A prayer of Jesus
The Blessing and the Cup
It was Passover night in a large upper room in Jerusalem, the last supper before the cross. Jesus reclined at table with the Twelve. He had already spoken of His betrayer and of His body soon to be given. In the middle of the ancient Passover meal, He took bread, and then the cup, and gave thanks over them, transforming the familiar feast into something new. These blessings were spoken prayers of thanksgiving, and with them He instituted the meal His church has kept ever since.
“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.”Matthew 26:26
What he prayed
Over the bread He gave thanks, or blessed, then broke it and gave it to His disciples, saying it was His body. Then He took the cup, gave thanks again, and gave it to them, saying it was His blood of the new covenant, poured out for many for the remission of sins. Luke records that He told them to do this in remembrance of Him. The prayer itself was the ancient Jewish blessing, thanksgiving to God who gives bread and the fruit of the vine. But Jesus poured new meaning into the old words. He gave thanks over the very symbols of His coming death, blessing God for the bread that pictured His broken body and the cup that pictured His shed blood.
What it teaches us about prayer
This teaches us that thanksgiving belongs even over suffering freely given. On the night He was betrayed, Jesus gave thanks. He blessed God over bread and cup that spoke of His own body and blood, turning dread into gratitude and gift. It shows us that remembrance is central to faith, for He asked us to keep doing this until He comes, so that His people would never forget the cost of their redemption. It also teaches that the deepest fellowship with God is received, taken and eaten, not merely admired. We come with empty hands to be fed. Every time believers share this bread and cup, they are drawn back to the table where Jesus gave thanks for the death that would give them life.
What it reveals about Jesus
In these blessings Jesus interprets His own death before it happens. The broken bread and poured cup declare that His body would be given and His blood shed, not by accident but as a deliberate, covenant-making sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. He is the true Passover Lamb, and this meal is the new covenant sealed in His blood. By giving thanks, He shows He goes to the cross freely, receiving it from the Father's hand as the means of our redemption. And He gives Himself to be received, the bread of life feeding His people. Every table since has proclaimed His death until He comes, so that the prayer of thanksgiving He prayed that night still gathers us around the gift of His own life.
Questions people ask
What did Jesus pray over the bread and the cup?
He gave thanks, the traditional Jewish blessing that praised God as the giver of bread and the fruit of the vine. But He filled the old words with new meaning, giving thanks over bread He called His body and a cup He called His blood of the new covenant, poured out for the forgiveness of sins. His blessing turned the Passover meal into the supper His church still keeps in remembrance of Him.
Why is it called the cup of blessing?
The phrase comes from the Jewish Passover, where a particular cup was blessed with thanksgiving to God. Jesus took that cup and made it the sign of His blood of the new covenant, so Christians came to call it the cup of blessing which we bless. It carries both meanings, a cup over which God is thanked and a cup that conveys the blessing of forgiveness bought by Christ's poured-out life.