26:26 {7} And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and {l} blessed [it], and brake [it], and gave [it] to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; {m} this is my body.
(7) Christ who will without delay fulfil the promises of the old covenant, institutes a new covenant with new signs.
(l) Mark says, Had given thanks: and therefore blessing is not a consecrating with a conjuring type of murmuring and power of words: and yet the bread and the wine are changed, not in nature but in quality, for without doubt they become tokens of the body and blood of Christ, not of their own nature or force of words, but by Christ his institution, which must be recited and laid forth, that faith may find what to lay hold on, both in the word and in the elements.
(m) This is a figure of speech which is called metonymy: that is to say, the giving of one name for another: so he calls the bread his body, which is the sign and sacrament of his body: and yet nonetheless, it is a figurative and changed kind of speech meaning that the faithful do indeed receive Christ with all his gifts
(though by a spiritual means) and become one with him.
26:26 As they were eating. Before they had arisen from the paschal feast.
Jesus took bread. That is, one of the unleavened cakes that had been placed before him as the celebrant or proclaimer of the feast.
And blessed. As was the custom. Luke and Paul say, gave thanks (Lu 22:19 1Co 11:24), which is the same thing.
This is my body. Not literally, as the Catholics and Luther contend, but represents my body. We interpret it as we do his other sayings: The seed is the word (Lu 8:11); The field is the world (Mt 13:38); The harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels (Mt 13:39); I am the door (Joh 10:9); I am the vine (Joh 15:5). So, too, at this very feast, the Jews was wont to say of the paschal lamb, This 'is' the body of the lamb which our fathers ate in Egypt. Not the same, but this is meant to represent and commemorate that. He could not have meant that the bread was his real body, because his body was present at the table breaking the loaf, and he was speaking and acting in person among them. The doctrine of the Real Presence is every way unreasonable.
26:26 Jesus took the bread - the bread or cake, which the master of the family used to divide among them, after they had eaten the passover. The custom our Lord now transferred to a nobler use. This bread is, that is, signifies or represents my body, according to the style of the sacred writers. Thus Gen 40:12, The three branches are three days. Thus Gal 4:24, St. Paul speaking of Sarah and Hagar, says, These are the two covenants. Thus in the grand type of our Lord, Exod 12:11, God says of the paschal lamb, This is the Lord's passover. Now Christ substituting the holy communion for the passover, follows the style of the Old Testament, and uses the same expressions the Jews were wont to use in celebrating the passover.
26:26-30 This ordinance of the Lord's supper is to us the passover supper, by which we commemorate a much greater deliverance than that of Israel out of Egypt. Take, eat; accept of Christ as he is offered to you; receive the atonement, approve of it, submit to his grace and his government. Meat looked upon, be the dish ever so well garnished, will not nourish; it must be fed upon: so must the doctrine of Christ. This is my body; that is, spiritually, it signifies and represents his body. We partake of the sun, not by having the sun put into our hands, but the beams of it darted down upon us; so we partake of Christ by partaking of his grace, and the blessed fruits of the breaking of his body. The blood of Christ is signified and represented by the wine. He gave thanks, to teach us to look to God in every part of the ordinance. This cup he gave to the disciples with a command, Drink ye all of it. The pardon of sin is that great blessing which is, in the Lord's supper, conferred on all true believers; it is the foundation of all other blessings. He takes leave of such communion; and assures them of a happy meeting again at last; Until that day when I drink it new with you, may be understood of the joys and glories of the future state, which the saints shall partake with the Lord Jesus. That will be the kingdom of his Father; the wine of consolation will there be always new. While we look at the outward signs of Christ's body broken and his blood shed for the remission of our sins, let us recollect that the feast cost him as much as though he had literally given his flesh to be eaten and his blood for us to drink.
