And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”
(verses 19-20)
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Taking the chapter as a whole, with its swirl of intrigue and squabbling and accusation and agonized prayer and violence and arrest and condemnation, this moment is like the calm in the eye of the storm. Like the wind blowing through the Red Sea, it exposes the bedrock revelation of the moment.
“This is my body … This is … the new covenant in my blood …”
I imagine the disciples, wide-eyed and uncomprehending. Salvation history is unfolding with force and rapidity right round them, and they don’t quite see it.
Yet the silent drama surges forward. They take fractured pieces of the unleavened bread of Passover, place it in their mouths, chew and wonder. Then, they take the cup in hand, one after another, in silence, completing the rotation of the table, having heard Jesus pronounce the explanation, intensifying the drama. “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”
Such simple, familiar elements – bread, wine – yet infused with meaning from centuries of repetition at the Passover feast. Unleavened bread, made in haste, symbolically free from sin, is eaten alongside bitter herbs and the sacrificial lamb, all of it proclaiming the Lord’s deliverance from the bondage of Egypt. The cup, identified by Luke as the cup “after the supper,” which in Jewish tradition was named the Cup of Redemption, highlights the Lord’s mighty hand rescuing his people.
Jesus gathers up all that meaning and focuses it, laser-like, on his own impending death. Deliverance. Redemption. New Covenant. In the quiet, before the storm, it comes clear.
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Jesus, Saviour, here in this quiet I receive your revelation to my own soul. Thank you, Redeemer, for your sacrifice, breaking sin’s bondage, setting me free. I receive. I eat. I drink. I give thanks.
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Receive:
Take a moment to receive afresh this gift, made personal to you. Pause to hear him say, “This is my body.” Receive it to yourself. Again, pause to hear him say, “This is the new covenant in my blood.” Receive it personally. Give thanks.
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Photo by cottonbro studio (on Pexels)
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