Mark 14:22

‘And as they were eating he took bread, and when he had blessed he broke it and gave to them and said, “You take of it. This is my body.” '

Jesus now took over the Passover meal and gave it a new significance, in line with His teaching in John 6:52 where He had indicated that finally men could only benefit from Him through putting Him to death, that is, by ‘eating His flesh'. As He said in John 6:51 (expecting to be understood), ‘I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread he will live for ever. Yes, and the bread which I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world.' He was the living (life-giving) bread because He had come to have His ‘flesh eaten' by men by dying for them and responding to their faith.

Eating bread or flesh, and drinking blood, was a regular Old Testament way of speaking of killing people. In the Old Testament the Psalmist spoke of those who ‘eat up my people like they eat bread' (Psalms 14:4; Psalms 53:4), and Micah describes the unjust rulers of Israel as ‘those who hate the good and love the evil --- who eat the flesh of my people' (Micah 3:3). Thus ‘eating flesh' or ‘eating people' signified killing them or doing them great harm.

But Jesus had added a new meaning, the idea of participating in the benefits of His death. Here Jesus was signifying, not that they themselves would kill Him, others would do that, but that they would be able to benefit through His death (see John 6:54) because others would kill Him. Compare also John 6:35 where Jesus said He was the ‘bread of life' which they could partake of by ‘coming to Him and believing on Him'. That was how they would benefit through His death, by coming and believing. Thus it is not meant in any quasi-magical sense. It is a spiritual act.

The bread could not be His body, even by a miracle, for He was there in His body (so those who try to make it more have to call it a ‘mystery', that is something which defies common sense and logic, and in this case is totally self-contradictory. Even the greatest of miracles could not make a piece of bread eaten at a table the same as a human body reclining there at the same table. By this means anything can be made into anything). In sensible interpretation it had to mean ‘this closely represents my body' just as the bread at the Passover symbolised the bread of affliction. When eating it the Jews saw themselves as partaking in the sufferings of their ancestors. In a sense they actually saw themselves as one with them in corporate unity. So when Christians eat of this bread they see themselves as partaking in the death of Christ, as having been with Him on the cross (Galatians 2:20). So by recognising and acknowledging their close participation with Him in His death by faith they recognise that they have received eternal life. But no further lamb is slain. The Lamb was offered once for all. They thus recognise that His offering of Himself is once for all (Hebrews 9:28) and is something that they continually participate in.

‘As they were eating.' Compare Mark 14:18. It was ‘as they were eating' that He had tried to appeal to Judas' conscience. Now ‘as they were eating' He took the bread and offered a blessing to His Father, and broke it and gave it to them. They would certainly cast their minds back to that day when He had done this at the miraculous feeding of the crowds (Mark 6:41). From now on through His death and rising again He was to be their spiritual food. It was also symbolic of the bread that they would eat at Messiah's table, both in their future ministry and in the eternal Kingly Rule.