Lent 2026 Day 38: Thu 2 Apr
Mark 14:22-26
22 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, spoke a blessing and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take it; this is My body.” 23 Then He took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it. 24 He said to them, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.
25 Truly I tell you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God.” 26 And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
The Jews had celebrated Passover annually since the time of their escape from Egypt. God had told them that this shall be an everlasting remembrance.
And this day will be a memorial for you, and you are to celebrate it as a feast to the LORD, as a permanent statute for the generations to come.
Exodus 12.14
God knew what he was doing. He was preparing ahead for the single Passover meal that would be held in an upper room somewhere in Jerusalem well over one thousand years in the future. That was the real purpose of the Passover.
It could be argued that if the history of our salvation was planned at the Outset, then the captivity in Egypt was part of it, so that the Passover could be instituted. I’ll leave that for you to consider when you have a clear head.
I’m not sure that the disciples were fully aware of what Jesus was saying or doing. They had celebrated Passover many times in their lives, with family and possibly with Jesus a couple of times, though we do not know for sure. Mark’s re-telling is typically brief and fast. “This is my body,” is all Mark reports after Jesus took the unleavened bread and broke it, an action that is part of the re-enactment of the Passover meal. The disciples may have been utterly perturbed by Jesus’ next statement that the wine was his blood of the covenant!
This bread was made in a hurry – there was no time for the escaping Jews to let it rise. That’s why it’s unleavened (un-yeasted). The wine was a symbol of God’s promises of redemption.
Jesus had broken bread many times, but this time it was different. This is me, broken for you. He’d taken wine, but this time it was his blood, shed in sacrifice, the symbol and seal of a new and everlasting covenant between God and Man.
Jesus has transformed these elements. The upper room has become holy ground and a place of revelation. Father God and angels may have watched on as our Lord revealed the deep connection of Passover with himself. Yet more would be revealed when the disciples later realised the deeper significance of the lamb they’d eaten.
Passover has changed into Eucharist/Holy Communion/Lord’s Supper/Mass, all of which in their various rites have reduced communal sharing of a meal around a table, which might be difficult to arrange on a weekly basis in churches, to something symbolic, focussing instead on what Jesus did during that meal. There is no need to celebrate an exodus that relates only to Jewish history, though our salvation in Christ may be seen as an exodus from the clutches of Satan.
Some church traditions may celebrate the “meal” as a remembrance, and in others it becomes a priestly consubstantiation of bread and wine to Jesus’ real body and blood. Jesus told us to do this in remembrance of him, but we may wonder how we arrived at the ways we do it today!
What is the blood of the covenant to you?
How should we interpret Jesus’ command that we should do this in remembrance of him? How does your church fellowship do this compared to other fellowships?
What to you are the specific significances of the bread and the wine?
Father God, so much of your plan was for this moment in history when Jesus celebrated his final Passover. Help me understand its deep meaning and truth and keep me aware of his deep love for us. Amen.
A group of us went to see Stefan Smart perform his I am Mark re-telling of Mark’s Gospel in a local church. Stefan has performed it across the world, and our experience was of a fresh, deep and insightful presentation. The chair gets some rough treatment as a boat, a mountain top, jail bars, and a chair, but it’s survived so far.
The Last Supper, from I am Mark
Paul