Mat 26:26-30 | PNT | STEP | As they were eating . Before they had arisen from the paschal feast. Jesus took bread . That is, one of the unleavened cakes that had been placed before him as the celebrant or proclaimer of the feast. And blessed . As was the custom. Luke and Paul say, "gave thanks" ( ), which is the same thing. This is my body . Not literally, as the Catholics and Luther contend, but "represents my body". We interpret it as we do his other sayings: "The seed is the word" ( ); "The field is the world" ( ); "The harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels" ( ); "I am the door" ( ); "I am the vine" ( ). So, too, at this very feast, the Jews was wont to say of the paschal lamb, "This 'is' the body of the lamb which our fathers ate in Egypt". Not the "same", but this is meant to represent and commemorate that. He could not have meant that the bread was his real body, because his body was present at the table breaking the loaf, and he was speaking and acting in person among them. The doctrine of the "Real Presence" is every way unreasonable.

Matthew 26:26-30

As they were eating. Before they had arisen from the paschal feast.

Jesus took bread. That is, one of the unleavened cakes that had been placed before him as the celebrant or proclaimer of the feast.

And blessed. As was the custom. Luke and Paul say, "gave thanks" (Lu 22:19 1Co 11:24), which is the same thing.

This is my body. Not literally, as the Catholics and Luther contend, but "represents my body". We interpret it as we do his other sayings: "The seed is the word" (Lu 8:11); "The field is the world" (Mt 13:38); "The harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels" (Mt 13:39); "I am the door" (Joh 10:9); "I am the vine" (Joh 15:5). So, too, at this very feast, the Jews was wont to say of the paschal lamb, "This 'is' the body of the lamb which our fathers ate in Egypt". Not the "same", but this is meant to represent and commemorate that. He could not have meant that the bread was his real body, because his body was present at the table breaking the loaf, and he was speaking and acting in person among them. The doctrine of the "Real Presence" is every way unreasonable. He took the cup, and gave thanks. The cup was provided for the celebration of the paschal feast, and was at hand as well as the bread.

Drink ye all of it. Observe that he simply said of the bread, "Take, eat" (Mt 26:26); but of the wine, "Drink ye all", as if he intended to uproot the Catholic innovation of denying the cup to the laity. This is my blood. A sign or emblem of my blood.

New testament. Covenant is the preferable sense here, as in most passages where the word occurs in the New Testament; the new covenant is contrasted with "the covenant which God made with our fathers" (Ac 3:25).

Shed for many. Shed, in one sense, for all, for the benefits of the blood are offered to all; but "many" accept it and are saved. I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine. He is done with earthly rites, and at this sad moment points them to a future reunion at the marriage supper of the Lamb. "Do this in remembrance of me" (Lu 22:19) points to a permanent institution, to be observed until the Lord comes the second time. The command is therefore binding on all who believe in Christ; and disobedience to it is sin, for the unbelief that keeps men away is one of the worst of sins. The subsequent practice of the apostles (Ac 2:42,46 20:7), and still more the fact that directions for the Lord's Supper were made a matter of special revelation to Paul (1Co 11:23), seem to make it clear that Christ intended the ordinance for a perpetual one, and that his apostles so understood it. When they had sung an hymn. It was customary to conclude the passover by singing the Psalms from 115th or 118th.

To the mount of Olives. To the garden of Gethsemane, which was on the slope of the mount. This journey over the Kedron to Gethsemane was made in the darkness of the night. The Lord's Supper, a memorial of his death, has a still more tender interest, from the fact that it was established only two or three hours before he was betrayed and seized.