What is the Lord’s Supper?
Question 09006
The Lord’s Supper is the second of the two ordinances Jesus gave to His church. It is practised in virtually every Christian tradition, yet the meaning attached to it varies enormously. Roman Catholics believe the bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Christ. Lutherans hold that Christ is physically present “in, with, and under” the elements. Many evangelicals treat it as little more than a routine formality. The New Testament presents something far more significant than a ritual and far less mysterious than a miracle of transformation.
The Institution
Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper on the night before His crucifixion, during the Passover meal with His disciples. The synoptic accounts (Matthew 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:14-23) and Paul’s account in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 provide the core narrative. Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19). After supper He took the cup and said, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20). The Passover context is not incidental. The original Passover commemorated God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt through the blood of the lamb. Jesus was establishing a new memorial that would commemorate God’s deliverance of His people from sin through the blood of the Lamb of God.
A Memorial, Not a Sacrifice
The words “do this in remembrance of me” establish the Lord’s Supper as a memorial ordinance. The Greek anamnesis means an active, deliberate calling to mind. It is not passive recollection; it is a purposeful act of remembering what Christ did at the cross and what that achievement means for those who trust in Him. Paul adds a further dimension: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26). The Supper looks backward to the cross and forward to the return of Christ. It is simultaneously a remembrance and a proclamation.
What the Lord’s Supper is not is a re-sacrifice or re-presentation of Christ’s atoning work. The Roman Catholic doctrine of the Mass holds that Christ is offered afresh in an unbloody manner each time the Eucharist is celebrated. This contradicts the clear teaching of Hebrews, which states that Christ “entered once for all into the holy places” (Hebrews 9:12), that “he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Hebrews 9:26), and that “where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin” (Hebrews 10:18). The work is finished. The Supper remembers what was accomplished; it does not repeat or extend it.
The Elements: What They Are and Are Not
When Jesus said, “This is my body,” He was holding bread in His hands while physically present with His disciples. He was not saying that the bread had become His body. He was using language identical to what He used when He said, “I am the door” (John 10:9) or “I am the vine” (John 15:5). No one takes those statements as literal physical assertions. The bread represents His body. The cup represents His blood. This is the plain meaning of figurative language used by a speaker in the presence of the thing the figure represents.
Transubstantiation, the Roman Catholic doctrine that the bread and wine become the actual body and blood of Christ while retaining the outward appearance of bread and wine, has no biblical support and was not formally defined until the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. Consubstantiation, the Lutheran view that Christ’s body and blood are present “in, with, and under” the elements alongside the bread and wine, is a more moderate position but still lacks clear scriptural warrant. The bread remains bread. The wine remains wine. Their significance is in what they represent, not in what they become.
The Seriousness of the Table
Paul’s warning in 1 Corinthians 11:27-32 makes clear that the Lord’s Supper is not to be treated casually. Those who eat and drink “in an unworthy manner” bring judgement upon themselves. The context in Corinth involved wealthy believers gorging themselves while poorer members went hungry, turning the communal meal into a display of social division. Paul’s response was not to restrict access to the table but to call for self-examination: “Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup” (1 Corinthians 11:28). The purpose of self-examination is not to achieve sinless perfection before participating, which would disqualify every believer. It is to come with a genuine and honest heart, acknowledging one’s need for the grace that the Supper represents, and addressing any known unconfessed sin or unresolved relational conflict.
So, now what?
The Lord’s Supper is a gift, not a burden. It is an opportunity to pause from the pace of life, to remember what Jesus did at the cross, to examine your heart honestly before God, and to look forward to the day when He returns. Come to the table with gratitude, with reverence, and with honest self-examination. Do not stay away because you feel unworthy; come because you know you are unworthy and because the Supper itself reminds you that Christ’s sacrifice covers your unworthiness. And each time you take the bread and the cup, remember that you are proclaiming the Lord’s death until He comes.
“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” 1 Corinthians 11:26 (ESV)
