From remembered deliverance to remembrance of Jesus
Passover commemorated God's deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Exodus 12 records the firstborn of Egypt dying while Israelite households marked with a lamb's blood were spared. The lamb was roasted and eaten with unleavened bread, and the feast was to be kept through succeeding generations. This remembered deliverance formed the setting of the meal Jesus shared with his disciples before his death. [1]
Luke 22:19 records Jesus taking bread, giving thanks, breaking it and distributing it to the apostles. He then said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” The words directed their attention to Jesus himself and to his body given for them. One explanation is that these words called for repeated participation: his followers were to eat in remembrance of him. [2]
After supper, Jesus identified the cup with “the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you” (Luke 22:20). His words connected the covenant to his own blood. Jeremiah 31:31–33 had promised a new covenant with Israel, describing God's law written within his people and their relationship with him: he would be their God, and they would be his people. Christians understand Jesus' words at the meal as a direct reference to that promise. [1][3]
Christians believe Jesus' sacrificial death fulfills what Passover foreshadowed. Paul calls Christ the sacrificed Passover lamb in 1 Corinthians 5:7. In this understanding, Jesus' death atones for his people's sins, and his blood rescues them from death and slavery to sin. The connection concerns deliverance through sacrifice: the bread and cup direct remembrance toward his impending death, with Matthew 26:28 connecting his blood to forgiveness. [2][3]
The continuing practice is called the Lord's Supper or communion. The bread and cup that Jesus invested with meaning became its essential elements. Although Luke 22:19 records the command to remember Jesus with the bread, 1 Corinthians 11:25 also gives that instruction for the cup. One interpretation understands these elements as symbols of his body and blood; this symbolic explanation is a view of communion, rather than a definition shared by every Christian tradition. Repeated participation carries Jesus' command of remembrance beyond that final meal. [2]
