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What is the wine and bread for at the worship (remembrance) meeting?
In I Corinthians 11, we learn our Lord's dying request- that we remember Him in His death. He instituted His Supper in the very night He was betrayed. Let's read the scripture which speaks of this:
"For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come." (I Corinthians 11:23-26)
In eating this meal with His disciples, the Lord was instituting a memorial of His own death for them which was about to occur the next day. The bread He says, represented His body, and the cup, His blood. Let's look at the meaning of all this.
The Lord gave us no elaborate directions for worship- no ornate temples, no detailed liturgy, no high flown ceremonies. He simply asks us to eat a meal together in remembrance of Him. We only need two simple things to carry it out- bread and wine. There is no reason for us to be any more extravagent than this; after all, the Lord wasn't extravagent, but rather simple and meek. The simplicity of His supper is in keeping with who He is.
The fact that He has us remember Him over a meal and not some other way brings forward the thought of our close relationship with Him and each other. In the bible, eating together is the sign of communion. When we gather together in assembly to remember the Lord, He is sitting down to have a meal with us. What a blessing! Imagine having the Lord over for dinner, to honor Him- that is exactly what we are doing when we have the Lord's supper, and He is there though we can't see Him with our eyes.
As noted previously, the bread and wine are symbols, or pictures, which remind us of Him and His death. Now, if I take a picture of my daughter out of my wallet, and show it to you, and say, "This is my daughter", I don't literally mean that that laminated piece of paper with ink on it is my daugther. It is only a picture, but it represents her and reminds me of her. Likewise, the bread and the wine represent and remind us of the Lord, but are not literally Him, or His body and blood. After all, the Lord hadn't even died yet when He said, "This is my body" and "this is my blood." The bread and wine were only symbols.
The bread and the wine representing the body and the blood separated, first of all, remind us of His death. The scripture says the life is in the blood, and so the blood being separate from the body signifies death. The bread calls to mind the fact that the Lord became a man, and suffered for us, and "bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed." The blood likewise reminds us His sufferings and death, and the efficacy of His work for us: "In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins." Further, the bread represents the body of Christ- i.e., the church, his bride. "For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread." The one loaf, and the fact that we all partake of it, remind us of our close connection with each other and with Christ, and reminds us that He actually thinks of us as part of Himself!
Much more could be written on all of the meaning and depth of the Lord's supper, but this little note suffices to give us the basic meaning and purpose. May the desire of our hearts be to meet with the Lord and remember Him on His day. What great things He has done for us!
Have another question? Email Todd Asselborn your question by clicking on the contact link on the top or bottom of this page.