Hoc Est (This Is)

By the words of our Lord recorded no less than four times, Christ instituted His Supper for us Christians to eat and drink. It isn't to be contemplated from afar only in the heart or received only on rare occasions as if somehow that would make it more special. It isn't to be paraded about that we might observe it from afar as if mere looking upon it would provide its benefits. Much less should we doubt it and that Christ has given this Sacrament for us. By His holy words, Christ exhorts repented Christians to eat His very body hidden under the bread. By His words, Christ encourages believing Christians to receive His true blood hidden under the wine. And by these words of His last will and Testament, Christ Himself gives us the Sacrament; gives us and every communicant this Sacrament every time the church celebrates it according to His command.

Now as with many doctrines of the Christian faith, the Lord God has pointed to this Sacrament throughout the Old Testament in many various ways through His holy prophets and other inspired writers, but now in these last days, He has spoken to us definitely by His Son. God was pointing to the Sacrament of the Altar long before Christ our Lord instituted it. But now, in a fourfold unambiguous revelation, God has made known that this meal is a reception of a communion in the very body and blood of our dear Lord and Savior. The Passover sacrifice instituted by God on the night in which He delivered Isreal from its bondage to Eygpt pointed to Christ, our Passover lamb. He delivered us from bondage to sin, death, and the devil by sacrificing Himself for us on the cross of Calvary. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. He, Christ, entered once and for all into the Holy places by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. The blood of the Passover lamb marked the doorpost and the lentils of believing Isreal, and they were safe. How much more then will the blood of Christ through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God purify our consciences. The blood of Christ marks the doorpost and lentils of our hearts, minds, and souls, and we are saved.

Once more, the eating of the Passover meal was itself a foretaste of the Lord's Supper, in which we partake of the very body and blood of our paschal Passover lamb - Jesus. Every time we celebrate the Sacrament of the Altar, God remembers His covenant promises to us in Christ. He reminds us of our Saviors' sacrifice on the cross for us. And we, in turn, preach a mighty sermon, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.

Rev. Prof. Don Wiley

This Is My Body

Mark 14:22, And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing, it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.”

So into the old Passover meal, Jesus inserts something brand new. There are a lot of Christians who think the key to the Supper is in the old Passover, but that is exactly backward. It's the Lord's Supper that is key to the old Passover. And remember how Jesus said earlier you couldn't put new wine into old wineskins or a new piece of cloth on an old cloth that has already been washed, so His Supper isn't just something inserted into the old Passover; it rather brings the Passover to its end at least to those who belong to Him. It explodes it from the inside, and remember they learned Jesus says all kinds of outrageous things, and they have learned that He always means exactly what He says and says exactly what He means.

We are not told they asked a thing, but surely they must have been thinking. Remember back in John 6, after the feeding of the five thousand, the question was asked, "how can this man give us His flesh to eat?" And if they were asking themselves how it could be right now, they had a good sense not to voice that thought out loud. But the word delivers whatever it promises, and if He declares of the bread that it is His body, well then faith falls down before the Son of God and confirms - don't know how it can be, Lord, but you always speak the truth, and your word does not deceive, Your body it is!

Pr. Will Weedon

Last Supper And The Passover

The context of the Last Supper is the connection made with the Passover. The Last Supper happens during the Passover. Jesus and the disciples are sharing a Passover meal, and the Lord's Supper is the new Passover, or fulfillment of the original purpose of the Passover meal. Now, if we look at the parallels with the Passover meal, what happens during the Passover? We have an act of redemption that occurs in the Passover, which is that the lamb was slaughtered, and the blood of the lamb was placed over the doorpost of those who are in households of faith, and death passed over those households. This clearly points to the death and blood of Jesus Christ, where Christ's blood covers us so we escape the realities of death brought about by Adam's fall into sin.

The other part is that this is then commemorated and celebrated through the symbolic eating of a lamb, right? No! Do they eat a picture of a lamb? No, they actually eat the lamb, so they eat the instrument of redemption. A lamb is the thing that's sacrificed, and an actual lamb is the thing eaten. There is a connection between the one who was sacrificed and then the one who is eating. This is the case in all the Old Testament sacrifices; is that in those sacrifices where the animal is actually eaten. The instrument of redemption, when it is an animal that is killed that animal is eaten. There is not just a picture of the animal that's eaten; that animal is actually eaten. Part of receiving the blessing of that sacrifice is the whole act, including the sacrifice itself. The partaking of that sacrifice or eating of that sacrifice is very much part of it.

This is what's going on in the Lord's Supper. That's the context there in which Jesus institutes the Lord's Supper. Then why would we believe that anything different is happening? It's pretty; clearly, he's just using a language of sacrifice to say, well, I'm the one that is going to be sacrificed, and you are going to actually eat my body and take my blood instead of just eating the body of the lamb now you're going to receive the true body and blood of the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

- Dr. Jordan Cooper