"This is my body."
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On the first day of the
Festival of Thin Bread, Jesus' disciples came to him and asked, "Where
do you want us to prepare the Passover meal?" Jesus told them to go to a certain man in the city and tell him,
"Our teacher says, 'My time has come! I want to eat the Passover
meal with my disciples in your home.' " They
did as Jesus told them and prepared the meal. When Jesus was eating with his twelve disciples that evening, he
said, "One of you will surely hand me over to my enemies." The disciples were very sad, and each one said to Jesus,
"Lord, you can't mean me!" He answered, "One of you men who has eaten with me from this
dish will betray me. The Son of Man will die, as the Scriptures
say. But it's going to be terrible for the one who betrays me!
That man would be better off if he had never been born." Judas said, "Teacher, you surely don't mean me!" "That's what you say!" Jesus replied. But later,
Judas did betray him. During the meal Jesus took some bread in his hands. He
blessed the bread and broke it. Then he gave it to his disciples and
said, "Take this and eat it. This is my body." Jesus picked up a cup of wine and gave thanks to God. He
then gave it to his disciples and said, "Take this and drink it.
This is my blood, and with it God makes his agreement with you. It will
be poured out, so that many people will have their sins forgiven. From
now on I am not going to drink any wine, until I drink new wine with you in
my Father's kingdom." Then they sang a hymn and went out to the Matthew 26:17-30 Contemporary English Version The Holy Bible (New York , NY: American Bible Society 1995) |