CRITICAL NOTES
Matthew 26:28. New.—Omitted in R.V., on the authority of the best MSS. Testament.—Covenant (R.V.). The term διαθήκη is here of peculiar importance. It does not mean either a covenant in the sense of contract or agreement, or a testament in the sense of a will, but it has a meaning which combines ideas distinctive of both. In διαθήκη there are the conditional elements necessary to a covenant, and the absolute elements necessary to a testament: the first, so far as it denotes conditions, revealed and established by God, which man must accept and obey before he can stand in right relation with Him; the second, so far as it denotes these conditions as the direct and independent and absolute expressions of the Divine will. We may define the καινὴ διαθήκη (“new covenant”) as the revelation of a new relation on God’s part, with the conditions necessary to the realisation of a new and correspondent relation on man’s. The founding of the old διαθήκη had been ratified by blood (Exodus 24:6-8): the founding of the new must be the same (A. M. Fairbairn). For the remission of sins.—Unto remission of sins (R.V.). I.e. with a view to remission of sins. “Remission of sins” is a condensed way of expressing remission of the penalty of sin (Morison).
Matthew 26:29. Until that day.—In the kingdom of God, completed and perfected, He would be with them once again, and then Master and disciples would be alike sharers in that joy in the Holy Ghost, of which wine—new wine—was the appropriate symbol (Plumptre).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Matthew 26:26-30
Sacrifice and thanksgiving.—“As they were eating.” The Passover meal had been interrupted before (Matthew 26:21) for the announcement of the betrayal. It is now interrupted for another announcement. Taking of the bread and wine that were then on the table—breaking the one and pouring out the other—declaring them also to be identified respectively with His own body and blood—the Saviour commanded all His disciples to partake in common of both. Much was meant by these actions and words—much, on the one hand, in the way of institution and doctrine; much, on the other, in the way of prediction and hope.
I. In the way of institution and doctrine.—These things were, in the first place, a symbolical rehearsal of the Saviour’s then imminent death. As had now been done with that bread and wine, so was to be done almost immediately with His body and blood. The way in which He had just united these things in thought, could mean nothing else. The use He had made of these elements—as the Apostle afterwards said of it (1 Corinthians 11:26)—had “shewed forth” His own “death”: its near approach, its exact manner, its inevitable certainty also. In a similar manner, in the next place, these words and actions were meant to set forth the purpose of His death. That death was intended, for example, to put away guilt. It was “for the remission of sins.” It was to do this, also, for “many”; even as many as willed. Once more, it was able to do all this, partly because of its preciousness—blood-shedding doing away with “blood-guiltiness” (Psalms 51:14; Genesis 4); life being given for life; and that, His life, most precious of all. And partly because it had been so agreed on, in the mercy of God, from of old: that blood being here spoken of, therefore, as the “blood of the covenant” (Matthew 26:28), and as having, in consequence, a power of its own. Further, these symbols set forth, in the last place, how and in what manner the immense advantage spoken of could effectually be made ours. Just, in short, as we do always with bread and wine for our natural life, so exactly must we do for our spiritual life with that which they represent here. Even bread “broken” and ready for eating does not sustain us of itself; even wine “poured out” and ready for drinking does not cheer life of itself. Both must be actually partaken of if they are to tell indeed on our lives. Just so of that priceless blessing spoken of here. We must make it ours by our faith. In other words, that bread of heaven, that wine of agony, must be “eaten” and “drunk” (John 6:53, etc.). All this, in figure, but with deepest significance, did this “institution” proclaim.
II. In the way of prediction.—There is a nearer horizon, and a farther one—much sadness and more gladness—in the words which come next. They seem intended to teach the disciples—in connection with the Ordinance just appointed—what to expect in the future. You are to expect, in the first place—so the Saviour seems to say to them—both separation and union; being without Me at first, being with Me at last. While we are separated you will need something to remind you of Me; something also to be a kind of pledge of our being united again. Let the repetition of this ordinance answer these ends (cf. 1 Corinthians 11., end of Matthew 26:24; Matthew 26:26, which express exactly the spirit of what our Saviour says here). You must expect, next, in consequence of things being thus, both imperfection and perfection—the one first, the other to follow. Much as these symbols will do for you if rightly employed, they must not be supposed capable of obliterating the difference between separation and union. They will not do so to Myself. I shall be only as the master of a feast, who, because of the absence of certain much-honoured and much-beloved guests, will not permit himself to taste yet of the wine of the feast (Matthew 26:29). And you will be as those guests who cannot do so, because they are not present as yet. Not so, however, is it to be at all when the time of separation is over. The very best of the wine, then—even wine “new” indeed, and such as never before—shall be our common delight: delightful most on that ground! You must expect, lastly, in the future before you, both trial and triumph. Trial, at first, and not a little of it. Triumph afterwards, and very much more. Until then, though kings and priests in reality, and proved to be such by being guests at My table, the fact will be hidden from most. After then it will be hidden from none (cf. Matthew 13:43; Romans 8:19; 1 John 3:2, etc.). How, indeed, should it be when this feast of “remembrance” has given place to that “marriage supper” itself (Revelation 19:7-9), and you sit there as guests?
Our prevailing feeling, as we look back on this beginning, should be the feeling of praise. It appears from the story that this beginning itself was followed by praise (Matthew 26:30). Even in the gloom of that most solemn occasion the Saviour and His disciples joined in a “hymn.” As we think of the ordinance of that night of betrayal; of the love it displays; of the blessings it seals; of the hopes it predicts; of the comfort it assures; of the strength it has given; we may well do the same thing. Practically, where we observe it rightly, we do so in effect. We always sing a “hymn”—we always sing the “hymn”—when we thus show forth the Lord’s death.” It is the Eucharist—the giving of thanks.
HOMILIES ON THE VERSES
Matthew 26:26-30. The Lord’s Supper.—
I. The Author.—Jesus took bread, etc.
II. The time of the institution. The night before He was betrayed.
III. The sacramental elements.—Bread and wine.
IV. The ministerial action.—The breaking of the bread and the blessing of the cup.
V. The object.—“Do this in remembrance of Me,” etc.
VI. Thanksgiving after communion.—W. Burkitt.
Matthew 26:26-29. The Lords Supper.—
I. The nature of the Lord’s Supper as seen in its reference to the past.—It is a memorial or commemoration of the death of Christ. The greatness of the fact, of which it is the commemoration, invests it with unspeakable dignity.
II. The nature of the Lord’s Supper as seen in its reference to the present.—We regard it as, perhaps, the most efficacious of all the means of grace, designed to nourish religion in our souls, and to promote brotherly love toward our fellow-believers.
III. The nature of the Lord’s Supper as seen in its reference to the future.—
1. We are reminded of the second coming of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:26.)
2. The Lord’s Supper also anticipates the eternal communion which believers will enjoy with Christ in heaven (Matthew 26:29). P. J. Gloag, D.D.
Matthew 26:26. The New Testament Passover.—“As they were eating.” The Lord’s institution of His supper was in connection with the Passover which He kept with His disciples, before concluding it with the “hallel.” By this means He intimated that He would have His Supper regarded as the New Testament Passover. What, then, was the Passover?
I. The Passover was a feast, not a sacrifice.—The sacrifice was presupposed in the feast. So with the Lord’s Supper. He offered the sacrifice: we keep the feast.
II. The Passover was the feast of a sacrifice.—So with the Lord’s Supper. He sacrificed His body and blood. This sacrifice we receive and enjoy in the Lord’s Supper.
III. In the Passover Israel celebrated its present saving fellowship with Jehovah, and looked forward to its future consummation.—So in the Lord’s Supper we celebrate not merely the memory of a past fact, but that salvation of the present in the fellowship of which we stand, and which looks forward to its future consummation.—C. E. Luthardt, D.D.
Absurdities of the dogmas of transubstantiation and consubstantiation.—“This is My body.” Almost a worldful of super-refined absurdities has, unhappily, been heaped on this simple affirmation. And if Christianity had not been really Divine, its life would have long ago been utterly crushed out of it under the immensity of the load. Rhetoric, as Selden remarks, has been mistaken for logic; and the “is” has been insisted upon as demonstration that the thing given by the Lord into the hands of His disciples was not bread at all, but—literally—His own body. Hence the doctrine of transubstantiation. Others have insisted that if the thing given was really bread, it was also, at one and the same time, the literal body of the Lord. This is the doctrine of consubstantiation. The substantive verb “is,” it has been contended, must be taken as the copula of substantive existence. All this is sad; for it would hence follow:—
1. That one substance is another.
2. That a thing is not itself—Christ’s body, for instance. At the time that He uttered the words of the institution, He was in His body; and therefore He did not hand it, in His hand, to His disciples. It would follow:—
3. That a part of the whole is yet the whole of which it is a part.—If the whole cake is the body, and the broken cake is the broken body, and if yet every morsel of the broken cake is also the body, then a part of the body is the whole of the body. It would follow:—
4. That a thing which is one, and but one, is yet more than one; for if the cake be the one body, and yet each morsel of the cake be also the one body, then Christ’s one body is many bodies. It would follow:—
5. That a thing which is, by its very essence, limited to a certain spot in space, is yet not limited to that spot—Christ’s body, for instance, when with His own hand He gave it into the hands of His disciples, while yet it remained where it was before, at an appreciable distance from His disciples’ hands. It would follow:—
6. That the percipiency of the soul, operating through the senses of the body, while these senses are perfectly awake, and perfectly sound, may yet be absolutely and hopelessly deceived.—If the percipiency of the soul, operating through sight, touch, and taste, and equipped with all the adjuncts of scientific analysis, finds bread, and bread only, in the morsel of the sacramental cake, and if yet that morsel be physically transubstantiated into, or consubstantiated with, the living body of Christ, then all the senses appealed to must be liars, and everything that we see and hear and touch and taste, may be a lie. The culminating act of religion would thus be the copestone of universal and inseparable scepticism. But this will not do. We must take a different view of the words of the institution. The “is,” in the expression “is My body,” must be understood, not as the copula of substantive existence, but as the copula of symbolical or representative relationship. Why not? Compare, for instance, Matthew 13:38-39, “The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom,” etc. Parabolism, or symbolism, or representativism of some kind must be admitted (cf. Genesis 40:12; Genesis 40:18; Ezekiel 37:11; Daniel 2:38; Daniel 7:17; Daniel 7:24; Daniel 8:21; Matthew 13:37; Luke 15:26; Luke 20:17; Acts 10:17; Galatians 4:24-25; Ephesians 5:9; Hebrews 7:2; Revelation 1:20). Indeed, the parabolic element in the Lord’s Supper is the true key to its interpretation. The supper is a parable to the eye, the touch, the taste. And when our Saviour said of the morsel of bread, “This is My body,” He but interpreted the figurative or representative significance of one of the elements of the parable. If we would get the spiritual blessing, when we communicate, we must mentally transfigure the figure.—J. Morison, D.D.
Matthew 26:29. Christ a Fellow-banqueter.—
1. Our Lord, beside all other relations which He hath to the sacrament, as the Instituter thereof, the End thereof, the Thing signified thereby, the Minister in the first celebration thereof, is also a Fellow-banqueter, and communicant with us in His own way; for He did drink of the sacramental wine, as it signified communion of life and joy with us in heaven.
2. Whatsoever change is put upon the wine in the sacrament, by instituting that it should signify and seal up spiritual life and joy, yet after the sanctifying of it, and in the time of drinking of it by the communicants, it remaineth wine, in its own natural properties, without being transubstantiate.
3. The drinking of the sacramental wine is a sign and pledge of our spiritual and new communion in life and joy in the kingdom of heaven, for Christ expoundeth it, saying, “Until the day that I shall drink it new,” etc.
4. Christ will not be content to be without His disciples in heaven. “I will drink it new with you.”—David Dickson.
Matthew 26:30. Spiritual song.—Observe:—
I. On the threshold of suffering Christ with men sings a triumphant psalm.—Teaches entire consecration to God, creates calm trustfulness and fortitude in trial. To sing thus we must have unbroken fellowship with God. Illustrated in the lives of Paul, Luther, Wesley.
II. Christ’s kinship and sympathy with the disciples.—Hymn used to cheer, strengthen, and inspire confidence in God.
III. Teaches simplicity of Christian worship.—No robed choristers. No mystical chanting. This service parallel with Christ’s prayer-meeting—two or three met in His name. Thus possible for all to worship (accessories not forbidden). God the Author of music. The harp and psaltery not to be broken or destroyed. Convert the player, and the music will be heavenly.
Practical lessons.—Spiritual song should be used to bring men nearer to God. Kingsley says that in heaven “all speech will be song.”—J. E. Douglas.