Luke 22:15 And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” 17 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. 18 For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
19 And he took bread, and 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 in remembrance of me.” 20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
Establishing the Context of Communion
Communion is both a celebration of the fulfillment of the New Covenant, and a somber reminder of the price Jesus willingly paid to enact it. Jesus instated communion during the first day of Passover (Pasch), a weeklong Jewish celebration of God’s deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt. At the beginning of Passover, Jews would remove all leavened food from their homes; these would be avoided for the entire week.
The first two nights of Passover, families or friends would gather for religious feasts known as Seder, where the history of Exodus was to be recited and discussed aloud. Foods specific to Passover, such as Matzo, bitter herbs, and charoset were prominent. What was notable about this Passover was that it was to be the last before Jesus’ death, which of course, would be the mechanism by which God would deliver the Elect from sin.
Source: https://toriavey.com/what-is-passover/
Knowing His time was soon coming, Jesus chose to sit and explain the specifics of how He was to fulfill this New covenant to His disciples. As the ultimate offering for sin, Jesus would have to sacrificed. So, taking the unleavened bread, He stated this would be His body, and He broke it in front of the disciples and passed it around, stating that His body would be broken for them.
Next, Jesus took the cup of wine and stated that this is His blood, which would be poured out them as the basis of the New Covenant. Jesus told His disciples that He would not partake of bread nor wine again until the Kingdom of God comes, but He commanded His disciples to continuously observe this “communion” in remembrance of Him.
Communion is the Representation of the Covenant Purchased by Jesus’ Death
How do we know that it was Jesus’ sacrifice specifically that would purchase the redemption of men? Because God explicitly spelled it out to the Israelites in Isaiah:
Isaiah 53:4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—everyone—to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Jesus would be pierced for the sins of God’s people, He would be crushed for our wrongs against God. By Jesus’ wounds, His flock are healed.
10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. 11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.
By God’s will, Jesus was killed as an offering for guilt, which was very much in alignment with the sacrifices outlined in Mosaic/Levitical law. Not only by His death, but by His knowledge (ie. words of the Spirit/Gospel), Jesus would make many men righteous by bearing their transgressions. It is specifically by Jesus’ death, as a guilt offering, that the sins of men are forgiven, just as God had promised the Israelites in both Isaiah and Jeremiah. Jesus of course, would be the one to make intercession for His people.
The Consumption of His Flesh and Blood is Metaphorical, Literal Consumption of Flesh and Blood is Evil
Jesus first alluded to his sacrifice this in His sermon at Capernaum:
John 6:52: The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, 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 feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.
56 Whoever feeds on 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 whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.
If we were to take this literally, as Nicodemus had done with spiritual baptism, this presents some problems. You see, Jesus is God manifested as man, and He comes fulfilling His Laws. The Jews and disciples, like Jesus, were aware of the original scriptures of the Old Testament, where God condemned the consumption of human flesh and blood.
Deuteronomy 18:10: There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer.
Ezekiel 36: 13 Thus says the Lord God: Because they say to you, ‘You devour people, and you bereave your nation of children, 14 therefore you shall no longer devour people and no longer bereave your nation of children, declares the Lord God. 15 And I will not let you hear anymore the reproach of the nations, and you shall no longer bear the disgrace of the peoples and no longer cause your nation to stumble, declares the Lord God.”
Leviticus 17: 10 “And if any native Israelite or foreigner living among you eats or drinks blood in any form, I will turn against that person and cut him off from the community of your people, 11 for the life of the body is in its blood. I have given you the blood on the altar to purify you, making you right with the Lord.
It is the blood, given in exchange for a life, that makes purification possible. 12 That is why I have said to the people of Israel, ‘You must never eat or drink blood—neither you nor the foreigners living among you.’ 14 “For as for the life of all flesh, its blood is identified with its life. Therefore I said to the sons of Israel, You are not to eat the blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood; whoever eats it shall be cut off.”
Well, of course, Jesus was not speaking literally. Consumption of blood is a repulsive sin against God; Jesus would never condone that. We know this to be because His apostles later still assert that consumption of blood is evil. They make no mention or concession of consuming Jesus’ blood. They directly reference what God told Moses in the books of the Pentateuch.
Acts 15:19 It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not cause trouble for the Gentiles who are turning to God. 20 Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals, and from blood. 21 For Moses has been proclaimed in every city from ancient times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”
So, no wonder this was hard for both the Jews and Jesus’s own disciples to understand, cannibalizing Jesus is clearly wrong. It is not surprising that Jesus, in spite of His proclivity for metaphors, corrects the disciples immediately:
John 6:60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?
63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
In the context of John 6, the conflict that arose from interpreting Jesus literally is resolved.
Please remember that Jesus spoke in metaphors frequently and has referred to Himself as not only being bread, but as a shepherd (John 10:11), a gate (John 10:9), a vine (John 15:5), and the cornerstone (Matt 21:42). Eating Jesus was not the mechanism for forgiveness, but the destruction of his body and spilling of his blood would. This imagery is necessary as this is an alliterative reference to the sacrifices in Mosaic Law.
Once corrected, the remaining disciples then began to understand that the bread of life is the Word of God, more specifically, the light that the Word of God brings as truth and salvation to those that believe in Jesus:
John 6: 66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
Remember back in Isaiah 53 that by Jesus’ death the transgression of many would be paid for, and by Jesus’s knowledge many would be made righteous? We know the knowledge Jesus specifically brought with Him was the Gospel, hence the words of Spirit and Truth. This also makes sense in that Jesus also refers to this truth as water when he speaks to the Samaritan woman, stating:
John 4:14: But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
1 John 5:6: This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.
Taken literally, these are contradictions. It is either Jesus’ flesh and blood that give eternal life, or this water that He gives. It can’t be both, that is contradictory. What is the one thing that binds the flesh, water, and even bread together? It’s the assertion that they are metaphor for the truth of the Gospel He speaks to them, which can impart the Spirit.
This would leave the blood as being His sacrifice on the cross for our sins, which is then followed by the Holy Spirit, which continues to instruct truth in His chosen people.
What does Jesus say about these metaphors and the Holy Spirit well after His preaching at Capernaum and just following the last supper?
John 16: 25“ I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. 26 In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; 27 for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. 28 I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”
29 His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! 30 Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.” 31 Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe?
Communion Potentially Holds an Even Deeper Layer of Symbolism
I know I’ve likely rubbed some people the wrong way by disregarding transubstantiation through metaphorical (but scriptural) reconciliations. Well, this is something I will again do in much more detail later in the following chapter. However, I ask you to bear with me just a little longer first, because Jesus’ metaphors of communion extend far past that of flesh, blood, and sacrifices.
You see, while Jesus was God by essence, He was still a Jew both by blood and by culture. More specifically, Jesus, and all of His disciples were Galilean. As a culture heavily steeped in tradition, Jews have many fascinating cultural practices for various religious and societal functions. Among them, the Jews of Galilee have a set of rituals that are incredibly intertwined with Jesus’s own metaphors.
Galilean Marriage Rites in Christ’s Day
Throughout the bible, God is often referred to as the Husband of His people, especially throughout the Old Testament. His people are referred to as His bride.
Isaiah 54:5: For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.
Jeremiah 2:1: The word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord, “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. Israel was holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of his harvest. All who ate of it incurred guilt; disaster came upon them, declares the Lord.”
Revelation 19:7: Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
The first step of Jewish marriage was betrothal, where a man who has come of age would have his father select for him someone to marry. The father would send a servant out with the best gifts he could afford to present to the woman’s father. If the woman’s father was impressed by the offering he would accept it and offer his daughter to the bridesgroom.
1 Corinthian’s 6:20:“For you are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
The son and daughter are then introduced to each other. The son offers the daughter both a monetary gift, as well as a cup of wine. Here the daughter may choose to accept the gift and wine and become betrothed to him. Should she accept the gift and wine a marriage contract would be signed as an agreement for the marriage and that the groom was to provide for the needs of his daughter.
The accepting of the cup was viewed as a symbolic covenant for the marriage. Once the contract is signed and the payment is made, the groom declares in a loud voice either “it is finished,” or “I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until I drink it with you in my father’s house.”
Luke 22:17 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. 18 For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
Here they would enter the betrothal period (typically lasting a year), where they were considered married, but they would not live together. Instead, the groom’s father would take him back home, where the groom was to prepare a place for his bride. This would involve the son building an extension on his father’s house to accommodate her.
John: 16:16: “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.
John 14: 1-4: “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.”
The son could not return for the bride until his father granted him approval. Meanwhile, the bride would focus on getting prepared for the wedding, readying wedding garments and utilities such as lamps and blankets. Neither her nor the son would know when the wedding be, as the final approval would come from the father. Thus, she would have to live in a state of constant preparedness and vigilance for her groom’s return.
Mark 13:32-37 : “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.”
Once the son had prepared an appropriate place for his fiancé, the father would grant him approval to retrieve her for the wedding. The son would return for her with friends and family during the night, announcing his coming with the blare of a trumpet.
1 Corinthians 15: 50: “Now this I say, brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
The bride, hearing the trumpet, would prepare her oil lamp so he could readily see her in the night. He would come and take her away with him back to his house, where they would have the wedding party.
Matthew 25: 1“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
6 “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’
7 “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’
9 “‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’
10 “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.
11 “Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’
12 “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’
13 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.
Now, Jewish weddings were typically arranged between people within the same nation. Should a foreigner want to become a Jew (especially for familial adoption), they would go through a citizenship process where they would renounce the beliefs, practices, and identity of their original country and learn Judaism, where they were then submerged in a ritual pool as a symbolic process of dying and becoming born again. The symbolism further being derived from the Israelites crossing the Jordan river to reach the promised land.
In doing so, the baptized “foreigner” would be accepted as an adopted son and heir of the promise made to Israel. This ceremony was also applied to this rebirth to the bride as consecration prior to marriage, where she would be seen as new creation, no longer held to the sins of her past life.
In this, consider Ephesians 5:
Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, of which He is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her 26 to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to Himself as a glorious church, without stain or wrinkle or any such blemish, but holy and blameless.
28 In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 Indeed, no one ever hated his own body, but he nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church. 30 For we are members of His body.
31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, but I am speaking about Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Keep in mind that this is, once again, not a distinguished church. The church is those where called as followers of Christ:
1 Corinthians 12:12: For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many.
In these marriage metaphors, accepting the wine is accepting the payment of blood from Jesus Christ in symbolic marriage to Him under the Father.
Breaking it down,
God the Father chose a nation of people of whom He wrote His Law on their hearts. He gave these people to Jesus Christ, but they needed to be consecrated to reside in Heaven with Him and they were incapable of doing so themselves.
Jesus offered His life to His collective bride, sanctifying them in forgiveness of sins, this payment being sealed with the acceptance of the wine. Those who heard the Gospel and dedicated themselves to Him were baptized into His body, the spiritual church, which was to be His bride.
When Jesus died on the cross and later ascended, He went up to Heaven to be with His Father. Here, He has prepared a place for His bride, body, and church. In the end times, Jesus will return amidst the blowing of horns and to take His people back to His Father to be with Him forever.
Jesus refers to Himself as the bridesgroom in all four Gospels, most notably in regard to the Pharisees:
Matthew 9:14-15: “Then the disciples of John *came to Him, asking, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”
This is why communion has such significance in spite of not being consecrated by a priest or required for forgiveness of sins. It is also an expression of that personal pledge to Jesus and God as accepting the gift of salvation to be in “communion” with Christ. Without a necessary priestly body or being required for forgiveness of sins, this communion spares no glory, attention, or reverence to anyone but Jesus and God.
Sources for Jewish Tradition:
https://biblexfiles.com/ancient-hebrew-marriage-customs-and-how-they-correspond-to-the-actions-of-yeshua-the-messiah-as-described-in-the-scriptures/
https://free.messianicbible.com/feature/ancient-jewish-wedding-customs-and-yeshuas-second-coming/
https://tasc-creationscience.org/article/ancient-jewish-wedding-missing-link-christianity
https://firescholars.seu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=mats
Communion in The Early Church
So, with the context and history of the communion thoroughly explored, how would it applied to Christians? We can look to Paul in the early church:
1 Corinthians 11:23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Just as Jesus commanded His disciples to observe communion in remembrance of Him, Paul teaches the Corinthians to celebrate communion to proclaim Jesus’ death. Of course, Paul, being the only non-Galilean of Jesus’ apostles, took a much direct approach to communion by focusing on its purpose in glorifying God.
It was by God’s will and mercy that Jesus was crucified for our sins, it was only by death could Jesus resurrect and ascend to Heaven before men, proving His divinity, lastly it was by Jesus’ promise to return that gave the early Christians hope for the future.
Of course, just like any tradition, the Early Church would find some way to confound its meaning and squabble with each other anyway. So, Paul would lay down some ground rules that are still very pertinent to Christians today. Two issues were particularly present in communion.
There were differences in how the Early Church were practicing their faiths. These differences were deep enough to divide the church into factions, threatening the “community” aspect of communion.
1 Corinthians 11:17 But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. 18 For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, 19 for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.
On top of this, there were people were disrespecting the Communion with gluttonous intentions. Instead of remembering Jesus’ sacrifice and proclaiming His resurrection, people were more concerned with gorging themselves on complimentary food.
1 Corinthians 11:20 When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. 21 For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. 22 What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.
So, Paul demanded Christians examined their intentions prior to taking communion. Were they coming together as a community to proclaim the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Or were their hearts preoccupied with judgements against each other? Were they eating the bread and drinking from the cup with reverence to Jesus’s broken body and spilled blood on the cross and in hope of His return? Or were they preoccupied with getting free food?
1 Corinthians 11:27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. 31 But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
33 So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another— 34 if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home—so that when you come together it will not be for judgment. About the other things I will give directions when I come.
In a biblical Christian faith, the beginning and end of communion is solemn remembrance of Jesus’ death on the cross, which redeemed us of our sins, and a joyous proclamation of Jesus’ imminent return, where He would come back for His church and establish the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. In Galilean tradition, communion takes on additional meaning as the acceptance of Jesus’ gift of salvation, becoming symbolically married to Him and thus a child of God.
Jesus would leave them and ascend to Heaven, where He would reside to intercede for men’s sins and to prepare a place for them. Christians would remain in earth, proclaiming His name and eagerly awaiting His return.
With or without the Galilean tradition, the narratives of communion are neatly unified in their sole end of glorifying God. Neither by scripture or Galilean tradition is communion a ritual, sacrifice, or consecration for forgiveness of sins. Jesus already accomplished this by His death on the cross and the subsequent commission of the Holy Spirit. He asked us to do this in remembrance of Him, because His work is already done:
John 19: 28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” 29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.