Matthew 26:26

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it; and he gave to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.

THE INSTITUTION OF THE LORD'S SUPPER

This and through Matthew 26:30 is Matthew's account of the establishment of the Lord's Supper, an event recorded by all three synoptics and by Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. The four witnesses to this scene (Paul's, of course, by direct revelation) are remarkable for variation in the words of Jesus, as separately reported; but this should be understood as the natural result of independent testimonies and is much more convincing than verbatim accounts would have been, for in such a case there would invariably have existed a presumption of some common source. Of course, the accounts perfectly agree and are fully compatible and supplementary, each to the others, making up a graphic and exciting composite of this momentous occurrence.

An age-old controversy, and one that rent Christendom asunder, raged over the meaning of "This is my body." Is the expression a metaphor, or is some mystical meaning implied? The Roman doctrine of transubstantiation is grounded here. Yet, when one has read the long and tedious dissertations on this subject, a fresh reading of the whole context will clear the mind and bring sharply into focus the obvious truth. Christ often used metaphor in his teaching, saying, "I am the door," "I am the way," "I am the bread of life," etc. The compulsion to receive "This is my body" as a metaphor comes from the fact that it was not Jesus' literal flesh that they ate. The expression "This is my body" which they were to take and eat, actually focuses attention upon the lamb of the Passover, the type, of which Jesus was the glorious fulfillment. Not in eating an actual lamb, but in living the Word of Christ shall men attain unto salvation (see notes on Matthew 15:20).