Add parallel Print Page Options

This moment has been commemorated for two thousand years. Exactly what Jesus meant by calling the bread and wine His body and blood has been debated for centuries. By eating the bread and drinking the wine, believers participate not only in this supper but also in His death and resurrection because the bread is torn and the wine is poured, just as His body was torn and His blood poured out.

Just as Jesus’ physical body housed the Spirit of God, the physicality of the bread and wine has a spiritual significance. Otherwise, we wouldn’t need to eat the bread and drink the wine to celebrate this moment—it would be enough for us to read the story and remember what happened. But we, too, are physical as well as spiritual; and our physical actions can have spiritual importance.

26 After the meal, they sang a psalm and went out of the city to the Mount of Olives.

Jesus: 27 All of you will desert Me tonight. It was written by Zechariah,

    I will strike the shepherd,
        and the sheep will scatter.[a]

28 But when I am raised up, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.

Read full chapter

26 When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.(A)

Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial(B)

27 “You will all fall away,” Jesus told them, “for it is written:

“‘I will strike the shepherd,
    and the sheep will be scattered.’[a](C)

28 But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”(D)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Mark 14:27 Zech. 13:7