Essentials of Religion (xii)

Memorial Ceremonies

Another rite in the Christian religion is what is called "The Lord's Supper," "Communion," or the "Eucharist." It is similar to the Jewish Passover. Jesus instituted it the night of his betrayal during a celebration of the Passover with the twelve original apostles. He used the same unleavened bread and "fruit of the vine" (wine) that was used in the Passover to institute his Supper. The main passages describing this institution are these: Matthew 26:26-29, Mark 14:22-25, Luke 22:14-20, and from 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. Let us cite the latter passage.

"For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes." (I Cor. 11: 23-26 nkjv)

This shows that the Lord's Supper was a ritual that was ordained by the Lord Jesus Christ to be a memorial of his sacrificial death. It was also intended to "proclaim the Lord's death." Both water baptism and the Lord's Supper teach Gospel truth by symbols and figures. However, water baptism is more of an initiation ritual rather than a memorial. Jesus said:

"Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.” (John 6: 26-27 nkjv)

Here Jesus speaks of eating a food that does not perish and which gives and assures the one eating of eternal life. This imperishable food is set in contrast to "the loaves" of bread that Christ miraculously fed the multitude with previously and which bread was physical. In the old testament we read of where Elijah the prophet was supplied with food by an angel and that "he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God." (I Kings 19: 8 nkjv) The bread of Christ however lasts forever.

The food or bread which Jesus urges the people to pursue obtaining and eating is one which is not of the same kind, being spiritual food. Said Jesus further:

"Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.” And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst." (30-35)

Jesus says that he is the bread of life for the hungry and the superior drink for the thirsty. So, how does one eat Christ? That is the chief question. Said Jesus further:

"I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” (48-51)

This eating of Christ is not a reference to partaking of the ritual of the Lord's Supper for that had not even been instituted as yet when Christ spoke these words. A person partakes of Christ when he receives him and the story of him into his heart and mind so that he, like food, becomes part of that person. This is done when a person believes in Christ and trusts him for salvation. Christ is taken into the soul and spirit as food is taken into the stomach. Jesus continued:

"52 The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?” 53 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. 56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. 58 This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.” (52-58)

Yes indeed, how do we eat Christ, eat his flesh, or body, and how do we drink in Christ, drink his blood? Certainly not literally for this would be cannibalism. Rather, it is metaphorical. Christ is received with the heart and mind and not with the mouth. The Lord's Supper that would be later instituted by Christ would become a picture or symbolic representation of this receiving of Christ into the soul. "The words design a spiritual eating of Christ by faith" (Gill's commentary). 

Eating the unleavened bread in the Lord's Supper is a picture and representation of a soul partaking of the flesh and body of Christ by faith in the sacrifice of Christ. Drinking the wine of the Supper is a picture of a soul partaking of the blood of Christ by faith in the blood. So the apostle Paul says - " Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood" (Rom. 3: 25 kjv). Faith in the blood is a receiving of the blood, of experiencing the effects of the blood, of the blood being applied and appropriated. So we read of those who have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" (Rev. 7: 14 nkjv) This is metaphorical of course. 

Recall how I referred to this text: "For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast..." (I Cor. 5: 7-8 nkjv) We keep the feast by daily feasting in our minds upon the sacrifice of Christ for our atonement for sin and reconciliation with God. Recall also how when we spoke of the Christian altar that we cited Hebrews 13: 10 where the apostle says emphatically "we have an altar" and speaks of Christians becoming "partakers of the altar."

By drinking in the words of God and of the gospel message and what they declare of Christ we eat Christ. Similarly we read where the prophet Jeremiah said: "Your words were found, and I ate them" (Jer. 15: 16 nkjv). Again, this is obviously a metaphor for we cannot imagine that he means that he ate the paper upon which were written the words of God.

Though Christians eat literal bread and drink literal wine in the Lord's Supper they only analogically eat the body of Christ and drink his blood. We see this exemplified in these words of Paul:

"Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food,  and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness." (I Cor. 10: 1-5 nkjv)

The food and drink that the Jews who were redeemed from bondage ate and drank was literal and yet it was also "spiritual" because it was a metaphor, the natural being emblematic of the spiritual. So too when Christians literally partake of the sacrifice of Christ, of his body and blood, they also are partaking of what is spiritual and only the inner spirit and mind of a man can eat what is spiritual. 

Solomon said: "he who is of a cheerful heart has a continual feast." (Prove. 15: 15) So does the Christian for he eats the word of God and of the true bread of life. Said the risen Lord: "if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." (Rev. 3: 20 kjv) This inner feast takes place in the heart and mind, in the thoughts of every true believer. What a blessed feast is this!

Water baptism and the Lord's Supper are the leading two rituals of Christianity. They exceed in glory and significance in comparison to the rituals of all other religions.