March 9

Today's reading: Matthew 26:1-75

There is a lot going on in this chapter, but we're going to focus on verses 17-29.

Jesus observes the Passover with His disciples, just as God had commanded His people when He delivered them from Egypt. But Jesus gave new meaning to two of the central elements in the Passover meal - the bread and the cup.

Jesus said that the bread represented His body. That was a picture of the perfect life that Jesus had lived in his fleshly body - a life that He would give up willingly for them just a few hours later on the cross.

In the Passover meal, there were four cups of wine. When we put together the gospel accounts of this Passover meal, it is likely that this is the third cup, which was known as the cup of redemption. It was a reminder of how God had redeemed His people from slavery in Egypt. But once again Jesus gave it new meaning and explained that it represented His blood, which He was about to willingly shed to redeem mankind from slavery to sin.

When we observe the Lord's Supper (also known as communion) we follow Jesus' command to remember what He did for us on the cross as we take the bread and the cup. Those elements do not physically become the body and blood of Jesus, but are merely symbols to remind us of the tremendous sacrifice He made on our behalf.