Topic(s): Worship, Church

Bob Prichard

Christ left the Lord’s Supper, or communion, as a memorial of His sacrifice for us. The night He was betrayed, “Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:26-28). Jesus identified the two elements of the Lord’s Supper as the bread, and the cup, which is further identified in the next verse as “the fruit of the vine” (29). In using these two commonplace elements, Jesus left a memorial that Christians for all time could observe.

The first element is “bread.” When He instituted the Supper, Jesus and His disciples had gathered together to share a Passover meal. The Passover meal is also known as the “feast of the unleavened bread” (Luke 22:1). “Unleavened bread” is bread without any leavening agent (something to make it rise, like yeast). Paul used leaven as an illustration of how evil corrupts other things. “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7). God had decreed that the Jews could not even have leaven in their houses during the feast. “Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land” (Exodus 12:19).

Since there could not have been any leaven in the house when Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, then the bread He used must have been unleavened. If we follow His example, then the bread we use for the Lord’s Supper must be unleavened bread. The bread commonly used in worship today is much like a cracker, being flat because it lacks leaven. Crackers are appropriate to use if they are truly unleavened.

Jesus called the beverage that Jesus and His disciples used that night when He introduced the Lord’s Supper “the fruit of the vine.” “Fruit of the vine” indicates that liquid that comes from the grape (which grows on a vine). This would include grape juice as well as grape wine. Some demand that only fermented grape juice be used, but there is nothing inherent in “fruit of the vine” that would require that the juice be fermented. The New Testament refers to both fermented and unfermented grape juice as “wine.” Common grape juice fits the definition of “fruit of the vine,” and is to be preferred over fermented juice because of the inherent danger of using any alcoholic beverage, even in small quantities. It is inconsistent to demand that the juice be corrupted by fermentation, while calling for the bread to be uncorrupted by leaven.

The issue at hand is not what we might prefer, but what will be most pleasing to God. He is the object of our worship. “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).