LUKE: 22: 15-20
15 And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
16For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”
17 After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you.18For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it,
and gave it to them, saying,
in my blood, which is poured out for you.
MATTHEW: 26: 26-29
26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it,
and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”27 Then he took the cup,gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you.28This is my blood of the covenant which will be shared for you and for many for the remission of sins.
29I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you
in my Father’s kingdom.”“This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant
Through the last supper that Jesus has with his apostles prior to his crucifixion, Jesus ordains one of the most important, if not thee most important tenets in Christianity regarding how the people, the church of Christianity were to remember Jesus and celebrate him and his sacrifice of being crucified. One would think that Jesus apostles would be in total agreement as to the order that this celebration was to be carried out, but as we can readily see, both Matthew and Luke differ.
The Holy Bible, 99.99% of the time is in total agreeance with itself either old testament to new testament, or as is this case Gospel to Gospel, but in this one particular instance, the two apostles appear to disagree in the order in which Jesus sets up this ceremony.
In Luke’s accounting, Jesus firsts takes the cup and blesses it and then hands it to his apostles to partake, and then he takes the bread blesses it and hands it out to be distributed. In verse 20 Jesus merely explains the importance of the cup of wine.
In Matthew’s accounting Jesus first distributes the bread, and then the cup of wine.
It may not be important to most Christians, in which order Jesus carried out this newly ordained tenet or sacrament as it is referred, but one would think that since both apostles were present and witnessed the “First Holy Communion” implimented by Jesus, that both apostles would be in agreement as to exactly what transpired and its order.
I CORINTHIANS: 11:23-26
23 For I received from the Lord
what I also passed on to you: which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenantin my blood;
“26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
We notice that Paul’s teaching to the various congregations that he set up and instructed regarding the celebration ceremony of Communion agrees with Matthew completely but not with Luke’s accounting so far as the order of things is concerned.
The apostle Paul as well as other apostles, travels from church to church, country to country, establishing new Christian congregation churches and teaching as Jesus taught and instructed, performing baptisms,performing miracles, and celebrating Jesus last supper in these new Christian churches demonstrating how each church was to hold service, as well as how the people should act and live as members in the new Christian Church of Christ Jesus.
This tenet,ceremonially ordained and first ceremoniously carried out by Jesus, is cemented into Christian Church dogma and policy, today commonly known as Holy Communion, aka. The Last Supper.
One who is truly Christian, when they receive communion, spiritually through the eyes of their spirit will indeed see Jesus body in the communion bread, and know that it is Jesus Blood that they drink, even when their human eyes see a wafer and taste wine or grape juice.
One last point of interest: As a Christian, attending in a Catholic Church, I often witness churches who for whatever the reason, only serve the communion host. This is ceremonially wrong. If Jesus only desired us to receive the bread host, he would have said so. If this happens in your parish regardless of the denomination demand both bread and wine. It is ordered by Jesus and no church has the right to simply arbitrarilly change tenet instituted by Jesus.
Some may consider me a nit picker for addressing this but as Christians we expect consistency especially in the scriptures and to find this tiny flaw and not draw it to the attention of my fellow Christians could be an ommission of fact on my part. I do not want this for myself. Like Paul, I desire clarity of teachings and of scripture.
The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body,
do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.