19/03/2026
Think about the difference between the food we ordinarily eat and the food of the Lord’s Supper.
When we eat ordinary food, what happens? Through the process of digestion, our bodies extract what they need from the food and convert it into energy and nourishment, enabling us to live and grow strong.
In other words, we transform the food we eat into ourselves. The food becomes part of us.
But in the Lord’s Supper, the opposite happens.
Jesus says, “Take, eat; this is my body.” When we receive the body of our Lord, instead of transforming the food into ourselves, this food transforms us into what it is, the body of Jesus.
The church is the body of Christ. You are what you eat. When we partake of Christ’s body and blood in the Supper (1 Cor. 10:16–17), we are united more deeply with him and with one another. As Paul says, “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Cor. 10:17).
Early Christians reflected this belief in the Didache, a first- or early second-century Christian writing. In this text, the church prays: “As this broken bread was scattered upon the mountains and, when gathered together, became one, so let your church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into your kingdom” (Didache 9:4).
Just as scattered grains are gathered together and baked into one loaf, so Christ gathers many believers and “bakes” them into one body in the Supper.
In this meal, Christ gives us his body and blood for the forgiveness of sins (Matt. 26:28). And in giving us himself, he draws us more deeply into communion with himself and with our fellow believers.
That is one of the things that makes the Lord’s Supper the Meal of meals: this food makes us what it is, the body of Christ, individual members united one with another because we are united to Christ, who feeds us all with himself.
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We read about the Supper today in 1 Corinthians 11 in Bible in One Year. Join us at https://www.1517.org/oneyear
