Broad meadows

In this part, I am going to examine the words of institution spoken by Jesus at the Last Supper and look at what I believe he is prophesying in implementing this memorial meal. Before I do I would like to emphasize the evidentiary aspect of the Lord’s Supper.

When you have the person who was there, in this case the Apostle Matthew, relating the words Jesus spoke, wrote it down and to have that ceremonial meal continue in an unbroken chain from that time to the present, that’s very strong evidence of its authenticity. In addition, as we were able to see from the earlier prophetic studies, the Messiah would: 1) Be the bringer of the bread and wine (Genesis 14:18-20). 2) His death from being hung on a tree would be for the purpose of restoring men to God (Genesis 40) and 3) The Messiah would hide a cup in the unformed church for the purpose of prophesying the future history of the church (Genesis 44). All of these pointing to the fact that Jesus, and only Jesus, can be the promised Messiah.

Matthew 26:26-29

”While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, ‘Take and eat; this is my body.’
Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.’”

On of the guidelines that I use that I had mentioned in another writing is that when you have a biblical definition for a symbol, you may insert that definition into the account in order to derive prophetic/ spiritual meaning. In this case, we have a biblical definition for the symbol “body”. Galatians 1:22 & 23 says, “And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” Colossians 1:18 says, “And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.” The body is clearly defined as the church.

So, when Jesus breaks the bread, what I believe he is signifying in this act is that the church would “break” at some point in the future. Having the benefit of hindsight, we know that that did, in fact, happen. The church broke into multiple parts starting with the reformation in the 16th century, led by Pastor Martin Luther, the founder of Lutheranism. Luther was a Catholic priest who broke away from the Catholic Church primarily over the practice of the sale of indulgences, basically that a person could “purchase” forgiveness from the church, a clear heresy.

In the next part, I will resume with the rest of the words of institution and will begin to examine the dichotomy of belief prophesied in Psalm 16 as it relates to the substance of the Lord’s Supper and how it prophesies the church’s (future) history in amazing ways.