Go into any church, anywhere in the world, and you’re likely to find them taking Communion or the Lord’s Supper sometime in the month. Some churches, like the Catholics, take it every mass, making it a central part of their services. On the other end of the scale, most non-denominational churches only take Communion once per month, if that often. Clearly, they’re not putting as much emphasis on it or seeing as much importance in the Lord’s Supper.
This raises the obvious questions of why the difference and who’s right?
To start with, we celebrate Communion because Jesus told us to in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 22:19). He even gave His disciples a reason for celebrating it, saying, “do this in memory of Me.” Every time we take communion, we are remembering Him celebrating his last Passover supper with His disciples, the night before He was crucified; which, of course, means that we remember the crucifixion as well.
But just why does Jesus want us to remember Him in this way, by celebrating Communion? God doesn’t do anything casually or by accident. Everything He does has a purpose, perhaps even more than one purpose. Until we understand that purpose, we are merely doing it because we are told to, not because it really means anything to us. This can be spiritually dangerous, as anything that is done “just because” or “because that’s our tradition” becomes nothing more than a religious act. That doesn’t really accomplish much of anything, including pleasing God. It needs purpose for us to receive the full benefit.
To find the purpose of Communion, we need to understand its roots. We might think that it comes only from the last supper that Jesus celebrated with His disciples, there in the upper room; but that was a special supper, eaten for a special purpose. Everything He did in that supper was symbolic.
The Jewish Passover
The Lord’s Supper was actually a celebration of the Jewish Passover, commanded by God to the Jews. We know this, because the Gospel of Luke tells us that He sent Peter and John to prepare for the Passover, even telling them how to find the man whose home they would be celebrating it in (Luke 22:7-13). It happened just as He had foretold and they prepared to celebrate the Passover. We can use the term “supper” for it, not only for the bread and the wine, but because the Jews celebrated the Passover over a scrumptious meal. It took them three or more hours, not just the few minutes that it takes for us to celebrate Communion in our churches.
But just what was the Passover? Back in the book of Exodus, God visited 10 plagues on the nation of Egypt, which led to the people of Israel being set free from slavery. The tenth of those plagues was the death angel “passing over” the homes of the people of Israel, as it was killing the firstborn of every household in Egypt. Moses, following God’s direction, instructed the people of Israel to paint the doorposts and lintels of their homes with the blood of a lamb, indicating that it was an Israeli house.
This then became one of the Jewish festivals, commanded by God in the Old Testament Law, specifically in Exodus, chapter 12. The very first Passover was the one which God used to set the nation of Israel free from slavery and He then commanded the Israelites to celebrate the Passover annually, in remembrance of what He had done, defeating Egypt so that they may be set free.
But there’s more to the Passover than a celebration of remembrance. Each of the Biblical festivals had a prophetic meaning as well. The Spring festivals spoke prophetically about the first coming of Jesus and the fall festivals speak prophetically of His second coming. In that calendar, we are currently living in the time between the Spring and Fall festivals. As the first of the Spring festivals, the Passover symbolically and prophetically shows us the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Since the time of the Exodus, until today, the Jews have celebrated the Passover (with a few notable exceptions). The ceremony has been celebrated in the home, since about the 12th century. While there may be some minor variations, the celebration always includes the same elements and many of the same words.
There are many specific things in the Jewish Passover celebration itself, which speak symbolically about various aspects of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. There are also many different things which He did in that supper with His disciples, which came right out of the Jewish celebration. In some cases, He did the same as what the Jews did and still do today, while in other cases, He changed the act, to bring out the full meaning. We could spend a considerable amount of time discussing these, but since we are interested in the Communion meal, we’ll concentrate on those parts.
The Bread
The first symbol we see in the Lord’s Supper is the bread. This was unleavened bread, because the Passover celebration takes place during a week-long celebration, known as the “Feast of Unleavened Bread.” Being unleavened is significant, because Jesus defined leaven as being symbolic of impurity, specifically impure doctrine.
Then Jesus said to them, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees…” 11 How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? – but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees. – Matthew 16:6, 11-12
Since bread symbolizes the human body, another way we can take that is that unleavened bread represents a human body without sin; in other words, the body of Jesus, as He was the only one to ever live without sin. We see this clearly stated, as Jesus shared the bread with His disciples, saying. “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19 and others).
The unleavened bread that Jesus used was made special for eating during the time of the feast of Unleavened Bread. In modern times they use Matzos, although modern commercial matzos, manufactured by automated equipment, may appear slightly different from the ones they used in the time of Jesus. The important part though, is that it is without any leaven, making it pure.
During the Passover celebration, there are three pieces of unleavened bread sitting together on a plate, along with a cloth bag and napkin, usually made of embroidered linen. They are picked up by the celebrant (usually the father of the family) and held together, and then placed in the cloth bag, which is closed. He then opens the bag and removes the middle one, setting the two others aside. Those two are called the “lechem minhneh” which is the double portion. For the Jews, this represented the double portion of manna that their forefathers had gathered in the wilderness on the sixth day, so that they would not have to work on the seventh, the Lord’s Day.
The middle piece of bread is called the “lechem onee,” which means “the bread of affliction” in reference to the affliction of the Israelites, while in captivity in Egypt. Isaiah said that the Messiah was “smitten of God and afflicted” (Isaiah 53:4), so it also symbolizes the affliction of Jesus in a prophetic sense. This is the piece of bread that was broken and shared in the Passover celebration, just as Jesus did with His disciples (Luke 22:19).
The Jews have always understood that these three loaves of bread represented Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That caused some problems for them, as they could never understand why Isaac’s body was broken. Yet, in reality, this represents the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and as we know, it was the body of the Son which was broken for us. His body was the one without sin, symbolized by the lack of leaven. The same can’t be said of Isaac. Jesus even gave reference to Himself as the bread, not only in saying “this is my body” when He was breaking it, but also when He said “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35). The three loaves of bread are put into the cloth bag together, because although our God is a triune God, in three parts, He is one God. Jesus is taken out, showing that He is the part of the Trinity which we are allowed to see, while the Father and the Spirit remain hidden from our sight.
But the symbolism doesn’t stop with breaking the bread. Only half of the lechem onee is shared amongst them. The celebrant takes the other half and wraps it in a piece of fabric, hiding or “burying” it on his lap, out of sight under the table. This is called the “afikomen.” Sometime during the course of the meal, he would move it to some other hiding place of his choosing, within the same room they were celebrating in.
One of the last things that is done as part of the Jewish celebration of the Passover, is to gather the children together and have them search for the afikomen. When they find it, they bring it to the celebrant, who unwraps it, holding it high for all to see. The child who found the afikomen will receive some sort of a prize; usually one that they negotiate with the celebrant for.
The afikomen being found and unwrapped symbolizes the resurrection of Christ. The person who finds Him, receives the “prize” of salvation and eternal life. He is held up for all to see, as Jesus said:
And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself. – John 12:32
The Wine
But the Communion Meal doesn’t just consist of the bread, there is also wine; or as some modern churches do it, grape juice. Since it is symbolic, it really doesn’t matter which is used. Even so, allow me a moment to deal with alcohol-bearing wine in the Communion Meal, as there are many who say that it can’t be.
The Passover was always celebrated in the springtime and the grape harvest is in early Fall. You can’t just keep those grapes for all that time, especially when you consider that we’re talking about a time period before chemical preservatives existed. To preserve those grapes, they either had to turn them into wine, vinegar or raisins. Turning it into wine therefore, was a way of preserving the grape juice.
So, as it doesn’t say that Jesus used vinegar for the Passover with His disciples, He must have used wine. But and this is a very big but, the way that the Jews drank wine in those days was to mix one part wine, with four parts water, allowing the alcohol in the wine to act as a purifier, killing the bacteria in the water. Drinking wine in this manner makes it all but impossible to become drunk off of it, unless someone has an allergy to alcohol. This wasn’t a drunken revelry, but a holy convocation unto the Lord.
They drank four glasses or cups of wine (about four to six ounces) through the Passover celebration. Each is drunk at a particular time and has a particular meaning as part of the celebration. According to the Jews, these four cups represent the four promises made by God, to His people , before taking them out of Egypt:
Therefore say to the children of Israel: “I am the Lord; I will bring you out from under the burden of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. 7 I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from the burdens of the Egyptians. – Exodus 6:6-7
All four of those promises are fulfilled in Jesus, although the “Egypt” that we refer to is the world, not the ancient Egyptian kingdom that the Jews dealt with in the time of the Exodus. The third one, in particular, is important to us, as Jesus literally redeemed us with outstretched arms on the cross.
- The First cup – Cup of Consecration – drunk at the beginning of the meal, this cup is used to consecrate the time of the celebration to God. It also represents us, consecrating our lives to the Lord. The very first thing we must do, in our walk with the Lord, is consecrate our lives to Him. Without that, there is no walk with the Lord.
- The Second cup – Cup of Thanksgiving and Praise – drunk before eating the meal. Both thanksgiving and praise are important parts of the life of the believer, bringing us into the presence of God, according to Psalm 100, verse 4.
- The Third cup – Cup of Yeshua (Salvation) – drunk just after the meal. This is the cup, which bore His own name, which the Lord shared with His disciples. It is the cup which is referred to in scripture, as we are told, “after the supper, He took the cup” (Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25).
- The Fourth cup – The cup of Completion – drunk at the end of the celebration, indicating that the Passover is coming to a close. But for us, it has a much deeper meaning, as the last thing that Jesus said on the cross was: “It is finished” (or completed). The word He spoke there, was the Aramaic word “shalem” which is the verb of shalom (peace). It is the word used to indicate that a debt is fully paid.
The Tabernacle
It should be noted that none of this came as a surprise to God; He had planned for it all along. Back when God gave the plan for the Tabernacle to Moses, he included what was called the Table of Shewbread” in the Holy Place. This table was to have 12 loaves of unleavened bread placed on it, every day, along with wine (Exodus 24:5-9). When King Solomon built the Temple, he moved the Table of Shewbread into it, continuing to follow the commandments that God had given.
Temple worship was not consistent from the time when Moses and the children of Israel built the Tabernacle in about 1,500 BC, up to the time of Jesus. There were times when Israel didn’t follow after God, the time Judah was in captivity in Babylon and what was known as the “silent years” between Malachi and the beginning of the Gospels. Nevertheless, we can see that God made provision for Jesus to celebrate this meal with His disciples 1,500 years before He did.
Communion and the Covenant Meal
But there’s another root for the Communion Meal; one that is even older than Moses’ building of the Tabernacle. That is found in the covenant ceremony practiced in much of the Middle East, as a way for people to enter into agreements. The first biblical example of that we have is in Genesis, chapter 15, when God cut covenant with Abraham. While not all elements of a covenant ceremony are recorded in Scripture, there is enough that we can connect it with historic documentation, showing other parts of the ceremony.
Traditionally, the covenant ceremony ended with a meal. They would take bread and break it, offering it to each other and share wine together too, much as Jesus did with His disciples. This was a symbolic act, just as it was in the Lord’s Supper. Giving the bread was symbolically saying, “This is my body. If it becomes necessary for you to eat of my flesh, to remain alive. I give you permission to do so.” The wine they shared carried a similar message, saying, “If it is a choice between my life or yours, I give you my life now, so that you may live.
This is a very severe commitment, but shows us just how seriously the covenant was taken in Old Testament times; not just by the Jews, but by other people in the Middle East as well. Covenant spread far beyond that, as we have seen extensive examples of it in the African continent and the Americas, even up to more recent times.
The significance of this is that Communion, as the covenant meal, is a symbolic renewing of our covenant with Jesus Christ and through Him with the Father. We are renewing our commitment to Him, while accepting the reminder of His commitment to us.
So, what does that commitment mean? It means the level of commitment demonstrated by those old covenants, where they said “Your life is more important to me than my own.” That’s the way we are supposed to be with our own lives, just as Jesus was with His. He gave Himself on the cross for us and in exchange, we are supposed to give our lives to Him; not dying for Him, but living for Him. That’s what the Lord wants from us.
Every time we take Communion, we should be thinking of this covenant and the commitment that goes with it. That also includes searching our hearts for unconfessed sin and confessing that sin to the Lord, repenting of it. Taking Communion, without doing this, is an insult to God and can carry grave consequences.
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. 27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. – 1 Corinthians 11:26-29
Some have taken this passage, and used it to say that those who have not accepted the Lord or those who are not baptized should not take the Lord’s Supper, because they are unworthy. I agree that they are unworthy, for they don’t even know what they are doing. But that isn’t what this passage is talking about. It’s not talking about those who are unworthy, but rather those who take the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner. That’s something else entirely.
So, just what does that mean? It appears that the Apostle Paul answered that question for us in verse 28, telling us to examine ourselves. If we don’t and we have sin gin us, we are eating and drinking in an unworthy manner. On the other hand, if we recognize our faults and take them to the Lord, repenting of them, before partaking, we are then showing that we are taking the Communion meal in a worthy manner. Renewing a covenant with the Lord, while we are walking outside of that covenant, in sin, is mocking the very covenant we are there to celebrate.
Of course, if we don’t even know the purpose of what we are doing and the symbolism behind it, we’re not going to take the time to search our own hearts, repenting of our sins. That alone is enough to ensure that we are taking Communion unworthily. God doesn’t desire for us to operate in ignorance, for when we do, we find ourselves doing many things that we should not.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. – Hosea 4:6