Mark 14:22 says, “And as they were eating He took bread, and blessed and broke it, and gave it to them, and said, Take; this is My body.” This was the eating of the Slave-Savior’s supper after He and His followers ate the Passover feast in verses 16 through 18. He initiated this new practice for His believers’ remembrance of Him to replace the Passover feast, the old testament practice of the elect’s remembrance of Jehovah’s salvation (Exo. 12:14; 13:3).
This new practice of the new testament is to remember the Slave-Savior by eating the bread, which signifies His body given for His believers (1 Cor. 11:24), and drinking the cup, which signifies His blood shed for their sins (Matt. 26:28). The bread denotes life (John 6:35), the life of God, the eternal life, and the cup denotes blessing (1 Cor. 10:16), which is God Himself as their portion (Psa. 16:5). As sinners, their portion should have been the cup of God’s wrath (Rev. 14:10). But the Slave-Savior has drunk that cup for them (John 18:11), and His salvation becomes their portion, the cup of salvation (Psa. 116:13) that runs over (Psa. 23:5), the content of which is God as their all-inclusive blessing. Such bread and such a cup are the constituents of the Slave-Savior’s supper, which is a table (1 Cor. 10:21), a feast, set up by Him that His believers may remember Him by enjoying Him as such a feast. Thus they testify of His rich and marvelous salvation to the entire universe, displaying His redeeming and life-imparting death (1 Cor. 11:26). His blood separated from His body declares His death.
Verses 23 and 24 say, “And having taken a cup, He gave thanks and gave it to them; and they all drank from it. And He said to them, This is My blood of the covenant, which is being poured out for many.” God made a covenant with redeemed Israel in Exodus 24:3-8 (Heb. 9:18-21), which became the old testament as a base for Him to deal with His redeemed people in the dispensation of law. The Slave-Savior came to accomplish God’s eternal redemption for God’s chosen people by His death, according to God’s will (Heb. 10:7, 9-10), and with His blood instituted a new covenant, a better covenant (Heb. 8:6-13), which became the new testament after His resurrection (Heb. 9:16-17), as a base for God to be one with His redeemed and regenerated people in the dispensation of grace. This new covenant replaced the old covenant and simultaneously changed God’s old dispensation to His new dispensation. The Slave-Savior wanted His followers to know this and to live a life based upon this and according to it after His resurrection.
In 14:25 the Lord went on to say, “Truly, I tell you, I will by no means drink anymore of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” Here the Lord is speaking of the manifestation of the kingdom, in which He will drink with us after His coming back.
Verse 26 is the conclusion of the section on the Slave-Savior’s instituting His supper: “And having sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.” This hymn was a praise to the Father by the Lord with the disciples after the Lord’s table.
We have seen that as the Lord and His disciples were eating, He took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is My body” (v. 22). First the Lord and His disciples ate the Passover; then the Lord established His table with the bread and the cup to replace the feast of the Passover. He did this because He would very soon fulfill the type and become the real Passover to us (1 Cor. 5:7). Now we are keeping the real feast of Unleavened Bread (1 Cor. 5:8).
The bread of the Lord’s table is a symbol signifying the Lord’s body broken for us on the cross to release His life that we may participate in it. By participating in this life, we become the mystical Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27), which is also signified by the bread of the table (1 Cor. 10:17). Hence, by partaking of this bread, we have the fellowship of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 10:16).
The Lord was broken on the cross in order to release His life. The release of the Lord’s life is in resurrection. Therefore, breaking is a matter of death, and releasing is a matter of resurrection. Through being broken on the cross, the Lord was able to release the divine life from within Him so that we might participate in this life. By participating in the Lord’s divine life, we become the mystical Body of Christ, His enlargement. This means that by enjoying the bread we become Christ’s mystical Body.
As His enlargement, Christ’s mystical Body is also signified by the bread on the table, as indicated in 1 Corinthians 10:17. Hence, by partaking of this bread we have the fellowship of the Body of Christ.