<p>22:19 <i>And he took bread- </i>Taking bread, blessing and breaking it and giving to the disciples was exactly what the Lord did at the feeding of the 5000 and 4000 (14:19; 15:36), and we are thereby justified in seeing what He did then as having a religious dimension, practicing thereby an extremely open table. To 'take bread' can mean although not always to actually eat bread. Consider: &quot;The disciples had forgotten to take bread,<i> neither</i>&nbsp;did they have with them more than one loaf&quot; (Mk. 8:14)- the force of &quot;neither...&quot; is that they had not eaten bread, rather than that they had forgotten to bring any with them. Philip complained that there would not be enough bread for each of the crowd to 'take' even a little, i.e. to eat just a little (Jn. 6:7). So it could be that the Lord took and ate bread, blessed it, and then asked the disciples to eat it. This sequence of events would then make the eating of bread a more conscious doing of what Jesus had done. He took the bread, and then He asks them to take the bread (&quot;Take, eat&quot;). He is inviting them to mimic Him.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p><i>And when he had given thanks- </i>It was usual to bless a meal, especially the Passover lamb, but here the Lord offers a special prayer for the accessory to the meal, the side dish of bread. He wanted to highlight the significance of the most ordinary thing on the table and show that it represented Him.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p><i>He broke it- </i>Not referring to any breaking of His body, for not a bone of Him was broken, but rather to the sharing of every part of Himself with us all; one aspect of Him to this one, another to that one.&nbsp;</p><p><i>And gave it to them- </i>The use of&nbsp;<i>didomi</i>&nbsp;is set in the context of all the talk about how the Lord would be&nbsp;<i>para-didomi</i>, betrayed / handed / given over to the Jews. The idea is that what happened was ultimately the Lord's choice. He gave Himself, to God and to His people, rather than being given over to death against His will. The giving of the bread to them was symbolic of how He would give His body to crucifixion, and how the 'giving over' of Jesus by Judas was not something outside of the Lord's control. It was not a misfortune which changed plans, rather was it precisely in line with the Lord's own giving of His body.</p><p><i>Saying: This is my body which is given for you- </i>He said &quot;This is My body which is given for you&quot; (Lk. 22:29), and also &quot;This is My body which is broken for you&quot; (1 Cor. 11:24). He surely said both, repeating the words as the disciples ate the bread. He chose bread and not lamb to represent His body because He wished to emphasize His ordinariness and thereby His presence in the human, daily things of life. To give ones&rsquo; body is a very intimate statement, almost to the point of being sexual. This is the sober intensity and extent to which the Lord gave Himself for us.</p><p>When Jesus said &ldquo;this is My body&rdquo; we are to understand that &lsquo;this&nbsp;<i>represents</i>, this is a symbol of my body&rsquo;. Jesus was clearly referring to what was usually said at the Passover: &ldquo;This is the bread&nbsp;of affliction which our forefathers ate in the land of Egypt&rdquo;. It wasn&rsquo;t of course literally the same bread. &ldquo;This is&rdquo; clearly means &lsquo;this represents&rsquo; in Zech. 5:3,8; Mt. 13:19-23,38; 1 Cor. 11:25; 12:27. In some Bible versions, when we read the word &lsquo;means&rsquo;, it is simply a translation of the verb &lsquo;to be&rsquo; (Mt. 9:13; 12:7; Lk. 15:26; Acts 2:12). &lsquo;This is&rsquo; should be read as &lsquo;this means / this represents&rsquo;. The deftness of the way He broke that bread apart and held the cup comes out here in Mt. 26:26. He knew what that breaking of bread was going to mean.</p><p><i>Do this in remembrance of me</i>- By inviting the disciples to share His cup and His baptism, He was offering them there and then a part in the life of self-crucifixion, which found its natural and final articulation in the death of the cross. He deftly poured out the wine as a symbol that His life was even then being poured out (Lk. 22:19).</p><p>The breaking of bread is intended as a special gift to us. Let it have its intended power. &ldquo;Do this in remembrance of me&rdquo; (Lk. 22:19) is an inadequate translation of the Greek text &ndash; &ldquo;the words do not indicate a mere memorial meal in memory of a man now dead, but strictly mean &ldquo;making present reality&rdquo; of Christ&rsquo;s saving death&rdquo;. So let the bread and wine truly be an <i>aide memoire</i>. That on a Friday afternoon, on a day in April, on a hill outside Jerusalem, around 2000 years ago, Jesus died for me. Three days later, a man dressed as a working man, a humble gardener, walked out of a tomb, perhaps folded His grave clothes first, and saw the lights of early morning Jerusalem twinkling in the distance. And 40 days later ascended through cotton wool clouds and blue sky, with the necks and throats of watching disciples moving backwards as they gaped at the sight; and will just as surely come again, to take you and me unto Himself. These things, and the endless implications of them, are what will fill our minds if they impress us as having really happened. If we believe the Bible is inspired, it will have the result of what Harry Whittaker called &ldquo;Bible television&rdquo;; we will see these things as if they happened before our eyes.</p>