The setting of the Lord’s table service was (as 11:21-22 show) an ordinary meal, and this custom is found elsewhere, eg in the document known as the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles or Didache which describes the church in Syria in the decades AD 80–100. But gradually (for reasons not unrelated to the consequences which followed the procedure at Corinth) this combination of a meal and a sacrament was abandoned, and the solemn observance of the communion came to be practiced on its own.
These familiar words should be read alongside the Gospel accounts (Matthew 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:17-19) and the differences noted. Substantially the sense is the same in all the accounts; it is the emphasis which varies. In Paul’s account the chief emphases are:
11:23 makes it plain that Paul was no innovator, but that he is transmitting to the Corinthians the substance of the holy rite which he himself received.
Both “bread” and “cup” form the main elements of the service, and are tokens of something greater, namely the body and blood of Christ. The sacrament consists not simply in bread, but broken bread; not in wine, but poured-out wine (10:16). The stress falls not on the elements (as though they held some magical virtue) but on the actions. Jesus’ words interpret his actions, and these acts are symbolic in line with the tradition of the Old Testament prophets’ symbolic actions (eg Jeremiah chapters 27–28). Paul’s statement further stresses the individual response needed (“for you,” 11:24; “you drink it,” 11:25).
His reference to the new covenant recalls Jeremiah 31:31ff., and is characteristically part of his inspired understanding of the gospel.
“In remembrance of me” is again Pauline; it is absent from Mark and the shorter text in Luke. Passover analogies help us to understand the phrase, as they throw light on the function of the elements. As the annual Paschal feast brought a re-living of Israel’s redemption, so as Christians we “re-live” dynamically the events of our redeeming experience. We are there—in the upper room, at the cross and empty tomb. And with joyful expectation, we await the Lord’s return (11:26).
