🍞 The Institution of the Eucharist (26:26-29)
Matthew 26:26-28
"Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’ And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.’"
The Last Supper takes place in the context of the Jewish Passover—the meal commemorating the liberation from Egypt. Jesus reinterprets the Passover elements: the bread is his body, the wine is his blood. 'New covenant' (diatheke—covenant) echoes Jeremiah 31:31-34. Jesus is inaugurating the New Covenant promised by the prophets. 'Poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins'—the language is sacrificial and substitutionary. Jesus’ blood accomplishes what animal blood never could (Hebrews 10:4): it removes sin definitively.