“For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till he come.”
—1 Corinthians 11:26
In the Lord’s Supper, we show that God has given Christ to men. Notice the table is spread and we see the bread and wine. Everyone who sees a table spread knows the bread should be eaten and the wine should be drunk. In the same way, God has given Christ to men. Christ is what every man needs. As bread satisfies our hunger and wine satisfies our thirst, so Christ meets all our spiritual needs. And the soul that would live must come to God’s provision and that provision is Jesus Christ crucified, which is declared in the Lord’s Supper.
Throughout the history of mankind, God has presented Christ to men. From the moment man fell in the Garden of Eden, God presented Christ in the first Gospel promise in Genesis 3:15, which declares the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head. God also typologically presented Christ in the animal skins with which He covered Adam and Eve after they sinned. God also typologically presented Christ in the ram caught in the thicket on Mt. Moriah when Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac. The ram represented the substitutionary atonement of Christ when Isaac was taken off the altar, and the ram was sacrificed in his place (John 8:58). Christ is also presented by the types, shadows, symbols, sacrifices, and ceremonies in the Old Testament. Jesus said in Luke 24:27, Luke 24:44, and John 5:39, that the Old Testament Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms were written about Him. And even today, God presents the Savior, Jesus Christ, through the Word and the sacraments.
Our text says we show forth Christ’s death in the Lord’s Supper. “As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye show Christ’s death.” It is only by the bread and wine that we show His death. It is when the blood flows and the body is bloodless that the bread and wine are a token of death. The symbols are simple, but instructive. Notice how the bread signifies Christ’s suffering. Corn is planted in the ground, it springs up, it endures the wind, rain, sun, and insects, it ripens, and then is cut down with the sickle and then threshed. It is ground in the mill and then baked in the oven. It had to pass through a whole series of “sufferings” before it became food for us. In the same manner, the Savior had to pass through innumerable sufferings before He could become spiritual food for our souls.
Think of the wine. It was crushed beneath the foot in the winepress and its juice was pressed out. “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). So, in the wine press of God’s wrath, Christ was crushed before He could become the wine that makes glad the heart of man. Both symbols represent suffering, each one separately, but put together they represent the symbol of death, “and as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death.” Remember this, dear ones, the next time you partake of the Lord’s Supper. Christ was crushed by God’s wrath so that we might have life everlasting.
Friday Devotional: June 19, 2026
In Christ,
Pastor S. Henry
