Emblems of the Supper

The common practice in the churches of Christ is for the Lord’s Supper to consist of bread, which is unleavened, and grape juice, which is unfermented. As is the case with most everything that is done in the worship of the Lord’s church, we do this, not because it is our tradition, or because it is our preference, but because of what is written in the Word of God.

We know “that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread,” and we know that it was likely the very same kind of bread that He and His disciples had been eating at the “Last Supper,” but how do we know that it was unleavened? We know this, because this meal took place during “the feast of unleavened bread” (Matthew 26:17). This was a time when Jews were to put all leaven out of their houses and eat only bread which was unleavened (Exodus 12:6,18). Leaven is that which causes bread dough to rise. Therefore, unleavened bread is flat bread, which has no airy quality about it. Today, we use what is essentially a cracker, which has no leaven in it, at all. In certain denominations, it is popular to use leavened bread, but this is not in keeping with the Biblical pattern.

In like manner, the “fruit of the vine” (Matthew 26:29) is exactly what the text suggests: unfermented grape juice. The juice of grapes was safer to drink than water and it tasted better, too. We know that this is what Jesus used in instituting His Supper, because alcohol was considered a leavening agent by the ancients and would have been unwelcome at the feast of unleavened bread. Some denominations use wine in their observances of the Lord’s Supper, but this is not in keeping with the Biblical pattern.