Scholars debate whether the apostle Paul invented the Lord’s Supper (aka the Eucharist or Communion) or merely inherited it from earlier disciples. Here is what he says:
For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Our earliest gospel Mark has Jesus saying, “Take it; this is My body…This is My blood of the covenant…” Mark 14:22, 24
Now, whether Paul was saying that he received this directly from Jesus or merely that it was passed along from Jesus through the earliest disciples to Paul I will leave to the scholars. Regardless, since the early years of the church it has been taken to mean that the bread represents Jesus’ body that was sacrificed on the cross, and the cup (or the wine) represents Jesus’ blood, shed for the forgiveness of sins. In the Roman Catholic tradition it goes beyond representation to say that the bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Jesus (transubstantiation), or at least becomes the “substance” of Jesus’ body and blood.
But what if the early Christians, including Paul, and now the church have it completely wrong? Is there another way to understand Jesus’ words at the Last Supper?
If you read the books of the prophets they often take issue with the priests and their system of sacrifices. Consider the kinds of things that Jeremiah said about the priests of his day:
The prophets prophesy falsely,
And the priests rule on their own authority;
And My people love it so!
But what will you do at the end of it?
Jeremiah 5:31
For both prophet and priest are polluted;
Even in My house I have found their wickedness,” declares the Lord.
Jeremiah 23:11
He even goes so far as to say:
“For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, that it may be well with you.’”
Jeremiah 7:22, 23
Jeremiah seems to take issue with the priests and their elaborate system of sacrifices and offerings (ever notice how the priests demand only the best animals, flour, oil and wine and then get to keep it for themselves?). He even seems to contradict the idea that these were commanded by God, who actually wants humble obedience not ostentatious displays of religious rites. It seems to me that John the Baptist and Jesus both saw themselves following in this line of Hebrew prophets.
John’s message can be summed up as, “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mark 1:4). What few specific teachings of John that are recorded involve repentance and doing what is right, but nothing about offerings and sacrifices. Likewise with Jesus. In fact Matthew has Jesus twice referring to Hosea 6:6 (Matt. 9:13, Matt. 12:7), which says, much like Jeremiah:
For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings. Hosea 6:6
Jewish tradition said that to facilitate the exodus from Egypt God was going to kill the firstborn in each family in Egypt but He commanded the Hebrews to have a special meal in which a lamb was killed and then eaten, with its blood painted over the doorway to signal the Lord to pass them over (Exodus 12). Yet in the Gospels (and Paul) only the bread and cup are mentioned; not the lamb. If Jesus did not see the sacrifice system as important to one’s relationship with God, then maybe that also applied to the sacrifice of a Passover lamb.
There is another way to interpret Jesus’ words at the Last Supper. Jesus takes the bread and says to the disciples, “This is my body [Gr: soma].” “Soma” can refer to either a human or animal body, and can also refer to a dead body. Of course Jesus would have been speaking Aramaic, so we have no way of knowing the actual word he used. Perhaps Jesus was saying of the bread, “This is my lamb.” In essence, “I don’t need a sacrificed animal, this bread is sufficient for me.” Likewise when he says of the wine, “This is my blood of the covenant” he means it quite literally: he doesn’t need blood from a sacrificed lamb, the wine will serve in its stead. Jesus may have been once again repudiating the idea of sacrifice in order to be pleasing to God. God is looking for a humble and contrite heart, not dead animals and their blood. Rather than instituting yet another religious rite, Jesus may have been doing just the opposite: opposing such rites in favor of a sincere heart. He was trying to teach his disciples about true religion, rather than telling them he was going to be yet another blood sacrifice as required by the priestly system of religion.
But surely Jesus’ earliest disciples would not have gotten it wrong, would they? I think the disciples were quite shocked when Jesus was crucified. What could that possibly mean, that our Messiah was executed? It could only mean that he was in fact a blood sacrifice, not for his own sins, for he was righteous, but for the sins of others. Once they came to that understanding, then of course they would interpret Jesus’ words at that last Passover accordingly: Jesus was telling them he was going to be the ultimate Passover lamb sacrificed for the world. It was his body that would be sacrificed as represented by the bread, and his blood that would be shed as represented by the wine. And so Christianity has one of its most fundamental rites of worship.
Maybe they got it right but I can’t help but wonder if Jesus would be shaking his head and murmuring, “No, no, I was trying to get you away from outward religion and its showy rites, not create yet another religious tradition.” Jesus is recorded as saying that it is not what goes into a person’s mouth that defiles him, but what comes out of his heart (Mark 7:14f, Matt. 15:1f). Perhaps at that last Passover he was trying to teach us the converse: it is not what goes into your mouth that makes you holy, but what comes out of your heart. Have we gotten it wrong for the past two millennia?