Lord's Supper
The Lord's Supper is the meal instituted by Jesus Christ on the night he was betrayed, when, during the Passover meal with his disciples, he took bread and a cup and gave them as signs of his body given and his blood poured out for the forgiveness of sins. Together with baptism, it is one of the two ordinances, or sacraments, that the Lord commanded his church to observe.
The New Testament records its institution four times (Matthew 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:14-20; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26) and gives instructions for its practice, above all in 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 and 11:17-34. The church also calls it Holy Communion, the Eucharist and the breaking of bread. Christians have disagreed deeply about how Christ is present in it, yet all agree that it stands at the heart of Christian worship, because it places the cross at the center of the gathered church.
1. Etymology and meaning
The expression comes from 1 Corinthians 11:20: kyriakon deipnon (κυριακὸν δεῖπνον), “the Lord's supper”. Deipnon was the main meal of the day, eaten in the evening. The adjective kyriakos, “belonging to the Lord”, appears elsewhere in the New Testament only in “the Lord's day” (Revelation 1:10). The meal belongs to the Lord: he instituted it, he is its host, and it proclaims his death.
Other names come from the biblical text as well. Eucharist derives from the verb eucharisteō, “to give thanks”, because Jesus gave thanks over the bread and the cup (Luke 22:17, 19; 1 Corinthians 11:24). Communion translates koinōnia, “participation, fellowship”: “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 10:16). Luke speaks of “the breaking of bread” (Acts 2:42; 20:7).
The word “remembrance” is also central. Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:24-25), using the Greek anamnēsis (ἀνάμνησις). Behind it stands the Hebrew idea of zikkaron (זִכָּרוֹן), “memorial”, the word used of the Passover itself (Exodus 12:14). The feast was named pesach (פֶּסַח), because the LORD “passed over” the houses marked with blood (Exodus 12:13, 27).
2. Historical context and biblical use
The Passover background
The Synoptic Gospels present the Last Supper as a Passover meal (Mark 14:12-16; Luke 22:15). Israel celebrated the Passover as a memorial of its deliverance from Egypt: a lamb was slain, its blood marked the doors, and the family ate unleavened bread and bitter herbs (Exodus 12:1-28). John's Gospel seems to follow a different calendar (John 18:28; 19:14), and scholars still debate how to reconcile the accounts; what is clear is that Jesus deliberately gave his last meal a Passover meaning. Paul makes the link explicit: “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7).
The new covenant
Over the cup Jesus spoke of covenant: “this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28). The words echo the ratification of the covenant at Sinai, when Moses sprinkled “the blood of the covenant” (Exodus 24:8), and the promise of a new covenant in which God would forgive iniquity and remember sin no more (Jeremiah 31:31-34). Luke and Paul say it directly: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25).
In the early church
From the beginning the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers (Acts 2:42). In Troas the church gathered “on the first day of the week” to break bread (Acts 20:7). In Corinth the Supper was part of a shared meal, and that is where the abuses Paul corrects arose. Paul insists that he did not invent the practice: he “received from the Lord” what he handed on to them (1 Corinthians 11:23).
3. Main passages
Matthew 26:26-29 and Mark 14:22-25 give the core words: “Take, eat; this is my body”, and over the cup, “my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many”. Matthew adds “for the forgiveness of sins”. Both close with a promise: Jesus will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until he drinks it new in the kingdom of God. The Supper looks back to the cross and forward to the feast of the kingdom.
Luke 22:14-20 opens with Jesus' longing: “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22:15). Luke mentions a cup before the bread and another after supper, which fits the several cups of a Passover meal, and he records the command, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19).
1 Corinthians 10:16-17 stresses fellowship: the cup is a participation in the blood of Christ, the bread a participation in his body, and “because there is one bread, we who are many are one body.” The context is a warning against idolatry: one cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons (1 Corinthians 10:21).
1 Corinthians 11:17-34 is the fullest instruction. The Corinthians' gatherings did more harm than good, because the wealthy ate their own meal while others went hungry (11:21-22). Paul repeats the words of institution and adds: “as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes” (11:26). Whoever eats “in an unworthy manner” is guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord; each one must examine himself and discern the body (11:27-29). Paul even links the weakness, illness and death of some to this sin (11:30), and he concludes: “when you come together to eat, wait for one another” (11:33).
4. Theological significance
The Supper is first a remembrance. Biblical remembering is not mere recollection; like the Passover, it brings the saving event before the people so that they receive it again by faith. It is also a proclamation: the church preaches the cross with bread and cup (1 Corinthians 11:26). It is communion with Christ and with one another (1 Corinthians 10:16-17). And it is anticipation, a foretaste of the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9).
The Supper does not repeat Christ's sacrifice. Christ offered himself “once for all”, and “by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 10:10, 14; 9:25-28). For this reason the Reformers rejected the medieval teaching of the Mass as a sacrifice offered for the living and the dead, and the doctrine of transubstantiation, according to which the substance of bread and wine is changed into the body and blood of Christ.
Protestants, however, have held different views on the presence of Christ. Luther taught a real bodily presence “in, with and under” the bread and wine. Zwingli emphasized remembrance and public confession, a memorial view held today by many Baptists and evangelicals. Calvin and the Reformed confessions taught that Christ is truly present, not bodily but spiritually, and that believers, by faith and through the Holy Spirit, really feed on Christ crucified (Westminster Confession 29.7). Luther and Zwingli could not reach agreement at Marburg in 1529. Common ground remains: the sacrifice of the cross is complete, the benefits are received by faith, and the table is for those who belong to Christ.
The words “this is my body” were spoken by Jesus while he was physically present at the table. Many Protestant interpreters read them as sacramental language, in which the sign bears the name of what it signifies, as the lamb was called “the LORD's Passover” (Exodus 12:11). Many also understand the discourse of John 6, about eating the flesh of the Son of Man, primarily as a call to believe in Christ (John 6:35, 47, 63), even though it sheds light on what the Supper signifies.
5. Legacy and canonical references
The Lord's Supper has been celebrated without interruption since the apostolic age. Churches differ in frequency (weekly, monthly or quarterly) and form, but the core has remained: the words of institution, thanksgiving, bread and cup shared among the baptized. The main canonical references are Matthew 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:14-20; Acts 2:42, 46; 20:7; 1 Corinthians 5:7-8; 10:16-22; 11:17-34, with the background of Exodus 12, Exodus 24:8 and Jeremiah 31:31-34.
6. Application for today
The table calls us to look back, within, around and ahead. We look back to the cross, remembering that our salvation rests on a finished work and not on our own merit. We look within, examining ourselves, not to discover whether we are good enough to come, but to come with repentance and faith; the Supper is bread for the needy, not a reward for the strong.
We look around. Paul rebuked a church that humiliated its poor at the Lord's table. Divisions, contempt and unresolved offenses contradict the one bread we share, so Jesus' word applies here too: be reconciled to your brother first (Matthew 5:23-24). And we look ahead, because every celebration says “until he comes”. The same Lord who gave himself for us will sit at table with his people in the kingdom. Until then, each time we eat and drink, we proclaim his death with gratitude and hope.