Celebrating the Covenant

KEY VERSE: “This is my blood of the New Testament [Covenant], which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” —Matthew 26:28

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Matthew 26:20-30

MATTHEW HERE DEPICTS Jesus gathering with his closest disciples to eat the Passover Supper—that yearly commemoration of Israel’s liberation from Egyptian bondage. (Exod. 12th chapter; Deut. 16:5-8) It was customary during many Jewish ceremonial meals, to ask a blessing at the beginning of the meal, then to pass around the bread and other food to be eaten. After the meal, a cup of wine was poured and another prayer of blessing offered. Jesus, however, did something new that, without doubt, none of his disciples had witnessed before: “Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it.”—Matt. 26:26,27

Jesus realized that the Passover pointed forward to the time when one would come who would liberate, not only Israel but all mankind, from bondage to sin and death. Jesus also knew that he was that specially chosen one, as John had testified concerning him, “Behold the [Passover] Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) Similarly Paul later stated, “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” (I Cor. 5:7) Jesus knew that within the next twenty-four hours he would fulfill—in reality—the great work of the ancient symbolic Passover sacrifice through his death on the cross. This would set in motion the eventual liberation of all mankind from bondage.

Jesus used the eating of the bread and drinking of the cup by his apostles as symbols of what was about to take place concerning his death, and also to show his desire that they would partake of, have an understanding of, and a desire to reap the benefits from, his faithfulness unto death. His invitation to the disciples, “Take, eat; this is my body” (vs. 26), showed that the broken bread represented his broken body, the perfect human life he had sacrificed for three and one-half years since Jordan, and which now was about to come to an end on the cross. Not only did this bread represent his body, but additionally it pictured those things which had proceeded from him—his acts, his words, his doctrine, his example of character and conduct, and his daily work of sacrifice. He asked his disciples to partake of and assimilate in their lives these same elements.

Jesus tells his disciples, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. As the living Father bath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”—John 6:51,57,63

The second part of Jesus’ invitation to the disciples pertained to the cup, representing his shed blood which was soon to be literally poured out in death upon the cross. More importantly, though, the cup—the blood—symbolized the merit, or value of the perfect life about to be given up. This merit, when placed in the hands of God’s Justice, had such value as to purchase Adam and all his posterity out from bondage to sin and death in due time. (I Tim. 2:5,6) Jesus further stated the words of our Key Verse. His shed blood was a seal, or surety, of a New Covenant which, when established, would bring blessings to all the families of the earth. (Gen. 22:16-18; Jer. 31:31-34) By drinking from the cup, the disciples acknowledged the efficacy of Jesus’ shed blood, and their faith in it as the means of their redemption. This act also showed that their hope embraced the promised New Covenant and its eventual establishment with mankind.

What a sense of responsibility, love, and an earnest desire to be faithful must now have been felt by the Lord’s disciples as they viewed their Master from these new perspectives symbolized by the bread and the cup.

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