For *I* received from the Lord, that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was delivered up, took bread,
Paul answers the Corinthians' disorderly meals by going back to where the supper came from, and he names his source. Two questions follow: why did the Lord give this to a man who was not in the room, and why tie His memorial to the night of betrayal?
Paul was not in the room the night the Lord gave the supper. He could have asked those who were there. Instead the account came to him from heaven.
Thinking about this special revelation adds to the seriousness of the subject. Paul, the chief of the apostles, was not in the supper room with the eleven before the crucifixion. But the Lord spoke to him directly from heaven, so that he heard from His own lips in glory that those who loved Him were to keep this supper.
The way it reached him shows how much the Lord values it, and who He meant it for.
Does this not show what the Lord thinks of the supper, and how He values our remembrance of Himself and our answer to His love? His own heart of love, which brought Him down into death, gives this revelation to Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles. Jews might otherwise have said that the supper was only for Jews, since it was tied to the Passover. But the Lord gives it to him as a distinct and direct message to the Gentiles.
Paul received a special revelation about the supper, but not about baptism. Commentators see a reason for that.
It is interesting to notice that Paul received a revelation of the supper, not of baptism. He was baptized like anyone else, and not even by an apostle, in case anyone twisted that into making him dependent on the twelve apostles. He was baptized by a simple disciple, Ananias… But the supper is the memorial of Christ, and especially of His death, and it is now bound up with the body of Christ… Paul was the chosen vessel who would make known the mystery of Christ and the church. So it seemed good to the Lord that he should receive a special revelation of His supper, the standing sign of its unity and public witness of its communion.
The Corinthians' table had gone wrong. Notice how Paul corrects it: he does not argue with them.
The only remedy for disorder at the Lord's supper — even in the days of the apostles, note — was to go back to the original institution: its spirit, its meaning, its orderly simplicity. Paul did not argue on the subject. In verses 23 to 27, he simply goes back to what the Lord Himself had instituted… Any "order", however grand or beautiful to human eyes, is disorder in God's eyes if it is not God's order.
Two things in the verse repay a closer look: the name Paul gives Him, and the night he names.
The revelation came to him about "the Lord Jesus" — not Jesus only, but the One Who is the exalted Lord in the highest place in glory. When was it? On "the same night in which he was delivered up" (as it should read). That is a much wider thought than the rendering "betrayed", which limits it to Judas' treachery. What does it involve? That was the hour when everything in man's heart came out, when all the wickedness of man rose to its height. There was the treachery of Judas, the weakness of Peter and of His disciples, the hatred of the scribes and priests, the cruel mockery of the soldiers, and the unrighteousness of Pilate, who three times protested His innocence and finally gave Him up to be slain. Behind it all was the power and energy of Satan.
The Lord chose that night on purpose, and the choice carries His message.
No tongue can tell how the Lord felt the betrayal of one of His own! He felt it keenly; but, feeling it, He took the bread and there and then instituted the Supper. What did that mean? To me it meant this. You may not be able to trust anyone else, but you may trust Me. If treachery springs up in this inner circle, who can you look to? My love will not fail you… In days of darkness and nights of treachery and betrayal you will find Me always the same.
With the cross hours away, His attention was not fixed on His own ordeal.
We might have thought that the work the Lord Jesus was about to do would have filled all His thoughts and taken all His attention. But no; He thinks of the love of His disciples, and longs to draw that love, so ready to wander, back to Himself, again and again.
- Received — Paul got the supper straight from the Lord in glory, not from the eleven who were there. The source shows how much the Lord values it.
- Revealed — the Lord revealed the supper to Paul, not baptism. Paul carried the truth of Christ and the church, and the supper is the standing sign of that unity.
- Reaching — it came through the apostle to the Gentiles, so no one could call it a Jewish rite tied to the Passover.
- Remedy — the cure for disorder at the table is a return to the original, not argument. Order that is not God's order is disorder in His eyes.
- Remembrance — He fixed His memorial to the night of betrayal. In every later night of treachery, His own can rest in a love that does not change.
and having given thanks broke [it], and said, This is my body, which [is] for you this do in remembrance of me.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.