Who Partakes?

• The Apostles, last passover: Matt 26:19, NASB

The disciples did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover.

• Later, Paul instructs Christians at church meetings: 1Cor 11.23

For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself.

How Often?

• In 1Cor 11.25 Paul echoes Luke 22:19 “Do this in remembrance of me” = “as often as you do this.”
• This obviously does not mean a single, annual observance, memorial service.
• Cp. 1Cor 11.18, 20, 33 whenever “you meet together in church” and “when you meet as a congregation” (1 Cor. 11:18, 20, 33);
• Far from teaching a repeat of the annual Jewish Passover festival, Jesus, in his last Passover meal, established a new thing for a new purpose!

Purpose

• It is a time to remember his life, i.e., his teaching-ministry and ultimate sacrifice/shedding of blood that eventually ratified, gave the stamp of approval (if you will) to this new covenant ceremony.

Jesus is our Christian passover lamb

The Benson Commentary notes that when Jesus said “Do this in remembrance of me” he meant: “Do it no longer in remembrance of the deliverance from Egypt, but in remembrance of me, who, by dying for you, will bring you out of spiritual bondage, a bondage far worse than the Egyptian, under which your fathers groaned…Do it in remembrance of me, who, by laying down my life, will ransom you from sin, and death.”

Ellicott’s Commentary notes that the word for “remembrance” is also used in the Greek version of the Old Testament in reference to the show-bread (Lev. 24:7), and the blowing of trumpets (Num. 10:10).

Jesus goes on to explain that the “cup of wine symbolizes the new covenant ratified by my blood, poured out for you” (Luke 22:20; Matthew 26:28).

So let us not pass over our true passover, i.e., the lord Messiah who with his teaching (symbolized by the bread) and sacrifice (symbolized by the wine) instituted this new covenant commandment. And in so doing we are reminded whenever we get together as a church we continue to proclaim all he taught and did, until he comes again.