Eucharist

The Eucharist — the Lord's Supper — is a memorial meal of bread and a cup, instituted by Jesus on the night he was delivered up. It is read in scripture against the older Passover meal it fulfils, against the supper-table of Christ's last evening with the Twelve, and against the disordered table of the Corinthian congregation that Paul had to correct. The bread is named "my body"; the cup is named the new covenant "in my blood."

The Passover Setting

The supper is fixed inside the Passover week. Mark sets the scene: "And on the first day of unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the Passover, his disciples say to him, Where do you want us to go and prepare that you may eat the Passover?" (Mr 14:12). John gives the same frame for the upper-room evening — "Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that his hour came that he should depart out of this world to the Father" (Jn 13:1).

The Passover itself is the older meal, eaten in haste at the exodus: "And thus you⁺ will eat it: with your⁺ loins girded, your⁺ sandals on your⁺ feet, and your⁺ staff in your⁺ hand; and you⁺ will eat it in a hurry: it is Yahweh's Passover" (Ex 12:11). Paul reads the connection backwards from the cross: "Purge out the old leaven, that you⁺ may be a new lump, even as you⁺ are unleavened. For our Passover also has been sacrificed, [even] Christ" (1Co 5:7).

The Institution

Three accounts describe the action. Mark's is shortest:

"And as they were eating, he took bread, and when he had blessed, he broke it, and gave to them, and said, Take⁺: this is my body. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave to them: and they all drank of it. And he said to them, This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many" (Mr 14:22-24).

Luke adds the word of memory and names the cup as the new covenant:

"And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and gave to them, saying, This is my body which is given for you⁺: this do in remembrance of me. And the cup in like manner after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, [even] that which is poured out for you⁺" (Lu 22:19-20).

Paul gives the same words as a tradition he had received and passed on:

"For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered to you⁺, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was delivered up took bread; and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, This is my body, which is for you⁺: this do in remembrance of me. In like manner also 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 the cup, you⁺ proclaim the Lord's death until he comes" (1Co 11:23-26).

A Memorial Meal

"This do in remembrance of me" places the supper in a long line of instituted memorials. The Passover itself was the prototype: "And this day will be to you⁺ for a memorial, and you⁺ will keep it [as] a feast to Yahweh: throughout your⁺ generations you⁺ will keep it [as] a feast by an ordinance forever" (Ex 12:14). The wilderness manna was kept "throughout your⁺ generations, that they may see the bread with which I fed you⁺ in the wilderness" (Ex 16:32). The Eucharist follows the same pattern: a perpetual feast that holds a saving event in the corporate memory of the people. Paul gives the time-shape of the rite — "as often as you⁺ eat this bread, and drink the cup, you⁺ proclaim the Lord's death until he comes" (1Co 11:26).

The Supper-Table of Christ's Hour

John does not narrate the bread-and-cup, but he sets the supper inside the larger table-scene of the last evening, framed by Christ's "hour" and his love for his own. "Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that his hour came that he should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end" (Jn 13:1). At that table the betrayal is already in motion: "And during supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas [the son] of Simon Iscariot, to deliver him up" (Jn 13:2).

In the same supper-room Christ takes the posture of a servant. "[Jesus], knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he came forth from God, and goes to God, rises from supper, and lays aside his garments; and he took a towel, and girded himself. Then he pours water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded" (Jn 13:3-5). The supper of the new covenant is set, in John, alongside the foot-washing — table and basin together.

A second word of warning belongs to the same horizon. To those who would presume on table-fellowship without obedience, Christ says they will plead, "We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets" (Lu 13:26) — and the plea is rejected. Eating and drinking with Christ is not, by itself, the saving claim.

The Cup of the Lord and the Cup of Demons

Outside the institution narratives, Paul's most direct theology of the supper is in 1 Corinthians 10. The cup and the bread are a real participation in Christ's death:

"The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a communion of the body of Christ? seeing that we, who are many, are one bread, one body: for we all partake of the one bread" (1Co 10:16-17).

That participation is exclusive. To eat at the Lord's table is to be barred from the table of idols: "You⁺ can't drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of demons: you⁺ can't partake of the table of the Lord, and of the table of demons" (1Co 10:21). To attempt the double table is to court the divine response: "Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?" (1Co 10:22). The wider chapter pulls Israel's wilderness story into the same frame — "all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink: for they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them: and the rock was Christ" (1Co 10:3-4).

The One Bread, the One Body

The supper is corporate by its very form. The shared loaf gathers a many into a one: "seeing that we, who are many, are one bread, one body: for we all partake of the one bread" (1Co 10:17). Mark's institution scene shows the same shape — the one loaf broken and distributed: "he took bread, and when he had blessed, he broke it, and gave to them" (Mr 14:22).

Disorder at Corinth

Paul's other long passage on the supper is a rebuke. The Corinthian gathering was not, in fact, eating it: "When therefore you⁺ assemble yourselves together, it is not possible to eat the Lord's supper: for in your⁺ eating each takes before [another] his own supper; and one is hungry, and another is drunk" (1Co 11:20-21). The supper had been turned into a stratified meal where the well-off ate first and well, while the poor went hungry. Paul's rebuke is sharp: "What, don't you⁺ have houses to eat and to drink in? Or do you⁺ despise the church of God, and put them to shame who do not have? What shall I say to you⁺? Shall I praise you⁺? In this I do not praise you⁺" (1Co 11:22).

The remedy is order: "Therefore, my brothers, when you⁺ come together to eat, wait one for another. If any man is hungry, let him eat at home; that your⁺ coming together not be to judgment. And the rest I will set in order whenever I come" (1Co 11:33-34).

Self-Examination and Discernment

Inside the same correction Paul lays down the discipline of approach: "Therefore whoever will eat the bread or drink the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he does not discern the body" (1Co 11:27-29).

This self-examination is not novel; it stands inside an older biblical practice. Lamentations urges, "Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh" (La 3:40). Paul presses the same on the Corinthians elsewhere: "Try yourselves, whether you⁺ are in the faith; approve yourselves. Or don't you⁺ know as to yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you⁺? Unless indeed you⁺ are disapproved" (2Co 13:5). Sirach gives the same wisdom-shape: "Before judgement examine yourself, And in the hour of visitation you will find forgiveness" (Sir 18:20); "My son, in your life prove your soul, And see what is evil for it, and do not give it that" (Sir 37:27).

Judgment and Chastening

Where the discipline collapses, the Corinthian text reports a bodily consequence: "For this cause many among you⁺ are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep" (1Co 11:30). But the judgment is read as fatherly correction inside the covenant, not condemnation outside it: "But when we are judged by the Lord, we are chastened, that we may not be condemned with the world" (1Co 11:32).