I wrote the fol­low­ing sar­cas­tic paraphrase:

Luke 22:14 And when the hour came that they woke up, he sat the table, and the apos­tles with him. 15 And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to do this cer­e­mony with you before I suf­fer; 16 for I tell you I shall not do it until it is ful­filled in the king­dom of God.” 17 And he poured juice into small cups, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and pass it around; 18 for I tell you that from now on I shall not drink this juice until the king­dom of God comes.” 19 And he took a cracker, and when he had given thanks he snapped it and gave it to them, say­ing, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remem­brance of me.” 20 And like­wise the small cups after break­fast, say­ing, “The juice in these cups which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”

Well, not quite. It was a sup­per, not a break­fast. It was con­sum­ing a meal together. The meal was ini­ti­ated by break­ing the bread. They dipped the bread in a dish and ate. The wine came after the meal.

Here are a few verses that men­tion dipping:

Matt 26:23 He answered, “He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me, will betray me.

Mark 14:20 He said to them, “It is one of the twelve, one who is dip­ping bread into the dish with me.

John 13:26 Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I shall give this morsel when I have dipped it.

The last verse makes it clear that the bread was dipped — per­haps in some sort of sauce or liq­uid. The gospels are silent about what was in the dish. I have seen Middle-Eastern peo­ple dip­ping bread into olive oil. It was con­sid­ered a delicacy.

Here is a verse that shows that break­ing bread ini­ti­ated a meal:

Acts 27:35 And when he had said this, he took bread, and giv­ing thanks to God in the pres­ence of all he broke it and began to eat. 36 Then they all were encour­aged and ate some food them­selves.

They drank the wine after the meal as we see in the fol­low­ing verse:

Luke 22:20 And like­wise the cup after sup­per, say­ing, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

So what’s the big idea? The Lord’s sup­per is about shar­ing a meal together as a fam­ily while wait­ing for the com­ing Lord. It was a sup­per, NOT A BREAKFAST. They met in the evening, not in the morning.

Sun­day was not a pub­lic hol­i­day in the Roman Empire at the time of Paul. It was a work day. Only the Jews enjoyed a day off, the Sab­bath day, Gen­tiles didn’t have such a priv­i­lege. If the dis­ci­ples wanted to meet on the first day of the week, they could only do it on the night after the Sab­bath, that is, on Sat­ur­day night after 6 pm. Sun­day night was already the sec­ond day of the week.

Acts 20:7 On the first day of the week, when we were gath­ered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intend­ing to depart on the mor­row; and he pro­longed his speech until mid­night. 8 There were many lights in the upper cham­ber where we were gath­ered. 9 And a young man named Eu’tychus was sit­ting in the win­dow. He sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer; and being over­come by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead.

What hap­pened here? They gath­ered after work, when they were already tired. Verse 20 pro­vides a frame­work for the story, it gives a rea­son for the acci­dent. The story itself starts with verse 8. They gath­ered at night, not in the morn­ing, and Paul spoke until mid­night. The peo­ple were already tired, Eu’tychus fell asleep and he fell to his death.

The Fam­ily Cir­cle Jew­ish Recipes says this about the Sab­bath night meal (p. 2):

“The Shab­bat (Sab­bath) or Day of Rest lasts from just before sun­set on Fri­day to after sun­set on Sat­ur­day. Shab­bat din­ner is an occa­sion for the entire fam­ily to get together to pray, break bread, drink wine and eat their fill.”

Sim­i­larly to the Sab­bath night meal, the Lord’s sup­per was also a meal shared as a fam­ily by the dis­ci­ples at night. It wasn’t sim­ply a ceremony.

Finally, we need to deal with the pas­sage in 1Corinthians. What was the prob­lem there?

1Cor 11:33 So then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another — 34 if any one is hun­gry, let him eat at home — lest you come together to be condemned.

Peo­ple gath­ered at the place of meet­ing after work. Some arrived soon after 6 pm, oth­ers, such as slaves came much later, per­haps 8 or 9, as they would have worked longer hours. They were also too poor to bring food on their own. By the time they arrived the food oth­ers brought was already eaten.

What is Paul’s instruc­tion? Wait for one another! And if one is hun­gry and can­not wait, he or she should eat at home enough to keep him going until all oth­ers arrived. For the Lord’s sup­per is a meal spent together as one family.

There­fore, what churches have been doing over the cen­turies has noth­ing to do with the intent of the Lord’s sup­per. It is not even the Lord’s breakfast.