Like the Exodus Passover, this Passover focused on eating (Matthew 26:17; Mark 14:12, 14; Luke 22:8, 11, 15-16; John 13:2). However, the scriptures place far more emphasis on the bread and wine than on the other food. Yet we should recognize that the bread and wine are not new symbols. They are the original elements of the fellowship meal between Melchizedek and Abraham (Genesis 14:18) on the eve of the historic covenant God made with Abraham (Genesis 15). Similarly, this Passover was a fellowship meal on the eve of the sealing of another, much-anticipated covenant.
This linkage between the bread, wine and Abraham is significant for a couple of reasons. First, God's covenant with Abraham undergirds the Exodus Passover. God was inclined to destroy Israel in Egypt for her idolatry, yet He made a merciful exemption for the sake of His name and His faithfulness to His covenant with Abraham. The Hebrew word for Passover means exemption. God overlooked Israel's sins because of His covenant with the family of Abraham, and it began with Melchizedek bringing out bread and wine.
Second, the timing of Christ's sacrifice also relates to the Abrahamic covenant. Christ's death did not take place at the time He commanded Israel to kill the Passover lambs, which was between sunset and dark at the beginning of the 14th day of Abib. Instead, His death took place in the afternoon of the 14th, which lines up with the time God made the covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15. Christ's death at that time signifies an incredible step forward in His fulfillment of that covenant, upon which the New Covenant is based.
In these verses, Jesus identifies the bread as a symbol of His body. In the ancient cultures of the Middle East, bread was a critical staple of the diet. In the cultures found in the Bible, bread was a primary food source and other types of food were more like accessories. Starting in Eden, bread stands for food in general. Because it is an umbrella term, when a verse mentions bread, it may include other things like fruit and meat. Bread was such a centerpiece of the diet that the word became synonymous with the word food.
Human life in those cultures really depended on the grain harvests, and a good harvest depended on the right amount of rain at the right time. Since rain was in the province of the divine, bread took on a sacred quality because it was dependent on rain, and thus, it was considered to be a gift from heaven. The breaking of bread became a symbol of fellowship and friendship. It meant sharing the providence of heaven, and we can tie that back to I Corinthians 10, about the fellowship surrounding the one bread, which is Christ.
Because of the centrality of bread in the diet, and because we must eat to live, bread is also a symbol for what sustains of life. That is its primary symbolism - bread supports life. Psalm 104:15 says that bread . . . strengthens man's heart, and in other places, bread is said to refresh the heart (Genesis 18:5; Judges 19:5).
Because of this, we can understand that when God promised Israel that He would lead them to a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity (Deuteronomy 8:9), He was talking about more than loaves of wheat and barley products. He meant that He would provide all they needed to sustain life, even to have an abundant physical life. When David says that he has not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread (Psalm 37:25), he refers to their entire food needs. Bread stands for more than just a baked product made from grain, but for abundant sustenance and the fuel for a good life.
Now, we will turn just slightly. God tells us in that even though bread sustains life, it cannot truly satisfy, and this is where we start to differentiate between physical and spiritual bread. In Deuteronomy 8:3, God tells Israel that His working with them in the wilderness, including the provision of manna, was to teach them that man shall not live by bread alone; … . . .
Verse 15 tells us what was on Christ's mind, and again, it was not the disciples' sins. Instead, the Son of God had been fervently looking forward to this special occasion - this fellowship - with those whom the Father had given Him (see also Matthew 26:18-29; Mark 14:13-25). Like the Exodus Passover, this Passover was about eating. However, the New Testament Scriptures place the emphasis on the bread and wine. The bread and wine are not new symbols, though, but the original elements of the fellowship meal between Melchizedek and Abraham (Genesis 14:18) on the eve of a historic covenant (Genesis 15). In like manner, this Passover was a fellowship meal on the eve of the sealing of a much-anticipated covenant.
There is not time to explore this completely, but notice that Jesus says that the Passover will not be fulfilled until the Kingdom of God. It is easy to read right over that, but it is a critical part of Passover. The sin offering has already been fulfilled (Hebrews 1:3; 7:27; 9:12-14, 26-28; 10:12, 18), but the Passover has not, as it says here. This is because of Passover's theme of redemption, which is actually a process. This is why Scripture speaks of redemption in both the past (Romans 3:23-25; Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14) and future tenses (Luke 21:28; Romans 8:23-25; Ephesians 1:13-14; 4:30). We have been redeemed from the death penalty, but we still need to be redeemed from this corrupted nature that incurs the death penalty (see Titus 2:11-14). God must redeem us from this flesh - this body of death, as Paul calls it - so we can fully manifest the image of our Creator. Thus, our final redemption occurs when we have been resurrected and have fully taken on the incorruptible nature (see I Corinthians 15:50). At that point, Passover will be fulfilled.
Jesus Christ's body is a multi-faceted symbol. Sometimes Christ's body is a symbol of His death, but at other times it is a symbol of life. So, it says here that the Passover bread represents Christ's body. When Jesus uses bread as a symbol for His body, it is a symbol of life, even eternal life. We won't turn to it, but John 6 explains this symbol very clearly. There, Jesus speaks of bread that endures to everlasting life. He speaks of the bread of God, the bread of life, and the living bread. When Jesus says that He is the living bread (John 6:51), it means that His flesh is not merely something that leads to eternal life, but He indicates a body that is alive. As we partake of the bread, we become one with the living Savior.
Jesus Christ's body is a multi-faceted symbol. Sometimes Christ's body is a symbol of His death, but at other times it is a symbol of life. So, it says here that the Passover bread represents Christ's body. When Jesus uses bread as a symbol for His body, it is a symbol of life, even eternal life. We won't turn to it, but John 6 explains this symbol very clearly. There, Jesus speaks of bread that endures to everlasting life. He speaks of the bread of God, the bread of life, and the living bread. When Jesus says that He is the living bread (John 6:51), it means that His flesh is not merely something that leads to eternal life, but He indicates a body that is alive. As we partake of the bread, we become one with the living Savior.
The concept of death is not entirely absent, because Christ's life in the flesh ended - horrifically. As I said, it is a complex symbol. But the bread itself is a symbol of the sinless life that Jesus lived, up through its awful end, rather than just the end. It is not a symbol of a broken body. When we symbolically partake of Christ's flesh, we are joined to His sinless life. God accepts us into His presence on the basis of Christ's flesh, as it says in Hebrews 10:20. The new and living way is through His flesh. In the peace offering, man in shown accepted by God. Our acceptance is based on Christ's sinless life, and only a body undefiled by sin has blood that is worthy to pay our death penalty. But He had to live flawlessly in order for the sin offering to be effective, and we partake of that perfect life at Passover. And just as bread strengthens mankind physically, so the bread of life strengthens us spiritually because we are partaking of the sinless life of the Creator.
