(Matt. 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:17-20; 1 Cor. 11:17-34)
“A sacrament is a holy ordinance instituted by Christ, in which by sensible signs the grace of God in Christ, and the benefits of the covenant of grace, are represented, sealed, and applied to believers, and these, in turn, give expression to their faith and allegiance to God.”[1]
Protestant Christians hold that there are only two sacraments in the Christian faith, baptism and the Lord’s Supper (or Holy Communion). The Roman Catholic tradition recognizes five additional events as sacraments (confirmation, penance, orders, matrimony and extreme unction). But Protestants do not believe that the Bible supports these five additional events as sacraments, since Christ instituted only two, baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
In this post we are concerned only with the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper and its inseparable relationship with the Passover.
The day before Jesus’ crucifixion, on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples asked Jesus where he wanted them to prepare for the Passover meal (Matt. 26:17). Jesus answered them saying:
10 “Behold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that he enters 11and tell the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 12And he will show you a large upper room furnished; prepare it there.” 13And they went and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover (Luke 22:10-13).
Jesus and his twelve apostles arrived at the man’s upstairs guest room at the appointed hour for the Passover meal. The Bible tells us that Jesus had an earnest desire to celebrate the Passover meal with his disciples one last time and he told them so as they reclined before the Passover table (Luke 22:14, 15).
As Jesus and His twelve apostles (now absent Judas Iscariot)[2] were eating the Passover meal, “Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” 27And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, 28for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matt. 26-28)
Thus, on the night of His betrayal, Jesus interrupted the last Passover meal and instituted the Lord’s Supper by changing the Old Covenant symbolism of two of the elements, the bread and the wine, to a New Covenant symbolism.
The blood of the Passover (paschal) lamb delivered the Hebrews from the wrath of God and this points to the blood of Christ on the cross that pays the price that delivers those who believe in Him by faith from the wrath of God because of their sins. Jesus’ shed blood on the cross which redeemed believers unto eternal life was the thing that the Passover symbolized.
For the Israelites, the Passover celebration looked back to the passing over of God’s wrath and forward to their deliverance to the Promised Land. The Lord’s Supper looks back to the redemptive act of Christ on the cross and forward to Christ’s return and our eternal life with Him in the new heaven and the new earth.
The Lord’s Supper as instituted by Jesus on the night before His crucifixion, though closely related to the Passover meal, is different in that the meal consists of only two elements, bread and wine, which represents the body and blood of Christ and the Passover lamb is eliminated because the Lord’s Supper is celebrated in the real presence of the lamb of God, Jesus Christ.
THE THINGS SYMBOLIZED
The Passover included the bloody sacrifice of an unblemished lamb which confirmed what the Mosaic law taught that the shedding of blood was necessary for the forgiveness of sins. The sacrifice of the unblemished lamb for the Passover meal pointed to Christ’s perfect bloody sacrifice on the cross.
But once the true lamb of God was sacrificed on the cross, all further shedding of blood became unnecessary and there was no longer any need for a sacrament that symbolized a future sacrifice since the shedding of blood for the remission of sin was no longer necessary.
The Passover also had a national symbolism by memorializing Israel’s deliverance from bondage. Christ’s sacrificial death made the blessings of salvation available to all nations, not just Israel, therefore the national implication of the Passover was no longer needed.
Berkhof has written of the elimination of the symbolism of the Passover.
“It was but natural that, when the real Lamb of God made His appearance and was on the point of being slain, the symbol and type should disappear. The all-sufficient sacrifice of Jesus Christ rendered all further shedding of blood unnecessary; and therefore it was entirely fitting that the bloody element should make way for an unbloody one which, like it, had nourishing properties. Moreover, through the death of Christ the middle wall of partition was broken down, and the blessings of salvation were extended to all the world. And in view of this it was quite natural that the Passover, a symbol with a national flavor, should be replaced by one that carried with it no implications of nationalism.”[3]
Thus Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper as an unbloody sacrament and replaced this with the bread which symbolized His broken body. The wine symbolized His blood of the New Covenant. Jesus clearly represents that the body was broken and blood was separated from flesh.
When Jesus commanded that we eat and drink, He had in mind that our physical consumption of the elements was to represent our spiritual appropriation of the body and blood of Christ by faith (See Gal. 2:20; Rom. 6:6) as our figurative appropriation of the benefits secured by the sacrificial death of Christ. As Berkhof writes, “The use of both elements enabled Christ to give a vivid representation of the idea that His body was broken, that flesh and blood were separated, and that the sacrament both nourishes and quickens the soul.”[4]
The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is no mere memorial meal. But there is a memorial aspect of the Lord’s Supper which Jesus commands when He says “Do this in remembrance of me.” That is as a memorial to the sacrificial work of Christ. We remember and appropriate the life and work of Christ every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper.
[1] Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (The Banner of Truth Trust, 2021), 644.
[2] Regarding Judas Iscariot, Jesus knew Judas had betrayed Him and as they were eating the Passover meal, Jesus as host took a sop (a morsel) of bread, dipped it in the juices of the paschal lamb (the au jus) and passed one to each of his disciples present and when in the act of passing it to Judas, the question was asked by one or more of the disciples “Is it I Lord?” and Jesus answered the question by saying “He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me.” Then, “Judas, who would betray him, answered, “Is it I, Rabbi?” He said to him, “You have said so.” We may reasonably infer that Judas left to effectuate the betrayal and was not present for the institution of the Lord’s Supper.
[3] Berkhof, 677.
[4] Berkhof, 678.
