What is the context?
Jesus reclines with the apostles and speaks of His eager desire to share this Passover before He suffers. He also looks toward its fulfillment in God’s kingdom. The coming suffering and the kingdom’s hope frame the meal.
Luke records Jesus sharing a cup, then giving bread with thanks and describing it as His body given for them. He tells them to do this in remembrance of Him. The cup after supper is identified with the new covenant in His blood, poured out for them.
Jesus also says that His betrayer’s hand is at the table. He holds together the path determined for the Son of Man and the warning of woe to the person who betrays Him. The disciples question among themselves who will do it.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Christians agree that Jesus connects the bread and cup with His body, blood and saving death. They differ over how Christ is present in the meal and how His sacrifice is remembered and shared.
The Catholic Church teaches that the bread and wine become Christ’s body and blood while their outward appearances remain. It also teaches that the Mass makes His one sacrifice present, rather than Jesus being killed again. (Catechism §§1362–1367, 1374–1377)
Lutheran teaching in the Small Catechism says that Christ’s true body and blood are received under the bread and wine. It connects forgiveness, life and salvation with His promise and calls the recipient to trust His words. (Small Catechism, Sacrament of the Altar)
The Orthodox Church in America’s teaching guide also affirms genuine communion with Christ’s body and blood through the Holy Spirit. It describes this as a mystery, and explains that symbolic language does not reduce the meal to thinking about an absent event. (OCA, Holy Eucharist)
Reformed churches following Westminster and Baptists following the 1689 Confession teach that the bread and wine remain bread and wine while believers truly receive Christ and the benefits of His death spiritually, through faith. These confessions describe real participation, beyond simply recalling information about the past. (Westminster Confession 29.5–7; 1689 Baptist Confession 30.5–7)
The Methodist Articles likewise describe receiving Christ spiritually through faith. Wesley’s notes on this passage explain the bread and cup as signs of His body and the blood establishing the covenant; those notes belong alongside the Articles’ teaching about participation. (Methodist Articles XVIII; Wesley on Luke 22:19–20)
Walvoord emphasizes the bread and cup as figures pointing to Christ and stresses the believer’s real union with Him rather than a physical change in the elements. This is a commentator’s reading, rather than a definition of what every Protestant church teaches. (Walvoord on Matthew’s parallel, 26:26–30)
Where does this fit in God's plan?
Jeremiah promises a new covenant with Israel and Judah, with God’s law written on hearts and sins forgiven. Hebrews repeats that promise and identifies Jesus as the One who brings this better covenant to His people. Jesus’ words over the cup therefore belong within God’s announced purpose to bring His people into a forgiven relationship with Him. (Jeremiah 31:31–34; Hebrews 8:6–13)
Hebrews also explains Christ’s own blood as securing redemption and His death as opening the promised inheritance under the new covenant. It describes His self-offering as once for all. That gives the larger meaning of His body given and blood poured out: His death brings cleansing, forgiveness and access to God. (Hebrews 9:11–15, 24–28; Hebrews 10:10–18)
Paul passes on the meal’s words to the church and says that sharing it proclaims the Lord’s death until He comes. He also connects the one loaf with the many believers forming one body. The remembrance shapes a people who share in Christ, care for one another and wait for His return. (1 Corinthians 11:23–34; 1 Corinthians 10:16–17)
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.