17 Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where would you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?” 18 He said, “Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.’” 19 And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover.
20 When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve. 21 And as they were eating, he said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” 22 And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, “Is it I, Lord?” 23 He answered, “He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me. 24 The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” 25 Judas, who would betray him, answered, “Is it I, Rabbi?” He said to him, “You have said so.”
26 Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” 27 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, 28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.”
In its original context, the Lord's Supper was, and was clearly meant by Christ to be a fulfilment of the true meaning of the Passover feast. And this is how the early Church interpreted it ('Christ our passover is sacrificed for us', 1 Corinthians 5:7). This, then, must be the key to an understanding of our Lord's meaning. The association of the Supper with the Passover is too clear and obvious to need any argument to establish it. It was no accident or coincidence that our Lord was crucified at the time of the Passover; it was planned thus by God and even the high priests' desire not to capture Christ on the feast day was set aside by His sovereign purpose, because God determined that it should be at that time. Furthermore, it was while eating the Passover that Christ instituted the Supper, using the elements of the Passover meal - the unleavened bread and the wine cup - as symbols. What, then, was the Passover? Chiefly two things; it commemorated the great deliverance of God's people out of Egypt, and it commemorated the covenant initiated at that time between God and Israel. The association of ideas is dramatic and inescapable. There is another Passover, Christ means, and another Lamb, another deliverance and another covenant. 'This is the truth about the Passover', He says, 'It foreshadowed Me. I am the truth of all the sacrifices, they are but shadows cast on the course of history by the death I am about to die'. Thus the divine visitation on sin at the cross becomes the deliverance from the bondage of sin and the establishing of a new covenant with all who believe in Him, a covenant of forgiveness and fellowship with God in Him. This is what Christ offers men and what He was indicating and illustrating in the new Passover meal which was the Lord's Supper.