Central to the Passover celebration is the distribution of broken bread and the sharing of four symbolic cups of wine.  Its origin goes back to God’s deliverance of His people from slavery in Egypt.  The previous evening, they ate a supper of roast lamb and bread.  Before the meal, each Israelite family put the blood from the sacrificed lamb on the outer door frames of their houses (Exodus 12:1-7).  God would bring death to the arrogant Egyptians that night, but the Israelites were safe because God had said, "When I see the blood, I will pass-over you" (Exodus 12:12-13).  The bread was made without yeast so that it would not go mouldy on the journey – it was ‘the bread of affliction’, eaten at the end of their captivity, to sustain them as they started their journey to God’s Promised Land (Deuteronomy 16:3).
 
About 1,500 years later – Jesus, as the host of the Passover meal, gave thanks for God's plan of salvation and broke the bread to give to His disciples.  It was very ordinary bread made without yeast, and yet He said that it was His body.  At that point He had not experienced any physical trauma, but He was adamant that the bread represented His body.  It was a prophetic drama in which Jesus explained that His body would be broken so that the disciples (and those who believed their words) could be sustained in a new life, away from the captivity of sin (1 Corinthians 11:23-24).
 
The wine too was very ordinary, the 'fruit of the vine' (Luke 22:18).  Traditionally, to this day, Jewish people will drink wine from four cups with different names and meanings: the first, the cup of sanctification; the second, the cup of deliverance; the third, the cup of redemption or blessing, and the fourth was the cup of praise or completion.  The cup in these verses, drunk immediately after the meal, is the cup of redemption.  God's promise to redeem His people would be fulfilled when Christ became the Passover Lamb (Luke 24:21), as His blood atoned for God's wrath against sin.  It was another prophetic drama.  After this Last Supper, the drama would be re-enacted for centuries not as fore-telling but as forth-telling.  As the Apostle Paul wrote "For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." (1 Corinthians 11:25-26)
 
Our sharing of bread and wine in communion is another physical reminder of Jesus’ death for us (Luke 22:19).  That is why we must never participate carelessly, lest familiarity should breed contempt in us as in the church in Corinth (1 Corinthians 11:17-29).  When we take bread and wine, would it not be a scandal if we do not see our own sins laid on Christ’s broken body, and our protection from God’s wrath coming from His shed blood.  We, forgetful and self-absorbed people, often need to be reminded that the Child in the manger is also the Lamb on the throne.  One day He will be seen as the King of glory, coming to welcome all those He has ransomed from sin, redeemed and sustained.