The Lord's Supper
Its Symbolism
The Lord's Supper was instituted "on the night he was betrayed," and while they ate the Passover. This was performed in the afternoon by the commandment of the LORD, but there is no law with respect to the time when one must take the Lord's Supper. In Acts 2:42 and 46, where we read the about the Lord's Supper (the "Breaking of Bread"), there is no mention of any hour, or afternoon or morning, it is only said that "they broke bread from house to house " (instead of taking Supper publicly in the temple). In Acts 20:7 the first day of the week is clearly mentioned, but it is only by inference that we feel the meeting was held in the afternoon.
It is likely that the first disciples always took the Supper in the afternoon, not by commandment, but for convenience, because Sunday was not an official holiday as it is today. In our view, there is no teaching or spiritual principle connected with the time the Supper is taken, whether morning, afternoon or evening.
For those who insist on an exact imitation of the first Supper, why not celebrate it on Thursday, the day of its original institution? ... Christianity is not similar to Judaism - a religious system of "days and months and years" in obedience to a divinely appointed time; but it is a life that must be governed by spiritual principles, and subject to the Word of God but not to mere inferences and deductions.
Churches are free to celebrate the Supper in the morning, afternoon or evening, according to local convenience, but not to claim spiritual superiority because of the time!
As to the need to employ solely unleavened bread, there is no indication in Scripture that this is essential. Christians can use it if they prefer, but they have no right to impose it on their brethren, it is mere ceremonialism. The unleavened bread belonged to the ritual of the Passover and the "Feast of Unleavened Bread," Jewish rites that have nothing to do with Christianity, except prophetically.
There is nothing sinful in leaven itself; in the Bible it is a type for sin, but its interpretation in the New Testament is "malice and wickedness" that should not be found in us (1 Corinthians 5:7-8).
For the believer in Christ, the "Feast of Unleavened Bread" is not the Lord's Supper but his entire life, which should show "sincerity and truth" in everything. In 1 Corinthians 11:23-29, where we have the description of the Apostolic Supper, unleavened bread is not mentioned, but it says we should look at - not the table to see if there is yeast in the bread or the wine, but "let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. "
The Greek word "azumos" (unleavened bread) never is used in the New Testament to describe the bread of the Supper, but always the word "artos" (ordinary bread), both in 1 Corinthians 11:23-28 and Matthew 26:26, Mark 14:22 and Luke 22:19. In the Jewish feasts unleavened bread symbolized the holy life; the bread in the Lord's Supper symbolizes "the body which is given for you", and also has reference to His spiritual body - the church (1 Corinthians 10:17), the essential point is, not its material composition, but that it be "only one bread."
The worry about the time of day or the exact nature of the bread and contents of the cup, is to put human opinions instead of God's commandments, and to lose the meaning and purpose of the Supper.
Richard Dawson Jones (1895 - 1987)
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