I love the clarity of this record. Jesus speaks some things to the whole multitude and other things directly and specifically to His chosen disciples. This helps us understand what is the responsibility of the church leaders and what is the responsibility of all followers.
I am also interested in why Jesus asked the disciples to get bread and wine the first time considering that later He provided the sacramental emblems miraculously. I suspect it was to show from the beginning that the emblems were normal bread and wine rather than leaving any impression that bread and wine were simply the closest approximation of what He supplied.
Finally, I ponder on what it was like to serve the sacrament with twelve servers and 2500 recipients. That must have taken a goodly amount of time (an hour perhaps). What were the people thinking during this time and how were they passing the time before and after they received? How would we handle such a long sacramental service?
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