What Is The Lord's Supper?
The Lord's Supper is the memorial meal rooted in the last supper Jesus shared with his disciples on the night before his death; it is also known as Communion and, from the word for thanksgiving, the Eucharist. The Gospels describe that night as a Passover meal: Jesus takes bread, gives thanks, breaks it and says 'This is my body which is given for you'; he passes the cup with the words 'the new covenant in my blood' and commands, 'Do this in memory of me.' The early church kept this command from the beginning: Acts records the believers continuing in 'the breaking of bread'. Paul hands on its meaning to the Corinthians: 'For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.' The table looks at once to past, present and future: it remembers the cross, lives fellowship with Christ and with one another, and awaits the coming feast. Though frequency and details of understanding vary among churches, the table is the shared center of Christian worship.