A Meal With Different Names
Five Descriptions of the Ordinance Jesus Established at the Last Supper
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During the Last Supper, Jesus took the bread and cup and spoke about them in relation to his body and blood. “Do this in remembrance of me,” he said (Luke 22:19), and so Christians have. For two thousand years we have remembered what Jesus did by recalling what Jesus said. Our remembrance is an act of obedience to the instructions of Jesus—instructions we call an ordinance, since he ordained the meal.
When you observe this ordinance, what do you call it? And do you know the others names it goes by? And do you know where those other names originated?
Let’s look at five names, all synonyms for the same act of remembrance.
1. Lord’s Supper
In 1 Corinthians, Paul is correcting sinful practices that were taking place at this meal. He said, “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat” (1 Cor. 11:20). He goes on to talk about their indulgence and drunkenness (11:21), yet his reference to the special meal stands out. Paul’s calls it “the Lord’s supper.”
In my upbringing, the expression “Lord’s Supper” is probably the one I’ve heard the most, compared to any other expression that follows in this list.
2. Eucharist
When Paul is reiterating to the Corinthians what Jesus said at the Last Supper, Paul includes the language of giving “thanks” (1 Cor. 11:24). This word is associated with the Lord’s Supper, because the act of Jesus at the Last Supper is remembered, when he took the bread and “gave thanks” (Luke 22:19) and when he took the cup and “gave thanks” (Mark 14:23).
The word “Eucharist” is from the Greek word that means “thanks” or “thanksgiving.” Taking the Lord’s Supper—or the Eucharist—is a time when believers give thanks to God for what he has done through Christ.
3. Communion
Looking again at Paul’s words to the Corinthians, he says, “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Cor. 10:16).
That word “participation” (translated “communion” in the King James Version) is where we get the term “communion” for the meal. The phrases “participation in the blood of Christ” and “participation in the body of Christ” are why believers sometimes speak of “taking communion.”
4. Table of the Lord
In part of Paul’s correctives for the Corinthians, he says, “You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons” (1 Cor. 10:21). That phrase “table of the Lord” refers to the place of taking communion.
As believers remember the body and blood of Jesus given for us, we come to “the table of the Lord” to partake. Sometimes the expression is simply stated as “the Lord’s table.”
5. Breaking of Bread
In Acts 2:42, Luke tells us, “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). The language about “the breaking of bread” is probably about more than sharing a regular meal. In Acts 20:7, we’re told, “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.”
This “breaking of bread” was likely a reference to the Lord’s Supper, which they would take together on the first day of the week. This meal was part of what the believers devoted themselves to. The Lord Jesus had said to practice remembrance through that ordinance, so the early church obeyed his instruction.
Conclusion
The five expressions—the Lord’s Supper, eucharist, communion, the table of the Lord, and the breaking of bread—are all about the same event: the practice of keeping the ordinance which Jesus established when he was at the Last Supper with his disciples.
These various phrases are drawn from 1 Corinthians 10, 1 Corinthians 11, and the book of Acts. In other words, the phrases are all biblical and interchangeable ways of referring to the same thing.