Reflections for Holy Week:
The Lord’s Supper and Maundy Thursday
By Jacob McRae
Within the observance of Holy Week, Maundy Thursday marks the commemoration of Jesus’ “last supper” with his disciples. It is this very moment in Jesus’ ministry around which Christians have come to model the practice and sacrament of Communion.
We all likely have different backgrounds in how we have (or perhaps haven’t) experienced the sacrament of Communion in the Church. Across Christian traditions, there is much beauty, goodness, and difference in the ways this meal has been, and continues to be, practiced – and yet, it is always worth returning to Scripture to consider more deeply its original and biblical richness as we participate in its blessings this Maundy Thursday.
Although the institution of Communion, as most of us may know it, is limited in its explicit Biblical representation, the Scriptures are rich with the imagery and heartbeat of this holy sacrament. As New Testament Professor Guy Prentiss Waters puts it:
“From Genesis to Revelation, and at many points in between, God uses the image of a feast, meal, or banquet to characterize some of the most cherished teachings of Scripture. God prepares a bountiful table and invites the undeserving to sit with him there. The table, in all its abundance, points to the spiritual blessings that God gives his people—life, joy, peace, and glory. It points supremely to the chief blessing—God himself. The table represents God’s condescension in drawing sinners to himself, redeeming them, and inviting them to communion with him. The glory of this communion is that it is not limited to this life. Death cannot rob us of it. In fact, Jesus stresses, the best is yet to come. We have been treated to an appetizer in this life.”
Through the new covenant established in Christ, Christians have widely recognized Communion as a central sacramental sign of the Church. This sign stands in deep continuity with the covenantal sign given to Israel in the Old Testament--namely, the Passover.
Historically, Communion roots us in the story of God’s salvation. It is the story of Jesus celebrating the Passover with his disciples from which we model our own observance of this sacrament. Passover is the Jewish feast that commemorates God ransoming his people from death, delivering Israel from slavery in Egypt, and bringing them into covenant life with himself. The Passover meal is a way of remembering that redemption, in a way that shaped identity and hope--it wasn’t just that God redeemed his people from bondage; He redeemed them into a new identity. Communion gathers up that story and brings it to fulfillment in Christ. The story is no longer about slavery in Egypt, but bondage to sin and death. No longer the blood of a lamb on wooden doorposts, but Christ giving himself for the life of the world, shedding his blood over the doorposts of our hearts. As we eat and drink, we remember and proclaim that through his self-giving love, we have been brought into new and eternal life--no longer slaves, but children.
Spiritually, Communion is a place where the Spirit enlivens God’s Word in our hearts. Where our eyes are opened to the person of Jesus and to one another in Christ. One example of this comes in Luke 24: after the resurrected Jesus appears to two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus, he walks with them and unfolds the story of Scripture, teaching them how it all pointed to Him. And yet, it is after this, in the breaking of the bread at table with Jesus, that the disciples’ eyes are opened and they recognize Jesus. In a similar way, Communion becomes a place where knowledge of Jesus is deepened into relationship with him--where faith is strengthened and Christ makes himself known to his people at the table of fellowship.
Physically, Communion is an act of participation. In 1 Corinthians 10 and 11, Paul finds that he must remind the church in Corinth of what they are doing when they gather for this meal. When we partake of the one bread and the blessed cup, though we are many, we participate together as one body--Christ’s body. In doing so, we proclaim his death until he comes again, returning us to the historical purpose of remembering what Christ has done. But Communion is more than an act of remembrance. Paul’s rebuke to the Corinthians and their individualistic and self-serving motives as they observe this meal makes that clear. This meal proclaims not only forgiveness for individuals, but the reconciling and self-giving love of Christ that binds us together. Paul explains to the Corinthians that, to receive this bread and cup while neglecting one another, contradicts what the meal itself declares. Communion embodies the overwhelming, undeserved, ever-pardoning love revealed at the cross--a love that equalizes, humbles, and unites the Church as Christ’s body.
A Look at Scripture
I would like us now to devotionally consider four passages that I think most explicitly inform our understanding of this holy sacrament. The first two come from the final moments before Jesus’ death, as he gathers his disciples around a table. As Jesus and his disciples are preparing to partake of the Passover meal together, he uses this moment to stress an important command--and he does so by first giving his disciples a memorable example:
John 13:1-15 - Jesus Washes the Disciples’ Feet
Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper… He [Jesus] laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” …When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.”
John 13:31-35 - A New Commandment
When he [Judas] had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him…. and a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
The disciples likely sat in horrified awe as their Rabbi and Lord shed his garment of status and bent low over their feet to perform the task of a slave. When we come together to celebrate Maundy Thursday, it is often through the act of observing communion--and yet, the emphasis of this day is on the command that was given by our Lord at that Last Supper (“Maundy” from the Latin “mandatum” = “Command”). By partaking of this meal together, we not only remember Jesus’ ultimate example of this love on the cross; we practice this cross-bearing, self-sacrificing love with one another--extending to one another the very love of our Savior.
In fact, I think Paul likely has this moment in mind when instructing the Philippians on how to emulate their Savior:
Philippians 2:3-7 - Christ’s Example
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant…
The last verse I want to bring up is Paul’s retelling of this last supper moment between Jesus and his disciples in 1 Corinthians, just moment after the washing of the disciples’ feet:
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 - Paul’s Instruction for the Corinthian church
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Practical Implications of Communion
It is the final verse that Paul adds to his retelling that I find incredibly powerful for our theology and practice of Communion: What exactly does it mean to “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes”?
1. We are Proclaiming His Death: Not Just Remembering, but Announcing
The verb Paul uses (“proclaim”) is typical for preaching or announcing good news. The meal itself declares something. Every time the Church eats the bread and drinks the cup, we are announcing:
a. That Jesus truly died.
b. That his death was “for you” (1 Cor. 11:24).
c. That his blood establishes “the new covenant” (1 Cor. 11:25).
d. That salvation comes not through our merit, but through his self-giving sacrifice.
2. We are Proclaiming a Particular Kind of Death
The shame of the cross is the glory of God (1 Cor. 1:18). In a world shaped by power and status (particularly true in Corinth), this meal proclaims a different kind of kingdom--one built on self-giving love and the very command Jesus left with his disciples that night. So when we the Church share the Supper, we are publicly aligning ourselves with:
a. A crucified Messiah
b. A kingdom marked by humility
c. A salvation accomplished through sacrificial love
3. We are Proclaiming to the Powers
In biblical theology, the cross is also a victory over sin, death, and the spiritual powers (Colossians 2:15). Every time the church gathers around the cross in sacramental form, we are announcing that the decisive victory has already been won. This meal we share becomes an act of spiritual defiance:
a. Death does not have the final word.
b. Sin does not reign.
c. Christ is Lord.
4. We are Proclaiming Until He Comes
The Supper we partake of “in remembrance" of Jesus is not only backward-looking. Paul adds: “until he comes.” This means: The proclamation has an end in mind. We exist between cross and consummation, living in the tension of already and not yet. As we partake of this meal together, we are together proclaiming:
a. The victorious and risen One is coming again.
b. This is not the final feast.
On Maundy Thursday, when we partake of this meal together, we proclaim our hope and readiness for the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19). Hallelujah and Amen!
To learn more about Jacob and his family follow his blog: https://jacobandsamantha.org/