Week 9
Catechism Q&A
II. The Suffering and Death of Our Saviour
10. What did the Lord Jesus finally do for us?
He died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
1 Corinthians 15:3, 1 Peter 2:24
11. What is the real significance of the Lord’s death?
It is an offering for the sins of the whole world by which he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
Hebrews 10:12-14
12. When did his suffering begin?
In the night, in which he was betrayed by Judas, in the garden of Gethsemane, His soul became exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.
Matthew 26:36-38
13. Why had he to suffer such agony?
The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:6-7
14. What followed his agony of soul?
He suffered himself to be taken, condemned and to be delivered over to death by the pagan judge Pontius Pilate.
Matthew 26-27
15. What manner of death did the Saviour die?
He was crucified outside the gates of Jerusalem, between two murderers.
John 19:17-18
16. Why was it necessary for the Saviour to die on the cross?
That he might redeem us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. “For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.”
Galatians 3:13
17. Was the Lord Jesus also buried?
Yes. They laid him in a new tomb, cut out in the rock.
Matthew 27:60
VI. The Lord’s Supper
27. Who instituted the Lord’s supper?
The Lord Jesus himself in the night when he was betrayed.
Matthew 26:26-28
28. With what did he institute it?
With bread and wine.
1 Corinthians 11:23-25
29. For what purpose was the Lord’s supper instituted?
To commemorate the sufferings and death of Christ, to serve as a token of communion with Christ and of communion of believers with each other.
Luke 22:19, 1 Corinthians 11:26, 1 Corinthians 10:16-17
30. Is the Lord’s supper to be commemorated often?
Yes. According to the example of the first Christians.
Acts 2:41-42
31. Who is to commemorate it?
All baptized, repentant believers.
Acts 2:41-42
32. What is demanded of them?
True examination. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
1 Corinthians 11:27-28
33. What are we to proclaim thereby?
We are thereby to proclaim the Lord’s death till he comes.
1 Corinthians 11:26
34. What did the Lord Jesus do to his disciples after the supper?
He washed their feet and said, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just I have done to you.”
John 13:14-15
Lesson 9 Notes
Mark 14:17-25
17 And when it was evening, he came with the twelve. 18 And as they were reclining at table and eating, Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.” 19 They began to be sorrowful and to say to him one after another, “Is it I?” 20 He said to them, “It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread into the dish with me. 21 For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” 22 And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” 23 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. 24 And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. 25 Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
Jesus shared a final meal with His disciples known as the last supper and there He instituted a new covenant which He made with His Father on our behalf.
What is a covenant?
- A covenant is not like a contract.
- A contract is an agreement between parties while a covenant is a pledge.
- A contract is an agreement you can break, while a covenant is a perpetual promise.
- A contract is signed, while a covenant is sealed.
- A contract is a mutually beneficial relationship, while a covenant is something you fulfill.
We learned in previous lessons that the Father initiates a plan while Jesus implements or institutes that plan. The Father’s plan was that Jesus would come to earth, and suffer every temptation known to man but never give in to it. The plan was that He would be betrayed and crucified for the sin of the world.
This was the Father’s plan and here at the Last Supper, Jesus puts the final piece of this plan into motion as He steps into covenant with His Father. Jesus willingly entered into this agreement so that it could never be broken. God made the promise and He fulfilled it. The covenant He made required action and God, in the person of Jesus lived up to the task and finished what man is unable to do through the law.
You and I had no part in making this covenant but, we are wrapped up and secured in it the moment we believe.
The Elements
Luke 22:19-20 “And He took bread, and when He had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise, the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”
The Bread
At the last supper, Jesus makes reference to this bread which not only is a symbol of His own body, but a symbol of our daily sustenance, our daily bread, the substance that would absorb our sin, and the substance that would be used to break bread with the Father sealing the deal.
At the last supper when Jesus broke the bread, Jesus demonstrated that His body was going to be disfigured, He would be beaten, mocked, and spit upon. He would have large spikes hammered through His wrists and feet and would hang from them on a rugged piece of wood that would only increase the pain of His torn back.
The Wine
“And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” (1 John 5:11)
Eternal life is in Christ. He is the bread of life which contains eternal life. The cup of wine represents the blood that ran down His face, arms, and feet and the blood that gushed out after a soldier cut open His side with a spear. There is the life of Jesus spilled out on the ground.
In the same way that your water baptism will not save you in that it is just a symbol of what has already happened in your heart, the bread and wine at communion do not literally become the body and blood of Jesus in you.
The bread and the wine are just a symbol that represents the cost of our salvation. When we eat the bread and drink the wine, we are participating in the memory of the finished work of the cross. We remember that our sins have been dealt with and our debt has been paid for.
Romans 8:1-3 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,”
Sharing Communion
When I serve you communion, I not only recognize my own participation in the death of Jesus, I look at you and see your participation in His death, and that what He did for me, He did for you. When I bow to you and hand you the bread and the wine, I participate in the serving attitude of Jesus when He washed His disciples’ feet in counting myself lower than you.
Communion is an event that we share together as a family of God’s children in remembrance of Jesus’ sacrifice. Of all the events and holidays we celebrate repeatedly throughout our lives, it seems to me that communion is the only one we are told to keep – and to do so in remembrance of Christ.
Communion is a celebration of Jesus, His suffering, and the hope that He secured for us through His broken body and poured out blood. Good Friday and Easter Sunday are celebrated once a year. To reserve celebrating our death, burial, and resurrection, to only one day a year contradicts Jesus when He said, “Take up your cross every day”. That is, be reminded of your crucifixion, burial, and resurrection with Him daily – not once a year.
Although the cross is a sobering reality that keeps our perspective where it should be, we are not a slave to carrying a wooden cross as though it’s a burden. The cross is a reminder that we have been crucified with Christ and to the world – that means we have been set free from everything the world is trying to sell us and from everything the devil is trying to trap us into.
Mentally picking up our cross is liberating because in remembering that we have been crucified to the world, we no longer need to fulfill the demands of this world; “you have to wear this, eat that, drive this, and live in that. you have to look like this and sound like that, etc.”
When we have communion at church, we do not observe the day, we remember the Person whenever it is we eat of the bread and drink of the wine. We remember Jesus’ compassion on a world sold into slavery, and remember how much He suffered to buy us back.
Why Partake in Communion?
Jesus did not condemn us but condemned our sin in His own body and nailed it to the cross. That is why God had to come to us in human flesh. Sin is from the flesh and therefore can only be paid in the flesh. That is why we remember Him who died for us. Jesus did for you and me what we could never do.
For, as often as we eat the bread and drink the cup, we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. (1 Corinthians 11:26)
Communion was never meant to be a chore but a delight.
Why do we partake in communion?
So that we never forget that we are free.
Jesus gave us a tangible way to participate in the memory of what He did not only for us but to us. We do this to never forget we are free because of what He did.
We were bound as slaves to our sin. We lived in darkness and were on a road headed to hell, but Jesus came in and removed our shackles, and He stood in our shame, and let the world mock Him, as it still does today, and He took the weight of everything we deserved and was brutally murdered while looking ahead to seeing the goodness it would produce in you.