Luke 22:19-20 — The Institution of the Lord's Supper

Verse 19 places Jesus' action within a Passover meal: he takes bread, gives thanks, breaks it, and distributes it to the disciples. The act of giving thanks echoes the Passover liturgy, while the breaking and sharing shape the meal into something the disciples themselves are to repeat. Jesus then speaks over the bread, 'This is my body which is given for you,' and adds the command 'this do in remembrance of me.' The language ties the bread both to a forthcoming giving of his body 'for you' and to an ongoing act of memorial that the disciples are to perform after his death.

Verse 20 extends the same pattern to the cup 'after supper.' Jesus declares, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood, even that which is poured out for you.' The wording links the cup to the covenant language of Jeremiah 31 and to the Passover lamb's blood, presenting Jesus' death as the covenant-ratifying sacrifice. 'For you' frames the pouring out as a substitutionary act on behalf of the disciples, not a general metaphor. The placement 'after supper' distinguishes this cup from the earlier cups of the Passover meal mentioned in verses 17-18.

Taken together, the two verses define a repeatable rite: a shared meal of bread and cup accompanied by interpretation—bread as body given, cup as covenant blood poured out—and the explicit directive to keep doing it 'in remembrance of me.' The passage does not explain how the bread 'is' the body; it simply presents Jesus' words as spoken at the table and entrusts the act to the disciples as a commanded remembrance.

Luke 22:19-20 sits inside the Passover meal Jesus has eagerly desired to share (vv. 15-16). Before the bread and cup of vv. 19-20, Jesus takes a cup, gives thanks, and tells the disciples to divide it among themselves, adding that he will not drink 'of the fruit of the vine' again until the kingdom of God comes (vv. 17-18). This frames the later cup of v. 20 as an eschatological sign pointing forward to the kingdom rather than merely another course of the meal. Immediately after the institution, Jesus notes that the betrayer's hand is on the table (v. 21) and that the Son of Man goes 'as it hath been determined,' lending a divine-necessity frame to the very death the bread and cup signify (vv. 21-22).

The surrounding chapter situates the meal within the night of Jesus' arrest. The chapter opens with the plot to kill Jesus and Judas's agreement to betray him (vv. 1-6), and the Passover preparation (vv. 7-13) leads into the supper of vv. 14-23. After the institution come disputes among the disciples about greatness and Jesus' teaching on servant leadership (vv. 24-27), predictions of Peter's denial (vv. 31-34), and the move to the Mount of Olives where Jesus prays in agony (vv. 39-46) before his arrest. The bread-and-cup words thus stand at the hinge of the chapter, between the prepared Passover and the coming crucifixion.