How did Jesus lead worship? As far as we know, he didn't. The New Testament tells us tantalizingly little, too, about how anybody else led worship. We must assume that it was not normal for sermons to be so long that members of the congregation nodded off and fell out of the window (Acts 20:9), and we must assume that snatches of verse like Eph. 5:14 or 1 Tim 3:16 come from early praise songs. We know that people prayed, spoke words of prophecy, expounded the Bible (which to them was the Old Testament, though there might well have been a fund of stories about Jesus which formed the core of our Gospel narratives).
But we also learn from Acts (2:42, 20:7), and from Paul's writing to the Corinthians, that one of the distinctive things Christians did when they met for worship was to break bread, to "eat the Lord's Supper" (1 Cor 11:20), and as Paul reminds the Corinthians, this recalls what Jesus did "on the night that he was betrayed", and "proclaims his death until he comes."
We all know the story - perhaps too well. Jesus sends Peter and John to find and prepare a room to eat the Passover meal. In the evening, he comes with the twelve, and during the meal (the writers are not entirely clear as to when), he blesses and breaks bread and shares wine with them, telling them that the bread is his body and the wine is his blood of the covenant, poured out for the forgiveness of sins. During the meal, too, Judas goes out, and later betrays Jesus to the authorities.
Not only ink but also blood has been spilt over what Jesus meant, and over what we mean when we "proclaim his death" in this way. The Passover and its message of liberation combines with the theme of sacrifice, of making amends for our own sinfulness. And joined to these is the theme of covenant, of a new relationship with God which "the blood" makes possible.
The Last Supper stands at the beginning of three days which changed the world, and in a real sense the meal holds the essence of what Jesus did, passing through death to the power and joy of the Resurrection, "when I drink anew in the Kingdom of God". And even if we allow other emphases to take over our worship from time to time, in the New Testament it stands at the heart of the church's life together.
The Bible gives four accounts of what Jesus did with the bread and the wine. But this does not mean there is one account in each Gospel narrative. Matthew, Mark and Luke tell the story, but the fourth account comes from Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians. John's account of the meal spans five chapters (13-17), but eating and drinking (except the bread dipped in the dish and handed to Judas) play no part: Jesus washes the disciples' feet, portrays to them his own glory and prays that they may share in it, as he has been united in the Father's glory, "so that the world may believe."
Yet the bread and the wine are at the heart of John's message. "I am the vine," says Jesus during the meal, "and you are the branches." The vine recalls God's covenant relationship with the old Israel, now fulfilled in himself, and through his followers fulfilled in the church, the new Israel, the source of the new wine of the Gospel of which his first recorded work at the marriage at Cana was a sign.
For John, too, Jesus was the bread of life. John concentrates not so much on Jesus' body (not broken on the cross, as he makes a point of saying) as on Jesus' power to feed and sustain us, to satisfy our hunger and our need.
This Lent, as we look towards the Cross, and beyond it to the power of the Resurrection, may we pause with the twelve at the Lord's Table in the upper room, and draw strength from what took place there - and takes place when we ourselves "show it forth". May we be, as he prayed, "one in him and he in us". And may we share with him in his final cry from the Cross, tetelesthai, it is finished, Christ's triumphant work is done.
HD