Matthew 26:26-30 - This is my body

26:26
We now get to the heart of the last supper. At Passover the father of the house would take the bread and give thanks for it, remembering the escape from Egypt and recalling the bread of affliction that the people ate as they left Egypt (Deut 16:3). So they recalled the momentous events of the escape from Egypt, but they did not imagine the unleavened bread they ate to be the same as that eaten by their ancestors. So any notions of the bread being the actual body if Jesus are just so much nonsense. The Israelites had been held in Egypt as slaves, the far greater slavery is the slavery to sin. The escape from this slavery is not easy, it involves dangerous journies. In that journey we are to feed off the death of Jesus. He has paid the price for our sins, that is our constant source of sustenance.

26:27-30 

The sacrifices were a central part of the old covenant. Leviticus is particularly important in showing how they represented the taking away of our sins. The wine represents the blood of Jesus shed for them all, and all who believe. The blood represents death. The old testament sacrifices were ineffective in themselves, but pointed ahead to the blood of Jesus. The new covenant is founded on the blood of Jesus. His sacrifice is for the forgiveness of sins (and as Hebrews makes clear, renders all other sacrifices irrelevant and superseded). “I will not drink ...” This looks forward to the heavenly banquet. At Passover the meal was concluded by the singing of Ps 115-118. This is the hymn that the disciples sang.