What is Communion — the Lord's Supper?

The Meal That Started Everything

On the night before his crucifixion, Jesus gathered with his twelve disciples for the Passover meal. During supper, he took bread, broke it, and said: "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me." Then he took the cup and said: "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you" (Luke 22:19–20). He then commanded them to do this in remembrance of him — a command his followers have been observing ever since, in every nation, in every century, in every Christian tradition.

The meal is known by several names: Communion (from Latin communio, meaning sharing or fellowship — used by Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:16); the Lord's Supper (1 Corinthians 11:20); the Eucharist (from the Greek eucharistia, thanksgiving — because Jesus gave thanks before breaking the bread); and the Breaking of Bread (Acts 2:42, 20:7). Different traditions use different names, but they all refer to the same act.

The Old Testament Background

To understand the Lord's Supper, you need to understand the Passover. Jesus instituted it at a Passover meal — and this is not incidental. The Passover commemorated God's rescue of Israel from slavery in Egypt: a lamb was slaughtered, its blood marked the doorposts, and the angel of death passed over those homes (Exodus 12). The meal was eaten in haste, with unleavened bread, as a family gathered for deliverance.

John the Baptist introduces Jesus as "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). Paul explicitly draws the connection: "For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed" (1 Corinthians 5:7). Jesus chose the Passover as the moment to institute the Lord's Supper deliberately — placing his own death in the framework of exodus and redemption. As Israel was freed from slavery in Egypt by the blood of a lamb, so humanity is freed from slavery to sin and death by the blood of the Lamb of God. The old meal gives way to the new. The shadow is replaced by the reality.

What Jesus Said: The Institution

The Lord's Supper is recorded in all three Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 26:26–29, Mark 14:22–25, Luke 22:14–20) and in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 11:23–26), which is actually the earliest written account, predating even the Gospels:

"For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night 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, after supper he took the cup, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.' For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." — 1 Corinthians 11:23–26 (NIV)

Several elements of this passage are crucial. First, it is received tradition — Paul says he "received from the Lord what I also passed on to you," meaning this is apostolic testimony going back to Jesus himself, not Paul's invention. Second, it is tied to a specific historical event: "on the night he was betrayed." Third, it is forward-looking: "until he comes." Communion looks backward to the cross and forward to the return of Christ — the two poles of Christian hope.

What Does "This Is My Body" Mean?

The single most debated question in Christian theology regarding the Lord's Supper is what Jesus meant when he said "This is my body" and "This is my blood." Four main positions have developed across church history:

Transubstantiation — the position of the Roman Catholic Church and some others. At the moment of consecration by a priest, the substance of the bread and wine is literally transformed into the body and blood of Christ, though the physical appearance (accidents) remain the same. The theological categories are drawn from Aristotelian philosophy. This is defined dogma in Catholicism, affirmed at the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) and the Council of Trent (1551). Catholics believe they receive the real, physical presence of Christ under the appearance of bread and wine.

Consubstantiation / Real Presence — the Lutheran position, associated with Martin Luther. Luther rejected transubstantiation but insisted equally firmly against those who spiritualised the words away. He argued that Christ's body and blood are truly present "in, with, and under" the bread and wine — a real presence, not a physical transformation of substance. Luther famously refused to yield at Marburg (1529) when Zwingli pressed him to interpret "this is my body" as "this signifies my body," writing "Hoc est corpus meum" (This is my body) on the table in chalk and refusing to move from it.

Spiritual Presence — the Reformed (Calvinist) position. John Calvin agreed with Zwingli that the bread and wine remain bread and wine, but disagreed that nothing more than memory is involved. Calvin taught that Christ is spiritually but truly present at the Supper — that through the Spirit, those who receive with faith genuinely feed on Christ, even though he is physically at the right hand of the Father. The presence is real but spiritual, received by faith.

Memorial View — associated with Ulrich Zwingli and widely held in Baptist, evangelical, and nonconformist traditions. The bread and wine are symbols and memorials — they represent Christ's body and blood and direct the believer's mind to the cross, but Christ is not uniquely present in the elements themselves. "This is my body" means "this represents my body," just as Jesus said "I am the vine" (John 15:1) and "I am the door" (John 10:9) without claiming to be literal wood.

These are genuine, longstanding disagreements between serious Christian traditions. They have divided churches and in some periods resulted in persecution. The honest answer is that Christians should be aware that their tradition's view is not the only view that takes the text seriously.

What Paul Teaches: Examination and Unworthiness

1 Corinthians 11:27–29 is one of the most sobering passages in the New Testament about the Lord's Supper: "So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves."

Paul is writing to a Corinthian church that had made a mess of the Lord's Supper — the wealthy arriving early, eating their fill, and getting drunk, while the poor arrived later to nothing (vv. 20–22). The "unworthy manner" is not about being too sinful to participate — no one is worthy in that sense. It is about participating without discernment: without recognising what the meal is, without examining your heart, without taking seriously the community gathered around the table.

The call to self-examination before communion is not meant to keep people away from the table but to call them to approach it honestly and deliberately — having confessed sin, having sought reconciliation with others, having considered what they are doing and why.

What Communion Is For

Drawing together the threads of Scripture, the Lord's Supper serves several purposes simultaneously:

Remembrance. "Do this in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19). The primary command is memory — a specific, active recollection of what Jesus did on the cross. Not just calling it to mind abstractly but proclaiming it bodily, with bread and cup.

Proclamation. "For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes" (1 Corinthians 11:26). Communion is a sermon preached without words — an enacted announcement of the gospel. Every time the church gathers at the table, it declares the death of Christ publicly.

Participation. 1 Corinthians 10:16 — "Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?" The word "participation" (κοινωνία, koinōnia) means sharing, fellowship, communion. Something more than memory is described — a real participation in the benefits of Christ's death.

Anticipation. "Until he comes" (1 Corinthians 11:26). Every Communion is eschatological — it looks forward to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9), the great feast at the end of history when Christ and his people are finally united fully. The table now is a foretaste of the table then.

Unity. 1 Corinthians 10:17 — "Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf." Communion is not only a vertical act between the believer and God — it is a horizontal act of the gathered community. To eat together is to belong together.

"For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." — 1 Corinthians 11:26 (NIV)

For further reading: Thomas Cranmer's writings on the Lord's Supper shaped Anglican practice and remain a clear Protestant treatment. John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion Book IV, Chapter 17 is the fullest Reformed treatment. For a contemporary evangelical overview, Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (IVP, 1994), Chapter 50: "The Lord's Supper," pp. 987–1013, covers all four views fairly. GotQuestions.org's article "What is the Lord's Supper?" is a helpful evangelical survey.