Mark 14:24

This is my blood of the new testament or rather, Covenant. Some of the best MSS. here omit "new." He reminds them of the old Covenant also made in blood with their fathers in the wilderness (Exodus 24:8).

which is shed for many i. e. which is being(or on the point of being) shed for many. St Matthew (Matthew 26:28) adds, "unto the remission of sins;" St Paul adds (1 Corinthians 11:25), "Do this, as oft as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of Me." Thus did our Lord ordain Bread and Wine to be the "outward part" or "sign" of the Sacrament of our Redemption by His death. In the ordinary Paschal Feast these elements had been subordinate. He now gives to them the first importance. In the ordinary Paschal Feast the Lamb occupied the chief place. Now the type was succeeded by the Antitype; now the "very Paschal Lamb" was come, and was about to offer Himself from the altar of His Cross for the sins of the whole world. Of the Jewish Paschal Lamb, therefore, no word is said, but in its place our Lord puts the Bread and Wine, the Sacramental Symbols of His Body and Blood. Gradually and progressively He had prepared the minds of His disciples to realise the idea of His death as a sacrifice. He now gathers up all previous announcements in the institution of this Sacrament.