The Meaning of the Eucharist

As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take and eat it; this is My body.” Matthew 26:26

The Eucharist might be the most contested sacrament among Christian denominations. Although the majority—if not all—churches acknowledge its importance to the Christian life, many argue about the meaning and proper execution of the sacrament. During the Council of Trent (1545–1563), as a response to the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Church defined its core doctrines, including Transubstantiation in the Eucharist. “Some Protestants believed the bread and the wine remained bread and wine, but also really turned into Jesus’ body and blood (consubstantiation). Other Protestants said Jesus’ body and blood were never truly present at all, but that the bread and wine were only symbols of Jesus and the ‘Lord’s Supper’ (as these Protestants tended to call it) was a memorial of the Last Supper and not a sacrifice. Trent reaches back to the word ‘transubstantiation’... The Catholic belief said Jesus’ body and blood were truly present in the Eucharist.”¹ A common misconception about Transubstantiation is that it suggests Christ’s physical body replaces the bread and wine. This misrepresentation, however, was firmly denied by second-century apologists like Justin Martyr during periods when Christians were accused of cannibalism.² A widely accepted explanation is that “the ‘substance’ of the Eucharist — the essence of its deepest reality — changed from bread and wine to body and blood, but not the ‘accident’ — or external physical properties. Thus, consecrated hosts and wine still look like bread and wine, even under a microscope, and partakers of the Eucharist are not cannibals.”³ Jesus’ body would therefore be present in a glorified sense, rather than physical. Although some early Church Fathers, such as Ignatius of Antioch⁴ and Justin Martyr⁵, do seem to push the idea of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist, some modern scholarship contests this view, for instance, by saying that the verb ἐστιν (“is”) used by Jesus “should be understood metaphorically as ‘means’ or ‘conveys’ to make Jesus’s statement ‘This bread means or conveys my body’”⁶ or that “when Jews say ‘This is the bread of affliction our ancestors ate when they came from Egypt’ they do not mean that what they are now eating is the same as the one their ancestors ate so many centuries ago but rather that, what they have in their hands today represents what their ancestors ate in Egypt.”⁷ The goal of this article, however, is not to seek an answer to this debate, but rather to find the true meaning of the Eucharist—or “The Lord’s Supper”—as it is presented in Scripture. How does it relate to the celebration of Passover, and why does Jesus stress its importance in the Gospels?

The Elements

Anyone who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. John 6:54

The name “Eucharist” comes from the Greek εὐχαριστία (eucharistia), meaning "thanksgiving.” Although Scripture does not directly give a name to the sacrament, this term was already associated with it in the late first/early second-century, as we see in the writings of Justin Martyr⁸, Ignatius of Antioch⁹, and the Didache¹⁰. The name is most likely derived from the fact that Jesus “gave thanks” before He broke the bread, as emphasized in 1 Corinthians 11:23–24, and is still used by most Orthodox and Catholic groups, although many modern Protestants prefer the terms "Communion" and "the Lord's/Last Supper.” The Eucharist revolved around taking the bread and the wine, which are Jesus’ body and blood. In taking His body and blood, we remember His sacrifice on the cross and the start of a new covenant between man and God. So what does this mean exactly, and how do these specific elements relate to this idea?

Bread

In Scripture, Jesus refers to Himself as bread more than once. In the Gospel of Luke, He presents the Eucharist bread and says, “This is My body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me” [Luke 22:19]. Just as the bread He took was given to His disciples, His body would be given as a sacrifice for the forgiveness of the sins of humanity. However, even outside the context of the Eucharist, Jesus referred to Himself as “The bread of life.”

Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that anyone may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh. John 6:49–51

His listeners asked Him a fair question as a response to this statement:

“How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “I assure you: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life in yourselves.” John 6:52–53

Here, Jesus makes a profound theological statement, associating the consumption of His flesh and blood with eternal life. In addition to that, He reminds them of the Manna which was the bread God brought down from heaven each day for His people in the desert, on the way to the promised land. “The Israelites ate manna for 40 years, until they came to an inhabited land. They ate manna until they reached the border of the land of Canaan.” [Exod 16:35]. Jesus told His listeners that He was the bread that sustained them until they reached the Promised Land. We will dive more into this later.

Wine

Jesus presented the wine and said, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood that establishes the covenant; it is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins” [Matt 26:27–28]. The shedding of blood for the forgiveness of sins is a fairly well-known Biblical concept, for “…without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” [Heb 9:22]. Very early in the Old Testament, God forbade His people from drinking or eating blood “for the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have appointed it to you to make atonement on the altar for your lives, since it is the lifeblood that makes atonement” [Lev 17:11]. This was therefore how Jesus made clear that, instead of the blood of an animal, His blood would be shed to make atonement between man and God. Not only that, it would “establish the covenant.” When the first official covenant between man and God was established, Moses read it aloud to the people. “They responded, ‘We will do and obey everything that the Lord has commanded.’ Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, ‘This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you concerning all these words’” [Exod 24:8]. The shedding of Jesus’ blood would establish a new covenant of grace between God and His people.

The Passover Lamb

To understand the true meaning of this, it is essential to understand the religious and historical context in which Jesus introduced the Eucharist. When Jesus was eating with His disciples, they were celebrating the Passover meal at the opening of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Jews celebrated this annual feast to commemorate how God set His people free from bondage in Egypt. On the first Passover, God released the last plague on the people of Egypt, where all their firstborns were killed. In preparation for this, He commanded each Israelite household to **select an unblemished, year-old male sheep or goat [Exod 12:3-5]. A few days later, they were to slaughter the animal at twilight, take some of the blood, and put it on their doorposts. The meat they would eat that same night.

I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and strike every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. I am Yahweh; I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a distinguishing mark for you; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will be among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. Exodus 12:12–13

On that great day of judgment, all of those with the blood of the Passover lamb on their doorpost would be spared. The fact that this blood was necessary shows that neither their personal nor communal identity—being God’s chosen people—made them worthy of His mercy. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” [Rom 3:23]. The Passover lamb brought the required atonement for their sins and was their “distinguishing mark.” Whenever God saw this mark, death would pass over this household.

Jesus: Our Passover Lamb

It is not hard to connect the dots from here between Jesus and the Passover Lamb. The Eucharist was therefore a large part of how Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament law. By taking the bread and the wine, Jesus said, “I am the Lamb whose body will be given for your sins and My blood will bring atonement, saving mankind from God’s coming wrath.” In other words: “…we have now been declared righteous by His blood, we will be saved through Him from wrath [Rom 5:9]. Not only that—during Passover, God not only called His people to bring an offering, but also to participate in it by eating from the Passover lamb. Likewise, through the bread of the Eucharist, we eat the flesh of our Passover Lamb, Jesus (cf. 1 Cor 10:14-21).

Eternal Promise

An important rule was that “if a foreigner resides with you and wants to celebrate the Lord’s Passover, every male in his household must be circumcised, and then he may participate; he will become like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat it” [Exod 12:48]. This was only fair, considering the promise of Passover was only for those who carried the seal of the covenant: circumcision. For this was the mark God gave the children of Abraham as a reminder of the covenant He made with His people [Gen 17:10–11]. Concerning the Eucharist, early church literature made clear that “no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined.”¹¹ Passover is a reminder of God’s promise to His people, and those who have not accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior do not share in this promise. But what promise is this exactly, and how is it carried forth in the Eucharist? After taking the bread and the cup, Jesus follows with these interesting words:

But I tell you, from this moment I will not drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it in a new way in My Father’s kingdom with you. Matthew 26:29

To His disciples, these words must have felt out of place. As discussed earlier, the purpose of the Passover was to remember how God had freed His people from slavery under the Egyptians. In fact, when their children would ask about the meaning of this ritual, they were to reply, “It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, for He passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and spared our homes” [Exod 12:26-27]. However, it is important to consider that this is not all He did. In fact, the primary reason for redeeming His people was to fulfill His promise to Abraham: “…you and your future offspring I will give the land where you are residing—all the land of Canaan—as an eternal possession, and I will be their God” [Gen 17:8]. The night of Passover marked the start of Israel’s journey to the Promised Land, “a land flowing with milk and honey” [Exod 13:5].

Jesus closed the Eucharist with a new promise: an eternal kingdom. During the Lord’s Supper, Jesus fully identified Himself with the prophesied Messiah, declaring that He was sent “…to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of our God’s vengeance; to comfort all who mourn” [Isa 61:1–2]. So instead of only a ritual of thanksgiving, “this suggests a forward-looking aspect of the Eucharist, with a focus on the consummation of God's kingdom.”¹² Jesus had His Last Supper with His disciples, knowing that He was the Passover Lamb sacrificed for their sin, and His blood would cause God’s wrath to pass over them on the final day of judgment.

The Seal of God

Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch. You are indeed unleavened, for Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us observe the feast, not with old yeast or with the yeast of malice and evil but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 1 Corinthians 5:7–8

So what is Passover to us? Or what should it be? Moreover, how will Jesus’ blood cause death to pass over us? Following His instruction for the Passover, God tells the Israelites, “…let it be a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead, for the Lord brought us out of Egypt by the strength of His hand” [Exod 13:16]. The same instruction is given after God gives His people His commandments in Deuteronomy 6:8 and Deuteronomy 11:18. This terminology might be familiar to those who are familiar with the beast in the book of Revelation, who “requires everyone—small and great, rich and poor, free and slave—to be given a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark: the beast’s name or the number of his name” [Rev 13:16–17]. However, the book of Revelation also presents us with an angel who had “…the seal of the living God…” [Rev 7:2]. This angel cried out in a loud voice: “Don’t harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we seal the slaves of our God on their foreheads” [Rev 7:3]. Judgment was about to hit the earth, but not before God’s own people would carry His distinguishing mark on their forehead. After this was done, “…locusts came out of the smoke on to the earth, and power was given to them like the power that scorpions have on the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green plant, or any tree, but only people who do not have God’s seal on their foreheads” [Rev 9:3-4]. During the great day of eternal judgment, when death shall come over the earth, God will separate the wheat from the chaff (Matthew 3:12; Luke 3:17) and death shall pass over those who carry God’s distinguishing mark: the blood of the Lamb.

Then I looked, and there on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with Him were 144,000 who had His name and His Father’s name written on their foreheads. Revelation 14:1

In Remembrance of Him

The Israelites, in the desert, “ate manna until they reached the border of the land of Canaan” [Exod 16:35]. In the same way, we eat the bread of the Eucharist, which is His body, and we eat the bread in anticipation of Jesus’ return. “If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever” [John 6:51]. When we take the bread and the wine, we remember how God brought us out of Egypt; how He freed us from the bondage of sin through His unblemished Lamb, His Son, and gave us the promise of eternity with Him. In doing so, we set ourselves apart as God’s chosen people. The day of the Lord’s Supper marks the day that God made “…a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah” [Jer 31:31].

No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’  for they will all know Me, from the least to the greatest of them” —this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sin.” Jeremiah 31:34

It is not the bread itself that gives life, or the wine that gives us the new covenant, but Jesus, the Lamb that was slain for the salvation of the world. And we eat the bread and take the wine in remembrance of Him.

Footnotes

1. Christopher M. Bellitto, The General Councils: A History of the Twenty-One Church Councils from Nicaea to Vatican II (New York: Paulist Press, 2002), 106.

2. Justin Martyr, “The First Apology of Justin,” in The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, vol. 1, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 171–172.

3. Heidi Schlumpf, “Do Catholics ‘Actually’ Believe in the Real Presence? With Other Studies’ Very Different Results, Scholars Question Recent Headline-Making Survey,” National Catholic Reporter, August 14, 2019, accessed February 27, 2026, https://www.ncronline.org/spirituality/do-catholics-actually-believe-real-presence.

4. Ignatius of Antioch, The Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnæans 7, in The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, vol. 1, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 89.

5. Justin Martyr, First Apology, 185.

6. J. R. Edwards, The Gospel According to Mark, ed. D. A. Carson, Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002), 425.

7. Isaac Boaheng, “The Theological Significance of the Eucharist: Exegesis of Mark 14:12–26,” International Journal of Social Science Research and Review 6, no. 10 (October 2023): 572, https://doi.org/10.47814/ijssrr.v6i10.1728.

8. Justin Martyr, First Apology 66.

9. Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Smyrnæans 7.

10. R. Joseph Owles, The Didache (CreateSpace, 2014), 17.

11. Justin Martyr, First Apology 66; Owles, The Didache, 17.

12. Boaheng, “The Theological Significance of the Eucharist,” 575.