Mark 14:22-25--Institution of the Lord's Supper

Mark 14:22-25
English Standard Version
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Institution of the Lord's Supper
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.”

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As Jesus was celebrating the Passover with His disciples, He took the unleavened bread (bread made without yeast) and broke it (you can hear it snap when you do this) and He gave it to them saying, "Take, this is my body."  In doing so, Jesus gave new significance to the unleavened bread.  Now it wasn't just about needing to leave Egypt in haste so they had to make bread without yeast because there was no time to let the bread rise, now it was about how His sinless body would be beaten and broken to make substitutionary atonement for us.

In a similar fashion, He took the cup after dinner and gave thanks and gave it to them (they all drank from a common cup) and they all drank from it.  He said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many."  He then added a promise saying, "Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."

When there was no wine that was part of the original Passover ceremony, there had been instituted over the years four cups that they would drink from throughout the ceremony.  Jesus is essentially leaving the Passover celebration unfinished.  Let me explain here the significance of the four cups and why Jesus did not drink the fourth one at this time.

The four cups have each have to do with the fourfold redemption that God provided for His people in the book of Exodus.  The first cup represents the need for holiness and sanctification to be the LORD's people.  God called them out to be a people unto Himself and He is the one who has to make them holy.

The second cup is the Cup of Plagues which celebrates how the LORD brought them out of slavery in Egypt with the ten plagues that showed that God was more powerful than all the Egyptian gods and that the LORD alone was God of heaven and earth.  The Jewish people drink this cup to remind themselves that God is The LORD My Healer, who heals us from all of our diseases and infirmities.  Certainly, we see this fulfilled in Christ at this time as He came to heal us from the "disease" of sin.

The third cup is the Cup of Redemption, and most believe this is the cup where Jesus took it and made a new covenant with the disciples.  Not that the need for blood to atone for sins was new, but it was new that they would celebrate His blood being poured out for them--a sacrifice that would once for all pay the price necessary to redeem them from sin and death.  It was at this time in Israel's history (the Passover) when they first understood and called the LORD their Redeemer, though Job somehow understood this already and said in Job 19:25, "For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth."  Jesus is our Redeemer, and we too were redeemed from slavery, but our slavery we were being redeemed from was our slavery to sin.

The fourth cup that Jesus did not drink with them that night and won't drink until the Marriage Supper of the Lamb when He once again eats this meal with us and finishes the ceremony is The Cup of Praise or The Cup of Joy (I've heard it called both).  It is a reminder of the joy that the people experienced when they were made a people and a nation by God and His promises were fulfilled when He brought them into the Promised Land--one of the first things the Israelites did when they crossed over the Jordan River was to celebrate Passover, and it was a joyous occasion.  We look forward to Jesus delivering us to our Promised Land of the New Heaven and the New Earth and to seeing all His promises fulfilled and us being glorified and prepared to live with Him forever and ever.  We also look forward to the day when we will celebrate the meal with Him once more and understand the fullness of what it means that His body and blood have provided for every aspect of our salvation and is the reason that we will sing a new song of celebration--
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing!”​ (Revelation 5:12)