Last week in our Sunday fellowship I shared a bit, as we were at the table sharing a meal (the way we generally begin our gatherings, and have since the beginning of meeting in my home almost 20 year ago) some of my thoughts regarding the so-called “Lord’s Table or Supper” and its relationship to the Passover celebration for Israel.
I shared for years that a part of the reason we have always begun with a meal in the fellowship that gathers at my home was because of the example of Act 2:42- 47, a passage directly recorded by Luke after the preaching of Peter on Pentecost, which specifically mentions twice “breaking bread” (and taking their meals together a they met from house to house:
[Acts 2:42-47 NASB95] 42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. 44 And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; 45 and they [began] selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. 46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.
Coupled together with other passages, including the treatment of the Lord’s Supper in I Corinthians 11:23-26 and following, I have had some sense and understanding for years that gathering at table to remember His death and the benefits of salvation and deliverance… and much more … delivered to us by it, and His glorious resurrection, was central to our gathering. And, for me, gathering has been approached as celebrating Passover every week as the opportunity not just to remember Him and His death (and that deliverance and salvation) until He comes, but to meet with Him manifested in His Body, the church. It is where I can remember His death and its benefits, but also experience the living and resurrected Christ moving in, and through us, just as He did at the Last Supper recorded in scripture.
What follows here is something I shared over a year ago at Passover time, that pretty well, goes over what I shared last Sunday as we gathered:
The centrality of the cross AND the resurrection are well established, let us remember Him and be focused on Him as often as we come together.
[1Corinthians11:26 NASB95] 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
Let us gather remembering His death, but not forgetting “until He comes”, for it is in the hope of His coming we find life in His resurrection and remember that He conquered death. Yes, remember His death and all He brought to us by and through it. But let us remember Him resurrected as well, as often as we come together. That, I think, is the meaning of “This do in remembrance of Me.”
Yes! Let us celebrate Him today/ (IE:) Sunday/Easter/Resurrection Sunday. But let us celebrate Him every time we gather.
In the Luke description of the Last Supper, the Last Passover, he records Jesus’ earnest desire to share the Passover in that hour, but even more so in the Kingdom He was establishing. And, I think, that Kingdom into which we have been transferred and now live!
[Luke 22:14-20 NASB95] 14 When the hour had come, He reclined [at the table,] and the apostles with Him. 15 And He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; 16 for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” 17 And when He had taken a cup [and] given thanks, He said, “Take this and share it among yourselves; 18 for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.” 19 And when He had taken [some] bread [and] given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 20 And in the same way [He took] the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.
[Colossians 1:13 NASB95] 13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, (highly recommend considering Paul’s exhortation here in Colossians 1:13-23)
Those that know me well know that I see our weekly gatherings as Passover celebrated every week! It is the reason we start with sharing a meal. And, then I/we look to hear from Him, and fellowship with Him, in our midst and central among us.
May I encourage you to read Matthew 26:17-56, Luke 22:7-46, where the events of the Passover “Last Supper” are treated in brief, and then look at the events of that night in much greater depth in John 13:1 – 18:2. (John often includes what the others left out in his gospel. Here it seems they left out much, that he decided, under inspiration, to include for our edification.)
In these scriptures you will find all the rich types and foreshadows the Jewish Passover held for Jews, the disciples, and for us. But you will also see Jesus institute new elements and a New Covenant with those that would follow Him. (note; in His Passover celebration remembering the deliverance from Egypt, and salvation, that came by God through the blood of a Passover Lamb, He now institutes a new covenant and points to eating the body and, this time, drinking the blood (where the life is) of a new Passover Lamb. Himself)
You will also see Jesus wash feet, deal with those of His followers in deep sin, deal with those that were struggling with betrayal – strong in their word of commitment, but weak of heart to stand for Him -, speak of Himself and His provision, speak of His followers future and His purpose and plans in them, point them to the Holy Spirit as comforter and their source of power, and take those He loved into an intimate Garden of suffering to pray and stand with Him.
He did all this on that Last Passover night! And, He is still doing it! For that Passover to happen there had to be preparations made, and those that came had certain expectations of some rituals and practices that would take place. But, they came primarily with intent to fellowship with Him, to hear Him, and do what He was doing.
Again, I see our weekly gatherings as Passover celebrated every week! It is the reason we start with sharing a meal, our approach to the Lord’s Supper, although recently in our fellowship, we also observe a more traditional communion at least once a month as well.
Although we enjoy “reclining at table” (Matthew 26:20, Luke 22:14, John 13:12) and may come with some expectations, our intent is to remember Him and His death and provision to us. But it is also to meet with Him, resurrected, live and well in, and with, us! I have often said, we don’t want to leave a gathering together talking about having met with each other. Not that that is bad. But, we want to leave having seen, heard, had fellowship with Him, as we are His body, the fullness of Him that fills all in all. (Ephesians 1:22-23) We want to see Him manifest and present in us.
People often ask me why I am committed to meeting with saints regularly. It is not because I am under any compulsion or rote rule of religion to do so. I am committed to it because Jesus said according to 1st Corinthians 11 and the gospels “do this in remembrance of Me” (I won’t go into detail here), and for me it is Passover every week. You see, every time we gather I want to remember, celebrate, and fellowship Him. Just as that first Passover (Last Supper) required some preparations (Matthew 26:17-19, Luke 22:7-13)… so do our gatherings. And, just as those who came then, came with some expectations of fellowship, fun, food,… and some religious stuff, so do many of us come with the same. And, again, although we enjoy the meal and fellowship, and even some ritual, our intent must be to meet with and hear Him.
I love meeting with you. I do.
But the only opportunity I have to see Him…
Wash Feet (John 13:5-10)
Deal With Sin (betrayal and weakness in the camp and at the table – (Matthew 26:21, Luke 22:21-27, John 13:18-30)
Strengthen Those Who May Be Struggling With Doubt or Denial (Matthew 26:31-35, Luke 22:31-34, John 13:37-38)
Hear Him Speak of His Provision, Salvation, Deliverance and more ( I’ll dispense with vs by vs, but see John chapters14-15 -16)
Hear Him Speak of His Purpose For The Future In Us His Disciples (John chapters 14 -15-16)
Hear Him Encourage Us Regarding The Work Of The Holy Spirit In Us ( John chapter 14 & 16)
Have Him Invite Me To Join Him in The Place of Intimate Suffering and Prayer (Matthew 26:36-46, John chapter 15 & 16)
And, witness His Fullness Manifested (John 17)
is in gathering with you.
It is Passover every week! He is still doing what He did that Passover in and through His body, the church, the fullness of Him that fills all in all. (Ephesians 1:22-23)
So, as I have said for years now… “pray now about how the Holy Spirit may use us, and your participation as a functioning member of the Body of Christ, to minister to the Lord and to others.” (end of older post)
If interested, here is another post I read online sometime back by one Edgar Torres that I thought was insightful regarding the relationship of the Lord’s Supper and Passover. I do not know the man, Edgar Torres, personally, and have had no personal correspondence or conversations with him. So, I cannot make any endorsement of him here, other than to say I found this an interesting perspective and worth sharing.
The following scriptures are placed here for understanding a foundation for his post.
[John 6:48-71 NASB95] 48 “I am the bread of life. 49 “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 “This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.” 52 Then the Jews [began] to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us [His] flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. 54 “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 “For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. 56 “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. 57 “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. 58 “This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.” 59 These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. 60 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard [this] said, “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble? 62 “[What] then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? 63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. 64 “But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. 65 And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.” 66 As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” 68 Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. 69 “We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.” 70 Jesus answered them, “Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and [yet] one of you is a devil?” 71 Now He meant Judas [the son] of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray Him.
([Galatians 2:20 NASB95] 20 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the [life] which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.)
Edgar Torres wrote _
In the declaration of Galatians 2:20, we encounter the essence of divine union: the self crucified, no longer reigning in isolation, but yielding to the indwelling One who animates our every breath with His own eternal life. This exchanged existence, where it is no longer I but He who lives, finds its roots in the startling words of the Master Himself, words that pierced the hearts of many and revealed the divide between mere followers and those who would embrace the mystery in faith.
Consider the scene in John 6:60-66, where the crowd, having witnessed miracles, recoils at the invitation to eat His flesh and drink His blood a teaching so hard, so visceral, that it sifts the superficial from the sincere. “This is an hard saying; who can hear it?” they murmur, and many turn back, unwilling to grapple with the depth it demands. Yet Jesus is not telling a mere metaphor for distant admiration; it calls for an intimate partaking, a consumption that merges the eater with the eaten, foreshadowing the union where His life becomes our sustenance, not through effort but through belief in the One sent from above.
This hard truth echoes forward to the intimacy of the Last Supper, where He breaks bread and offers the cup, declaring, “This is my body… this is my blood.” Here, in the quiet of that upper room, the invitation intensifies: to eat and drink not as ritual, but as entry into covenant union.
Just as the bread nourishes and the wine invigorates, so does partaking of Him dissolve the barriers of separation, infusing our being with His. This is the very union of Galatians 2:20 made tangible.
His crucified body and shed blood not observed from afar, but ingested, absorbed, becoming the vital force that displaces self-striving with His finished victory.
No longer do we labor to achieve righteousness; we feed on the One who is righteousness itself, entering rest through this sacred meal that binds us eternally.
Trace this thread backward to the shadows of the old covenant, where the Israelites, on the eve of exodus, smear the lamb’s blood on their doorposts a shield against the wrath of judgment, the destroyer passing over those marked by substitutionary death.
But the protection does not end there; they eat the same lamb, roasted and whole, its flesh strengthening them for the wilderness journey ahead. This dual act blood for redemption, flesh for provision mirrors the completeness of the gospel: shielded from condemnation by His blood, and empowered for the path by consuming His life. And in the desert, manna falls daily from heaven, a gracious provision that teaches dependence, not hoarding or self-reliance, but gathering fresh each morning lest it spoil, a rhythm of trust in the Provider’s faithfulness.
Now, in the fullness of revelation, He declares Himself the true bread from heaven, the living manna that satisfies eternally. No longer flakes on the ground, but the indwelling presence, renewing us day by day without fail. This is the union unveiled: as the Israelites ate the lamb and manna to sustain their exodus from bondage, so we partake of Him not through fleshly works or legalistic observance, but by faith in His once-for-all offering.
Trials become not burdens to bear alone, but opportunities to draw from the inner wellspring, where His life flows unceasingly, turning wilderness wanderings into pathways of rest.
The hard teaching, once stumbling block to many, becomes the gateway to glory: abide in this feeding, cease from labor, and let His faithfulness carry you, for in this divine exchange, wrath is averted, the journey empowered, and every dawn brings fresh provision from the One who lives within.
Armor on. Shield up.
End- Edward Torres post quotation.