice for followers in every land and age to be observed until He comes again.

Bread and Cup Emblems

The bread represents His body given and broken for the world and for each person, and the cup with the fruit of the vine represents His blood shed and spilled for salvation, for cleansing from sin, and for the remission of sins. The broken bread symbolizes His body given for the world, and the wine symbolizes His blood shed to cleanse from sin those who come to Him for pardon and receive Him as Saviour. The bread and wine illustrate His infinite sacrifice and set Him forth symbolically as crucified, keeping the memory of the crucified Saviour's sufferings and death fresh. The pure juice of the grape represents His spilled blood given for humanity and for the world's salvation.

The bread must be unleavened, and the grape juice must be unfermented and pure, and these alone correctly represent the Supper. Fermented wine would spoil the figure of Christ's blood.

The simple bread and wine are not converted into Christ's actual body and blood and are not an actual sacrifice offered by priests. The claim that priests can create their Creator and offer His body and blood is a blasphemous corruption and false teaching that replaced the scriptural ordinance centered on bread and wine.

The service embodies Christ's figures of eating His flesh and drinking His blood and keeps His crucifixion before the mind. Received in faith, the figures teach that believers receive spiritual life from Christ and become one with Him in spiritual life, with the Holy Spirit preparing and enabling them to understand their meaning. In the bread and cup Christ taught lessons meant to awaken conscience, convict of sin, and teach humility and unity among believers. Partaking of His body and blood also means daily receiving the bread of life by taking in His Word and doing His will. In the Supper believers partake of the symbols of Him who became sin for humanity and bore sin as the sin-bearer, so that believers might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Memorial to Be Kept Often

The Supper is a memorial instituted on the night of betrayal to keep fresh the love of Christ and His giving of His life for the world, with broken bread and the cup setting forth His body broken and His blood given for humanity. It brings to mind the humiliation, betrayal, suffering, and agony in Gethsemane of the crucified Saviour, keeping the memory of His sufferings and death fresh before believers. As a memorial it proclaims His death until He comes. It commemorates a greater deliverance than Israel's rescue from Egypt, for that rescue was a type of the atonement Christ made by giving His life for the final deliverance of His people. It keeps continually before believers their dependence on Him and their need of His cleansing blood shed for salvation and cleansing from sin.

The ordinance is to be celebrated often, so that followers remember His betrayal and crucifixion for the sins of the world and their continual dependence on His blood for pardon and salvation. It is to be observed more frequently than once a year and is not restricted to an annual observance. While it continues the meaning of the Passover, its observance is more frequent than yearly, commemorating often His sacrifice of His life for the remission of sins. The view that the Supper continues the Passover and should therefore be observed only once a year was the claim of one brother among disputed views, not the teaching established by the verse.

The ordinance is not exclusive, for each person is to participate publicly as a witness of accepting Christ as a personal Saviour who gave His life to rescue that person from death. Believers gather to receive its emblems in solemn yet joyful worship, joined with the hope of Jesus' soon coming.

Order Preparation and Blessing

The communion service follows the ordinance of humility, or feet washing, which was appointed as sacred preparation for receiving the communion of His body and blood. Remembering His humility and serving one another in that ordinance helps set aside pride, strife, and controversy so the heart can enter fellowship with Christ. Feet washing is a religious service, not ordinary hospitality for guests whose feet are dusty from travel, and it tests and proves loyalty. It was instituted together with the Lord's Supper on the night of betrayal, and the two are observed together with circumstances recalling that night.

Feet washing is joined with communion in the same church service with bread and cup, the emblems being partaken of after feet washing. Taking part in feet washing is not obligatory before partaking of communion, and one who only witnesses it is still welcome to partake of the bread and cup. Those who partake have first followed the Lord in baptism and have made humble confession. Its celebration is a time for hushing controversies, forgiving those who have done injury, settling every difficulty with a brother, and mutual forgiveness, with no strange flame brought to the altar and no malice or hatred cherished by those who meet round the communion table. High and low, rich and poor, learned and unlearned meet together equally as those purchased by the blood of Christ.

The emblems are to be administered by those commissioned for the work and approved by the church, in the meetings and church service of believers. The ordinance is celebrated in the church, as at quarterly meeting, and kept on the first Sabbath of the month in connection with preaching of the Word and after preaching. Brethren and sisters participate apart from one another, with men setting the example for men and women for women, even where it was never practiced before, and its observance is a precious season to all who attend. It may be administered to a sick believer at the bedside, even when it is supposed to be the last sacrament before death, with bread and cup passed as emblems of the broken body and spilled blood. The Supper is a duty laid in God's Word to keep God's people humble and separate from the world and from backsliding like the nominal churches, so it should be practiced more frequently together with washing feet. Jesus set the example and told believers to do as He had done, and His example should be followed as exactly as possible, understandingly and not made a tedious ceremony, with care in how the duty is introduced.

It is to be kept with a peaceful, grateful heart and spiritually attentive participation, remembering His humiliation, betrayal, suffering, and agony in Gethsemane. When kept with solemnity it is profitable and humbling before God, with appropriate talk when breaking the bread that brings sobs and groans, with rejoicing and weeping that is long remembered. The place is made awful and glorious by the presence of the Lord. Celebrating the ordinance in following the example of Christ is a solemn occasion when Jesus is in the midst and heaven is pleased, and the Lord manifests Himself in a special manner to soften and subdue the soul, expel selfishness, imbue contrite hearts with His Holy Spirit, and bring love and grace and peace with deep gratification and good spiritual work. Receiving the bread and wine calls believers to remember Christ, feed on Him, and maintain communion with Him, through whom believers are united to God and to one another, in a solemn season that brings spiritual profit.