In verses 17 through 30 we see the keeping of the Passover and the establishing of the table. Verse 17 says, “Now on the first day of the Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?” The Unleavened Bread is a feast of seven days (Lev. 23:5-6). It is also called the Passover (Luke 22:1; Mark 14:1). Actually, the Passover was the first day of the feast of Unleavened Bread (Exo. 12:15-20). The table mentioned in verse 20 refers not to the Lord’s table, but to the table of the feast of Passover.
Verses 21 through 25 reveal that the Lord established the table at the time of His betrayal. Verse 21 says, “And as they were eating, He said, Truly I say to you, that one of you shall deliver Me up.” When the disciples heard this, they were grieved, and each one began to say to Him, “I’m not the one, am I, Lord?” When Judas asked this question, the Lord let Judas’ own word condemn him (v. 25). After this, Judas left. He could not bear to stay there any longer. After Judas had gone, the Lord established the table. Thus, Judas participated in the Passover feast, but he did not partake of the Lord’s table. After the betrayer, the false believer, was exposed, the Lord established the table with the eleven real believers.
Verse 26 says, “And as they were eating, Jesus took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is My body.” Beginning at verse 26, the Lord’s table is established. The Lord and the disciples firstly ate the Passover (vv. 20-25; Luke 22:14-18). Then the Lord established His table with the bread and the cup (vv. 26-28; Luke 22:19-20; 1 Cor. 11:23-26) to replace the feast of the Passover, because He was going to fulfill the type and be the real Passover to us (1 Cor. 5:7). Now we are keeping the real feast of Unleavened Bread (v. 17; 1 Cor. 5:8).
In this chapter there are two tables: the table of the Passover and the table of the New Testament. The table of the Passover was the table of the Old Testament economy, but the Lord’s table is the table of the New Testament economy.
In verse 26 the Lord took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take, eat; this is My body.” The bread of the Lord’s table is a symbol signifying the Lord’s physical 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).
At the Passover the people ate the meat of the Passover lamb. But after the Passover feast, the Lord Jesus did not take the flesh of the lamb, but He took bread and gave it to His disciples to eat. As we have pointed out, this bread signifies the Lord’s body to nourish us. However, we all have some kind of religious background that keeps us from comprehending this. Due to our religious background, we have some doctrinal impression regarding the Lord’s table. When Christians attend holy communion today, they do not have the realization that they are taking the Lord Jesus into them as their nourishment. Did you have this realization when you were in religion? I did not. Rather, we were told to examine ourselves; we were not told that we were taking the Lord’s body as our nourishment. But if someone came to the Lord’s table without any doctrinal concept, he would spontaneously realize that to eat the Lord’s body is to receive the Lord into us as nourishment.
Many pastors and preachers today charge people to remember Christ’s death as they participate in holy communion. Many endeavor to review the Lord’s suffering and death on the cross. However, the Lord did not tell us to remember His death, but to remember Him, for He said, “Do this unto the remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19). He told us to remember Him by eating the bread and drinking the cup. This is not just a remembrance, but also an enjoyment of the Lord. To partake of the Lord’s table in this way is to eat and drink of Him.
Luke 22:19 says, “And having taken a loaf, when He had given thanks, He broke it, and gave it to them, saying, This is My body which is given for you; do this unto the remembrance of Me.” According to this verse, we are to eat in remembrance of the Lord. Thus, the genuine remembrance is not to review the story of the Lord’s life, but to eat Him, to take Him in.
For the symbol of His body, the Lord did not use a grain of wheat, but a loaf. A loaf signifies that many grains have passed through a long process to become bread. Firstly, the seed is sown into the field. Then it grows and produces many grains. After the wheat is harvested, the grains are ground into fine flour that is blended into a lump and baked in an oven to make a loaf of bread. Only then do we have a loaf of bread to eat. As a grain of wheat (John 12:24), the Lord Jesus passed through such a process until He eventually became the bread on the table for us to eat. Every time we come to the Lord’s table we should have this realization. We should be able to say, “Lord, today You are our bread because You have been processed for us. Now You are the bread on the table for us to eat.”
The bread on the table firstly signifies the Lord’s physical body that was crucified on the cross. But after His resurrection, this body became mysterious, for it was enlarged into His mystical Body. According to John chapter two, the Jews killed His physical body, but it was resurrected in a mysterious way to become His mystical Body. The Lord’s mystical Body comprises all of us. Therefore, when we see the bread at the Lord’s table, we need to realize that it is a symbol both of the Lord’s physical body and His mystical Body. For this reason, when we break the bread and eat it, we have the fellowship of the Lord’s Body (1 Cor. 10:16). All the members of Christ’s mystical Body are represented in the loaf. Therefore, at His table, we enjoy not only the Lord Jesus, but also the believers. In other words, we enjoy Christ and the church. Both Christ and the church are our enjoyment.