What Is the Lord's Supper (Communion)?

The Lord's Supper (also called communion or the Eucharist) is the meal of bread and cup that Jesus instituted on the night He was betrayed. In it the church remembers the death of Christ, shares in Him and in one another, and announces that He is coming back. It is an ordinance: the Lord commanded it, and the church obeys.

What Jesus did on the last night

Four passages tell the scene: Matthew 26:26-29, Mark 14:22-25, Luke 22:19-20 and 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke it and gave it to His disciples. Then He took the cup and spoke of a new covenant in His blood. In Luke He tells them to repeat it: “Do this in remembrance of me.”

The setting matters. The first three Gospels describe the meal as the Passover (Luke 22:7-15), the feast that recalled the rescue from Egypt (Exodus 12:1-14). At that table Jesus showed that a greater rescue was coming. Paul says that Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed (1 Corinthians 5:7). The lamb of the night in Egypt pointed to the Lamb of God.

What the Supper means for the church

The New Testament shows three meanings that belong together.

• Remembrance. The Greek word in Luke 22:19 is anamnēsis. It is more than thinking about the past: it is going back to the cross with the heart, on purpose.
• Communion. Paul asks whether the cup and the bread are koinōnia, a sharing, in the blood and body of Christ. Then he concludes: because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body (1 Corinthians 10:16-17). The Supper joins you to Christ and joins you to your brothers and sisters.
• Proclamation. Every time the church eats and drinks, it announces the Lord's death “until He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26).

There is also the new covenant. Jeremiah had promised a covenant in which God forgives sin and writes His law on the heart (Jeremiah 31:31-34). Jesus says it comes through His blood.

Do the bread and cup become the body and blood of Christ?

Faithful Christians answer in different ways, and each deserves a respectful hearing.

• The Roman Catholic Church teaches transubstantiation: the bread and wine truly become the body and blood of Christ.
• Lutherans speak of the real presence: Christ is present “in, with and under” the bread and wine, which remain bread and wine.
• In the Reformed tradition, Christ is present spiritually, by the faith of the one who partakes.
• In the Baptist tradition and many evangelical churches, the Supper is a memorial: the bread and cup are signs, and Christ draws near by the Spirit to the one who believes.

The memorial reading, the one held by Baptist churches, seems the most faithful to the text. First, when Jesus said “this is my body,” His body was right there, whole, with the bread in His hand. Second, He spoke this way at other times: “I am the door” and “I am the vine” (John 10:9; John 15:1). Third, Paul keeps calling what is eaten at the table “bread,” even after the blessing (1 Corinthians 11:26-28). Fourth, Hebrews says Christ offered Himself once for all (Hebrews 10:10-14). That is why the Supper remembers the sacrifice and does not repeat it.

Those who read John 6:53-58 as speaking about the Supper reach another conclusion. Many scholars take that passage as a call to believe in Jesus, which the chapter itself explains in John 6:35 and 6:63. The text allows different readings; that is why the conversation calls for humility.

Memorial does not mean empty. At the table the Lord is present with His people, and the believer feeds on Christ by faith.

How to take part in a worthy manner

Paul writes that whoever eats and drinks “in an unworthy manner” will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:27-32). Many people read that and stay away from the table in fear. Read the context. In Corinth each one ate his own meal before the others, so some went hungry while others got drunk, and Paul says this shamed those who have nothing (1 Corinthians 11:18-22). The problem was the manner: contempt for fellow believers, selfishness, a table with no fellowship.

Paul's remedy is examination: each person is to examine himself before eating and drinking (1 Corinthians 11:28). Examination is not perfection. No one is worthy by merit, on the first day or the last. You come worthy because the blood of Christ was shed for you. If there is sin, confess it; the Lord is faithful to forgive (1 John 1:9). If there is a quarrel with a brother or sister, seek reconciliation (Matthew 5:23-24). Then come.

The Supper does not exist to push away the repentant sinner. It is the table of those who depend on grace. Someone who is far from the Lord and unrepentant should stop and turn back to Him, and the Supper can be the very invitation to do so.

Paul also speaks of “discerning the body” (1 Corinthians 11:29) and says that weakness, illness and the death of some in Corinth were connected to this (1 Corinthians 11:30-32). The body may be Christ's body given on the cross, the church, or both. But the text does not permit us to conclude that every illness is punishment for taking the Supper.

Who takes part, and how often

The Supper is for those who believe in Christ. Acts 2:41-42 shows the breaking of bread among those who had already believed and been baptized, and many understand it to include the Supper; that is why Baptist churches invite those who have professed faith in Christ. This is an inference from the text, not an explicit command. It is not a lack of love for those who do not yet believe: the sign makes sense only to someone who already trusts what it points to.

And how often? The Bible does not set it. The Jerusalem church broke bread regularly, from house to house (Acts 2:42-46), and at Troas the disciples gathered on the first day of the week to break bread (Acts 20:7). The phrase can mean an ordinary meal or the Supper; it probably includes the Supper, but the text does not say. Paul writes “as often as you eat” (1 Corinthians 11:26) without giving a calendar. Weekly, monthly or quarterly: what matters is that the Supper does not become empty routine.

What the Supper changes in your life

It teaches you to look in three directions. Back: the cross, where the price of your sin was paid. To the side: the brother or sister at the table with you, whom you owe forgiveness. Ahead: the day the Lord returns and the table becomes a feast (Matthew 26:29; Revelation 19:9).

The Supper taken with attention helps us grow in gratitude, humility and unity with the church.