In what ways did the Last Supper point to the church’s celebration of communion?
The unleavened bread eaten at Passover symbolized the severing of the Israelites from the old life in Egypt. It represented a separation from worldliness, sin, and false religion and the beginning of a new life of holiness and godliness. From then on, in the Lord’s Supper, the bread would symbolize Christ’s body, which He sacrificed for the salvation of humankind, for our deliverance from sin and our new birth. The shedding of blood in a sacrifice was always God’s requirement in establishing any covenant. The shedding of blood had also protected the Jewish people from death at the original Passover. Here, Christ’s blood needed to be shed for the remission of sins, a protection from permanent separation from God, eternal death.