Baptism and the Lord's Supper

The Meaning of the Bread and the Cup

The Lord's Supper · The two ordinances Jesus gave his church

At the Lord's table the bread stands for the body of Jesus, given for us, and the cup stands for his blood, poured out for the forgiveness of sins. Together they are the sign of the new covenant that his death established between God and his people. To eat the bread and drink the cup is to receive, again and again, the love that was broken and shed for us, and to feed by faith on Christ himself, the true bread of life.

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.Matthew 26:26-28 (KJV)

Two simple signs, one great gift

When Jesus gave his church the Supper, he did not give a lecture. He gave two ordinary things, bread and wine, the daily food and drink of his people, and filled them with the deepest meaning in the world. Matthew records the words he spoke over each.

The bread is joined to his body; the cup is joined to his blood; and both are given for us. In the breaking of the bread and the pouring of the cup, the church sees his death set before it, not as a distant memory but as a present gift held out in the hand.

It is worth noticing how much Jesus trusted to so little. He did not command a monument or a written creed to carry the meaning of his death down the ages, but a handful of bread and a shared cup, things a poor family and a persecuted church could always find. In those humble signs the whole gospel is kept safe and passed on, wherever two or three gather in his name, until he comes.

The bread: his body given for you

Over the bread Jesus said, this is my body. In Luke and in Paul the words go further: his body given for you, broken for you. The bread speaks of the incarnation and the cross together, of the Son of God who took a real body and then let that body be broken on the tree for our sake. When the believer takes the bread, the message is intimate and personal: this was for you.

Jesus had prepared his followers for this long before the upper room. In Capernaum he had called himself the bread of life, and said that whoever comes to him will never hunger.

And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.John 6:35 (KJV)

The bread of the Supper is the sign of that promise kept. Christ himself is the true bread come down from heaven, and at the table the believer feeds on him by faith and is satisfied.

There is tenderness in the choice of bread. It is common, daily, humble food, the last thing anyone would call holy, and yet Jesus made it the sign of his own body given up for us. He did not reach for something rare or costly, but for the plainest thing on the table, so that the greatest gift in the world would come to us in the most ordinary of hands. The God who fed Israel with manna in the desert still spreads a table for his people, and the bread he offers there is himself.

The cup: his blood of the new covenant

Over the cup Jesus said that it was his blood of the new covenant, shed for many for the remission of sins. Every word carries weight. In Scripture blood means life poured out, and atonement made. Under the old covenant the blood of animals was offered again and again; now the blood of Christ is shed once for all, and it accomplishes what the old sacrifices only pointed toward, the real forgiveness of real sins.

The word covenant is the key. A covenant is a bond God makes with his people, sealed in blood. Jesus announces that his death opens a new covenant, the one the prophets had promised, in which God writes his law on the heart, remembers sin no more, and takes a people to be his own. Luke and Paul both record his words over the cup: this cup is the new testament, the new covenant, in my blood. To drink the cup is to lay hold of that covenant and all its mercy.

Body and blood, given for us

Why bread and cup, body and blood, kept as separate signs? Because a body and blood parted means a life laid down. The two signs, taken together, show a death: the body given, the blood shed. At the table the church does not gather around an idea but around a sacrifice, the once for all offering of Jesus for the sins of the world. Nothing about the Supper makes sense apart from the cross, and everything about it flows from the cross.

This is why the Supper is such good news for the troubled conscience. It sets the whole price of our forgiveness in front of us in things we can hold and taste. The body was given; here is the bread. The blood was shed; here is the cup. Your sins are covered; take and eat, take and drink, and be assured.

Bread and wine: the fruit of the earth and of grace

It is worth pausing over why Jesus chose these two things. Bread and wine are the most ordinary food and drink of his people, yet each is made, not found. Grain must be grown, harvested, ground, and baked before there is bread; grapes must be gathered and pressed before there is wine. Both come to the table only through crushing and death, which is fitting for signs of a body broken and blood poured out. And both are gifts of God turned by human hands into something to be shared, a small picture of a whole life offered back to him.

Bread also speaks of the deepest human need. Jesus taught his disciples to pray for daily bread, and called himself the bread of life; the manna in the wilderness had fed Israel day by day and pointed ahead to him. Wine in Scripture is the drink of gladness and of feasts, and Jesus promised to drink it new with his people in the kingdom of his Father. So the two signs hold together sorrow and joy: the sorrow of the cross that bought us, and the joy of the feast that awaits us.

Feeding on Christ by faith

The bread and cup are not magic and not mere reminders; they are means through which faith receives Christ. Just as bread strengthens the body when it is eaten, so Christ strengthens the soul when he is received by faith at his table. Jesus spoke in startling terms of eating his flesh and drinking his blood, and the church has always understood that he was speaking of a real feeding on him, whatever words best describe it. The Supper nourishes the Christian for the road ahead, renewing weary faith with the love of Christ crucified.

Christians describe the presence of Christ in the bread and cup in genuinely different ways, and those views are set out fairly on a companion page. But whether a believer speaks of a memorial, a spiritual presence, or a real presence, all mean to receive the same Christ and to feed on the same grace.

What the bread and cup ask of us

Signs so rich are not to be taken lightly, nor to be feared away from. The bread and cup ask us to come with faith, to receive the body given and the blood shed as truly for us, and to walk out from the table living as covenant people, forgiven and belonging to God. They center everything the church believes on the crucified and risen Jesus. Around this small meal the whole gospel gathers: his body given, his blood shed, the new covenant made, and Christ himself received and enjoyed.

A note for all traditions: baptism and the Lord's Supper are kept across the whole church, yet Christians practice them in genuinely different ways. Where believers sincerely differ, the main views are named here fairly and without taking a side, because The Living Bread is non-denominational. What unites us is greater than what divides us: obedience to Christ, remembrance of his death, and union with him.

Related: The Lord's Supper explained · How Christians differ on the Lord's Supper · Who is Jesus? · Baptism and the Lord's Supper