Matthew 26:26

Matthew 26:26. And as they were eating,

In the middle of the Paschal Feast our Lord instituted the sacred festival which was ever afterwards to be known as "the Lord’s supper." The one ordinance was made to melt gradually into the other: "as they were eating."

Matthew 26:26. Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take eat; this is my body.

"This represents my body." He could not possibly have meant that the bread was his body; for there was his body sitting at the table, whole and entire. They would have been astonished beyond measure if they had understood him literally; but they did not do so, any more than when Christ said, "I am the door," or "I am the Good Shepherd."