The Last Supper.

      "And as they were eating, he took bread, and when he I had blessed, he brake it, and gave to them, and said, 'Take ye: 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 unto them, 'This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Verily I say unto you, I shall no more drink of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God (Mark 14:22-25).

      So briefly is the story told, and added words do only mar the perfect picture of the scene. Church history and the history of doctrines tell much of what has been in the minds of men from that night until now. There is no history of mind and man which will enable us to penetrate the mind of the Lord, and know how vast the meaning was to him when he gave, and the disciples received at his hands, the common elements of sustenance that table bore. The occasion, the simple deed itself, the words of Jesus as he explained the meaning of his death for man, these are the sources to which we must go if we would gather up the meaning of the sacred feast as food for the hungering soul which yearns to feed upon the bread of God.

The Occasion.

      The feast of the Passover was unique in the Jewish religion. It was the most domestic feast in the worship so largely made up of feasts and fasts. It was celebrated in the home as the one worthy temple; the father of the household was the one worthy priest. On the historic side, the Passover was a memorial of a wondrous deliverance wrought by God, who was found gracious in the day of dire need, and in the deepest darkness which enshrouded his people. On the spiritual side, the Paschal sacrifice was a seal of the mercy which had been ever found in God, a symbol of the continuous unity of God's people Israel, a token of fidelity to the redemptive God whose people could not be enslaved by any rival sovereign. On the side of symbolism, the lamb, world-type of innocence and gentleness, when slain, spoke, by its sacrificial blood, of the grace of God which guarded his children's homes, set free the first-born son, spared him and put him in possession of all privileges and liberties, the rights and responsibilities of a sonship emancipated from every servitude but love to God. Above all, on the religious side, the feast of the Passover celebrated a covenant between God and His people, a divine condescension in which God's goodness found expression in a revelation for the obedience of faith on the part of man. Thus did the disciples anticipate the return of the familiar celebration. Little did they understand that this Passover was the final one; the end of the ancient covenant and its memorials. [35]

Jesus' Last Passover.

      The soul of Jesus yearned with strong desire for this feast (Luke 22:15). Except that sin had not yet wrought its hateful work to the end on him, he had finished the work given him to do (John 17:4). Under the old covenant would he die. But the blood it shed he would make the basis and condition of a new testament. With the disciples he would keep the venerated feast, celebrate the old deliverance, cherish the familiar and symbolic sacrifice, observe the rites, fill to the full all righteousness under the Law. Then while the disciples are thrilling full of the holiest emotions the feast could inspire, Jesus will plant in them the meaning of his death for men, and institute, with them, a new covenant in his blood, a feast of measureless import, a memorial of the one sufficient Sacrifice, a filial and fraternal priesthood, an enduring publication to all earth and time of his death till he come again. He will fulfill to the last item of its historical, prophetic, symbolic and religious meaning, the old covenant and its great memorial. Then will he with miraculous simplicity, set up the simpler feast, embody in a rite the spiritual significance of "the new covenant in his blood," set forth the realities which had been foreshadowed through the centuries, and summon the body of his spiritual self, the church he creates and constitutes and continues, to sit with him at his table in the feast of fellowship with God.

The Deed.

      Four records, are preserved for us by Paul, Mark, Luke and Matthew, of the scene and the sayings. To the church at Corinth Paul gives what is, most probably, the earliest written account of the supper (I Cor. 11:24-25). In each case the narrative is wondrous brief. A comparison shows that Matthew (26:26-28) and Mark (14:22-24) give the simpler and briefer record of the acts and words, while Luke (22:19-20) gives even more detailed account than either they or Paul. While the words of these records vary slightly, the verity of the pictured act is perfect in each one as it is in all.

      So quiet, simple, perfect and natural was the act performed, that, even though the occurrences of the next two months would bring into light the meanings hidden and obscure to all but Christ, neither in that presence nor afterwards, can we believe they saw the mystic magic and strange sacramental potency which later ages read into the deed.

The Words.

      It is the occasion and the deed which make the words infinitely significant in the fewest conceivable words Jesus gave forth "the weightiest, most precise and defining expression which he had yet used concerning his death." Under one historic covenant they had just celebrated its memorial feast; the memorial feast of the new and universal covenant is instituted by the unrecorded words of blessing spoken over the broken bread and the cup, and the recorded words, "This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me." And also, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, even that which is poured out for you: this do, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me."

The Meaning of the Deed and the Words.

      To Gentiles the communion can never have so varied a significance as to the Jew who becomes Christian. In the blood of those who sat with Jesus at that table was the heritage of forty-two generations of Hebrew lineage (Mat. 1:17). The old covenant, which made the Jewish church, was real, vital, sacred, and of vast import. We cannot apprehend the religious consciousness of the Jew toward this gospel of his faith. Paul was called by the risen Christ to be his witness and teacher of the Gentiles. To all of us then, as to the Gentile Christians worshipping at Corinth, the sufficient explanation comes as with the authority of the Lord himself.

I. THE SACRED SPIRITUAL FACT.

      The communion is, primarily, our personal participation in the blood and body of Christ (I Cor. 10:46). The bread and the cup are, therefore, the visible, physical symbols of an invisible spiritual reality. The living Christ is Spirit. In the human universe he lives and acts in his body, which is the church. To eat of the bread and drink of the cup apart from this fundamental reality is to eat and drink unworthily, to bring judgment upon one's self, to make one guilty of the body and blood of the Lord (I Cor. 11:27, 29). To debase and degrade the communion into a formal ceremony, to make it a symbol or seal of aught but its divine reality, is infinitely perilous. To make it a subordinate part of worship [36] overshadowed by sermon, song or ceremony is to drive spiritual reality out of the church and leave it dead; a lifeless form. For men and women in the church, to forsake the table and treat it as of slight account is to surrender their participation in the body and blood of the Lord and to forfeit spiritual fellowship with the living Christ and his living body.

II. THE PUBLIC PROCLAMATION OF THE LORD'S DEATH.

      The death of Christ for our sins is the central fact of the Christian gospel, an integral element of the incarnation and the resurrection. We cannot all speak with the eloquence of Apollos, argue with the tragic masterfulness of Paul, persuade with the power of love like John, or proclaim with the majestic certitude of Peter, but the dear Lord has brought within the reach of the humblest and most timid of His followers a witness-bearing more potent, more incontrovertible, more persuasive and mighty than all the words of all mankind. The silent eloquence of the table which testifies by bread and cup of Jesus' death for the sins of man, the silent eating of the bread and drinking of the cup, ofttimes in tears of contrite penitence and grateful joy--this is the true witness the body bears before the world of the realities summed up in him who is Head over all the church.

III. THE CHANGELESS MEMORIAL OF THE LIVING CHRIST.

      A memorial is more than merely a reminder. Vital principles which have given rise to historic changes in life are commonly made continuously significant by a regularly recurring memorial day, while the deed, the historic fact, is made continuously potent by a regular, recurring memorial act. The use of two elements, the bread and the cup, makes it easy for the superficial and unthinking mind to make the bread merely a reminder of a crucified body, and the cup a similar reminder of the blood shed on the cross. In reality, Jesus makes both the bread and the cup a single memorial of his timeless and sinless self,--"Do this in remembrance of me." The historic verity of the fact that "Christ died for our sins" is witnessed to by the love in which the simple and sublime memorial of Jesus Christ is enshrined in the hearts of his followers in all generations. Memorials, days and deeds, cannot he perpetuated on the basis of falsehood, bear ceaseless testimony to facts which never took place in human history. The whole gospel of God's forgiving grace in Christ Jesus is preached most powerfully by the mute witness of the Lord's table, the bread and the cup which speak of him who was and is Saviour and Lord forever more.

IV. THE PLEDGE OF FIDELITY.

      The church is the social, human body of the living Christ. The church consists of the personal Christ and persons who do his will. In the midst of life's distractions and harsh abrasions it is easy to lose the keen edge of spiritual susceptibility and to prostitute spiritual relations into legal or formal or empty ritual requirements. In the first days of the church of Christ it seems that the exuberant joy of the Christians led them to "continue steadfastly--in the breaking of bread," and to observe the divinely appointed memorial "day by day," "breaking bread at home" (Acts 2:42, 46). Years later, in Troas, the Christians there had learned to "gather together on the first day of the week to break bread" (Acts 20:7). It is incredible that fixed times and places and forms were set even by unwritten law for the observance of a memorial feast whose very essence is the expression of loving fidelity to the Lord of the body, the Christ of the church. But in reverent affection and in mutual regard, all them that were devoted to Christ and loved his presence had their common participation in the body of Christ and the blood of Christ.

V. THE BOND OF UNITY.

      Like Christian baptism, the Lord's table is set in the church not as a source of discussion, dissension and discord, but, on the contrary, to unify the spirit and sentiment of the people who are the church, as they contemplate in silent communion their indissoluble unity as members of the living body of the Lord. Only perversions of the fundamental fact and purport of the feast can ever be a source of division among people who, as the body of Christ, cannot be sundered spiritually from each other or from the Christ whose they all are. Men disagree among themselves only when they begin to talk. When they are silent before the table and Jesus Christ alone speaks, they all are one in him.

Conclusion.

      Thus does the new covenant of grace and love, sealed and secured by the blood of Christ, replace all other covenants [37] between the gracious God and the sons of men. Thus is the body of Christ, the church, constituted and controlled by the mind of Christ. Thus surely does the church of Christ have fellowship with the Redeemer and the redeemed. Thus is the body of Christ kept chaste and pure and unified. Thus, beyond the reach of all adverse argument and cavil of faithless and unbelieving men, does the church bear most powerful witness to the spiritual and historical facts of the gospel. Thus, in the earth and among men, do the persons who are the church share in the sacrifice by which the miracle of forgiven sins is continued and confirmed. Thus do ye "proclaim the Lord's death till he come again."

[DH 35-38.]