The Blog

Thoughts and Musings from City of Refuge Church

The Lord’s Supper


The night Jesus Christ was betrayed, He was sharing the Passover meal with His closest friends. The Passover Event was the most important miracle in the Jewish mind, and the meal commemorated it annually for over a thousand years before the death of Christ. It was of great significance and had special rituals followed religiously. Pun intended.

Yet, the last time Christ partook of this supper, He changed the meaning entirely. He spoke of the bread that was broken as symbolizing His body and the wine in the cup as His blood. He even explicitly mentioned a New Covenant in which He was establishing. Hours later His body was torn, and blood spilled during crucifixion.

There are many names for the Lord’s Supper. The Last Supper signifies that it was the last time He would partake of that type of meal until He returns. Communion, as it is often called, relates to how the followers of Christ are unified in fellowship when partaking. Eucharist just means giving thanks which Jesus explicitly did over the meal when breaking the bread. But since He made the Passover feast about Himself, it can rightly be called the Lord’s Supper.

He ordained for His future followers to participate often in remembrance of Him [1 Corinthians 11:23-26]. While the Passover meal brings to remembrance how God redeemed through the shedding of the firstborn Egyptian blood and a lamb slaughtered for each Israelite household, the New Covenant pointed to Christ being the firstborn and the lamb being slaughtered. The death angel passed over the Israelite households but did not pass over Christ on the cross so that a Christ follower would not experience spiritual death but we passed over. The Passover meal pointed forward to Christ being a figurative slaughtered lamb [sacrifice], and now the Lord’s Supper looks backward at His death and resurrection sufficient to merit us eternal life.

At COR, we celebrate this Communion weekly. We desire to communicate its meaning clearly and simply each time we gather corporately. It is a reminder to all that are present and even to ourselves, that we really do believe that this man from Nazareth was the divine Son of God and trust in His sacrifice preserves a friendship with God. We are acting out and dramatizing what we believe to be true. If someone does not yet follow Christ, we discourage them from sharing the Eucharist because they do not believe in the Lord that it memorializes, but we desire for everyone to think about its reality. It is so meaningful to us, but it is often so misunderstood. Would you like to know more? Join us to see how we celebrate this beautiful ordinance.