The Lord's Table Resumes Where the Passover Left Off

Jesus gave His disciples the cup, and told them to share it among themselves - because He Himself would no longer drink of it until it be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.

Then He went out into the garden, and pleaded with the Father to let the real cup pass from Him, except it be His will. But Jesus did indeed drink of the real cup.

After He had supped he took the cup and said, "This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me".

That didn't mean, as some say, that they were to continue keeping the Passover only with a new appreciation. Jesus called the cup the NEW COVENANT in His blood. He was instituting something completely NEW - not merely a renewed appreciation of the Old Covenant. You can never have two covenants covering the same thing at the same time.

Unlike the Old Covenant Passover Feast which could only be observed annually and strictly in Jerusalem, what Jesus was instituting here was something which the disciples were to do AS OFT AS YE DRINK IT - such as daily from house to house, or upon the first day of the week, and not only in Jerusalem but also in all the churches of the Gentiles.

And it doesn't mean, as some say, that we will be required to offer sacrifices in remembrance of His sacrifice, as part of observing the Feasts, during a future millennium. Neither Jesus nor even Moses in the Law ordained that the Feasts and their accompanying animal sacrifices should ever again be offered once the New Covenant came - not even just in remembrance of Jesus' sacrifice.

The only remembrance of the Lord's death which Jesus ordained was the Lord's Table. By partaking of the bread and the cup, the disciples showed forth the Lord's death TILL HE COME. Once He comes, we will no longer need any more remembrance of Him - because then we'll see Him face to face, and we'll be with Him forever.