1 Corinthians 11:23–24 — For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
We are continuing to think about the ways in which the Lord's Supper proclaims His death to us, and this time we want to think for a few moments on the imagery provided by the bread. We will look later at more things the bread can teach us, but we will focus here on the fact that it is broken.
In breaking the bread, Jesus said to His disciples, "This is my body, which is for you." The disciples watched as Jesus broke the bread and then said that it represented His body which was for them (or in their place). Clearly he was implying (as one translation actually says) that His body was to be broken on behalf of His disciples. What can we learn from this?
We thought briefly last time about how the carcasses of the Old Testament sacrifices were always broken as they were offered up to God. Jesus was obviously implying His sacrificial death, therefore, in the breaking of the bread. Was the body of Jesus broken, then, as He laid down His life for us? All the accounts we have in Scripture strongly affirm that this was the case.
In the New Testament accounts, we know that before the Sanhedrin, He was blindfolded, spat upon, beaten with fists and slapped (Matthew 26:67) Having been condemned by Pilate, He was scourged (whipped with a device that had leather thongs with fragments of bone or other hard material attached in order to tear the skin). He had a crown of thorns (possibly 2 to 3 inches long) thrust down upon His head. He was spat upon again, and beaten on the head using a reed (Matthew 27:26-30). Finally, He was crucified - His hands and feet were pierced with nails (Luke 24:39) and eventually His side was run through with a spear (John 19:34).
The Old Testament supplies prophecies that describe the results of this treatment on Jesus. Isaiah records that His appearance was marred more than that of any man (Isaiah 52:14). In Psalm 22, we have Jesus' own description of His sufferings on the cross: I am poured out like water, And all my bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It is melted within me. 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And my tongue cleaves to my jaws; And You lay me in the dust of death. 16 For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet. (Psalm 22:14–16)
In short, no-one suffered like Jesus did in offering Himself a sacrifice for His people. And yet we note that though His body was broken in this way, in order that prophecy would be fulfilled, and the parallel with the Passover lamb might be maintained, not one of His bones was broken (John 19:34-36, Exodus 12:46, Numbers 9:12, Psalm 34:20).
So the broken body of Jesus speaks eloquently to us concerning His sacrificial, substitutionary death. We want to dwell on another Scripture later on, though, which is relevant on this topic also. The broken body of our Savior has much to proclaim to us!
Why should this be a reason to take the Supper? It is a strange believer indeed, who does not gaze upon the sufferings of Christ without love and gratitude welling up inside. It is not just that He suffered these things, but "This is my body, which is for you." At every celebration of the Supper, Jesus confirms that His sacrifice was in the place of all His people - who would not wish to be present at every opportunity, to have our Savior confirm His love for us in this way?
