Board index ‹ Specific Bible verses, texts, and passages ‹ Matthew

[Kitsch]

At the last supper, Jesus tells the disciples that the bread is his body. Wouldn't it make more sense thematically if he were the lamb?

[jimwalton]

There are several good reasons why the bread was his body.

1. "Breaking bread" was the symbol of friendship and fellowship. When you wanted to show friendship to someone, you ate bread with them. Therefore breaking bread with his disciples was a symbol of their belonging together, and so the broken bread as a symbol of his body was a great picture of their means of being "friends" with God (being reconciled and restored to fellowship).

2. Bread also signifies something you share. It their culture of hospitality, bread was broken so that many could have it. Jesus's broken body is a sacrifice for the world.

3. During his ministry he had the feeding of the 5000, a symbol of his deity and identity as the Messiah. It was a re-enactment of the provision of manna: (1) God as provider, and (2) God who blesses. In John 6.27, 31-35 he speaks of bread as the food that leads to eternal life, and himself as that bread.

4. In that same discourse (John 6.25-59) about his being the Bread of Life, he is identifying himself as (1) coming from heaven, and (2) the means to eternal life. During that discourse he matches the bread with eating his flesh (Jn. 6.51-58).

5. It was part of the Passover seder that before the meal three pieces of matzo were placed in a 3-part bag. During the meal, the center one, called the afikomen, was removed and broken for the family to share. If this is part of the symbolism as well, one could easily see some trinitarian theology in the bag, with the center piece of bread removed and broken, a symbol of Jesus as the second person of the Trinity being taken out and broken.

And while the Lamb would also be a fitting symbol, he fulfilled that the next day when he died at 3 p.m., the exact time that the Passover lamb was being killed on the altar in the Temple.