ut of a portion. It_was during the progress of that meal, “as they were eating,” that this particular occurrence took place. “ He took bread [or a loaf],” thus adopting that, and the cup which was passing round, as something distinct from the main portion of the Passover meal, viz. the eating of the lamb itself. The cup was usually passed round three times, the bread frequently. We can conceive Christ’s manner unusually solemn and impressive, as he raised these otherwise subordinate elements of the Paschal feast into prominent distinctness. 2. An interpretation. He took the brittle cake of unleavened bread and broke it, saying, “‘ This is my body;” and the cup, saying, “ This is my blood.” ‘The doctrines of transubstantiation and consubstan- tiation are philosophical refinements upon the simple meaning of the phrases, and lead inevitably to contradiction and absurdity. Christ was alive before them, and using his body, as he spoke. It must, therefore, have been distinct from the bread. “ When our Lord said that the bread which he took in his hands was his body, and that the wine which he held in the cup was his blood, he used a simple figure of speech, such as he often employed. He called himself bread, a door, a vine; meaning that these objects resembled and so represented him, The words are understood figuratively by all, and must be so. Controversies merely concern the nature of the figure... . The Romanist interpretation is figurative. It sup a figure without a precedent, a wiracle without a parsilel; and it attributes the salvation of men, not to the actual death of Christ, but to what he did with the bread and wine. As the Passover wag simply a symbolical service, the addition to it would be regarded as similar” (Godwin). “ Note that, according to our Saviour himself, the liquid contained in the cup was not literal blood, but the fret of the vine” (Morison).
Il. In rmsenF. 1. A covenant or testament. It was “a disposition of things,” by virtue of which the good to be obtained through the obedience and sacrifice of Christ is secured to those who believingly partake. It is a “testament,” inasmuch as it was to have effect after Christ’s death, and through the fact and manner of that death believers were to become heirs of the blessings it secured. This “agreement,” which is contained in the covenant-idea, is a mutual affair, and involves mutual obligations. It also, after the precedent of ancient Israel, constitutes the true recipients God’s people and him their God. The thing handed over is not the body and blood, but
ou. x1v, 1—72.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO 8ST. MARK. 255
that life and grace which they represented. 2. A communton. “Take ye.” “He gave to them: and they all drank of it.” It is only as a communion that the cove- nant has effect. To those who have received the life and spirit of Christ there is for- giveness and peace. Their sins are blotted out, and they are passed over in the mercy of God. And so the act of communion is a spiritual one, and involves fresh realization of the meaning of the great facts of atonement, and the duties of the reconciled children of God. 3. An anticipation. There is to be another feast, when the Saviour comes to his people, and his people enter with him into the scene of the “ marriage supper of the Lamb.” It was Christ’s last earthly Passover: he looked thence con- fidently forth to the final victory over sin and death, and the consummation of all things. 4. A thanksgiving. “ucharist.”. In view of all the blessings to be conferred through Christ’s death, and as acknowledging the mercy and love of God in common viands and (as symbolized by them) in the benefits of salvation.—M.
Vers. 22—25.— The Lord’s Supper a celebration of death. It is elsewhere spoken of as a “memorial,” ae. a funeral feast for the Saviour. Not merely a vain regret, an indulgence of disconsolate affection, but—
1. A CELEBRATION OF DEATH AS COMPLETED SELF-SACRIFICE. 1. Therefore all that was most precious in the life was secured, in the highest degree and the best way, as a blessing for others. ‘The early disciples were not handling mangled, useless remains, but touching a living spirit, pregnant with grace and power and inspiration. The “body” and “blood” of Christ, kept from moral corruption and death, were a spiritual fruit “rich and rare.” 2. And believers are made purtakers of the spiritual ful- ness of Christ’s perfected nature, in receiving the “ elements” of his “ body” und “ blood.”
Il. A CELEBRATION OF DEATH AS THE BEVELATION AND AVENUE OF IMMORTALITY. This “funeral feast” is full of hopeful, confident anticipation, because in the death that is celebrated: 1. The higher spiritual life is seen as the result of the sacrifice of the earthly nature. it is in the voluntary and obedient laying down of this earthly life that Christ set free his Spirit as an influence to savingly affect mankind, and satisfied apd commended that perfect righteousness which is the ground of acceptance and union with God, the true life of the Spirit. 2. 4 foretaste is given of the final victory of righteousness over sin and death. 'The Captain of salvation, about to enter into final conflict with the powers of darkness, confidently looks forward, and invites his followers to look forward with bim, “to glory, and honour, and immortality.” In prospect of the final feast of victory and joy that was set before him, he was ready to go down into the gloom and shadow of death.—M.
Vers. 27-—31.-—-Peter’s denial foretold. Christ’s thoughts dwelt constantly upon the
prophecies that foretold the sufferings and death of the Son of man. They were
ing through his spiritual consciousness, voluntarily adopted as the expression of
is own inward life, and consequently wrought out in exterual actions. He now quotes
Zech. xiii. 7. It taught him how absolutely solitary his position would be in judg- ment and death, as other passages had done ; and suggested to him the reason for it.