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6 How Often Should We Partake of the Lord's Supper?
Notice, too, He commanded them to observe it -
"THIS
no." And why? "In remembrance of me," Jesus said.
It
was, then, a
MEMORIAL -
in memory of His death. He
instituted it on this tragic night, the very eve of His death.
In Matthew's account, we read, "And as they were
eating, Jesus took bread" (Matt. 26:26).
It
was "as they
were eating" that He took bread and introduced this sol–
emn ordinance we call the Lord's supper. Eating what?
Eating
the Passover!
(Verse 17, and Luke 22:15.)
Now notice Matthew 26:2. "Ye know that after two
days is the
feast of
the
passover,
and the Son of man
is
betrayed
to
be crucified."
Jesus knew His time had come. He was our Passover,
sacrificed for us
(I
Cor. 5:7).
"Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread
the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt
thou that we prepare for thee
to
eat the passover?" (Matt.
26:17.)
After sundown (the days began at sundown) Jesus sat
down with His twelve disciples in an upper room (Matt.
26:20; Mark 14:15).
And as they were eating the Passover supper (Matt.
26:26), "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."
So we see that it was the night of the final and last
Passover supper that Jesus introduced the New Testa–
ment "Lord's supper." To thoroughly understand the con–
nection between the "Lord's supper" of the New
Testament, and the Passover of the Old, let us make a
quick examination of the Passover.
The Ordinance Under the
Old Covenant
The original Passover marked the exodus of the chil–
dren of Israel out of Egypt. God had been pouring out the
plagues upon Egypt, to induce Pharaoh to let the Israel-