Broken and Poured

The defining event in Israel’s history was, undoubtedly, the exodus from Egypt.

God miraculously rescued them from their slavery to the Egyptians and brought them out to be His people. The Passover commemorated this event.

And it is on Passover that Jesus tells His disciples another story of God’s rescue from a different kind of slavery.

The Passover meal was built around four cups of wine. The first two came before the meal and the second two came after.

Listen to Jesus in the book of Luke:

He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. (Luke 22:19, NLT)

God had commanded His people that, during Passover, only unleavened bread was to be eaten.

Israel left Egypt in haste – they didn’t have time to let the bread rise, so they made it without yeast. Unleavened bread, then, reminded them of their freedom.

Leaven is also used in the Bible as a metaphor for sin. It only takes a little bit to work its way through the whole dough.

So, by removing the leaven, Israel was reminded not only that God had gotten them out of Egypt, but that He intended to get the sin out of them.

It is this unleavened bread that Jesus holds up and of which He says, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19, NLT)

This is my body. Without leaven – without sin. This is my body which is given for you. As you take it, as it breaks between your teeth, remember that my body was broken for you.

Jesus then takes a cup of wine.

Remember, the first and second cups of wine come before dinner and third and four cups come after dinner.

Jesus takes the third cup – the Cup of Redemption – and says, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you.” (Luke 22:20, NLT)

Jesus is alluding to what the prophet Jeremiah had declared centuries earlier.

“The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the Lord. “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:31-33, NLT)

Jesus is proclaiming the arrival of the new covenant – the new exodus story, the new rescue from a different slavery, the new and better redemption.

When we take the bread and drink the wine, we remember our exodus story.

We have been brought from slavery to freedom…

From darkness to light…

From death to life…

By the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus.

We’re not able to gather and celebrate the Lord’s Supper together right now.

But we will.

Until then, let’s keep telling our exodus story. Let’s keep celebrating His rescue and redemption. Let’s not forget to remember.

Take a look at Luke 22:19-20 and think about the bread and the wine Jesus chose to infuse with new meaning.