22 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”
23 Then He took the cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank from it.
24 And He said to them, “This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many.
25 Assuredly, I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
26 And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Also found in Matthew 26:26-29, Luke 22:17-20, and 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.
“Take ye” is a word of absolute assurance. Christ’s Body is not only slain, and His Blood shed on our behalf; He gives Himself to us as well as for us; He is ours. And therefore whoever is convinced that he may take part in “the sacrament of so great a mystery” should realize that he there receives, conveyed to him by the Author of that wondrous feast, all that is expressed by the bread and wine.
And yet this very word “Take ye,” demands our cooperation in the sacrament. It requires that we should receive Christ, as it declares that He is ready to impart Himself, utterly, like food which is taken into the system, absorbed, assimilated, wrought into bone, into tissue and into blood. — Chadwick, page 379.
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Like the bread, this cup was part of the traditional Passover meal among the Jews. It was the third of four times that participants took the cup during the meal. Traditionally the third cup related to the third of four promises of God to Israel in Exodus 6:6-7: “I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgment.” It becomes symbolic of the shedding of Jesus’ blood for redemption. The final cup, relating to the fourth promise, that of the restoration of Israel, will not be taken by Jesus until the establishing of the Kingdom of God. — Thomas, page 213.
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The First Testament (Hebrew 8:7) refers to the system of symbolic sacrifices known as the Levitical economy. The New Testament (Hebrews 8:8) speaks of the sacrifice of our Lord on the Cross, the fulfillment of the First Testament. The words “is shed” are present tense, durative action, “which is being shed,” our Lord looking upon His sacrifice on the Cross as imminent and regarded as already present. The prediction of verse 25 will have its fulfillment in the Millennial Kingdom when the Messiah and His cleansed restored Israel will drink in a new and glorious way the fruit of the Mystical Vine (John 15:1) in the world-wide kingdom where He will reign as a king upon the throne of His father David. … The particular word for “new” in verse 25 is not “new” as to time but “new” as to quality. The wine of the future Millennial Kingdom will be new in quality, spiritual, not material. — Wuest, page 262.
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