⁷On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight. ⁸There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered together. ⁹And there was a young man named Eutychus sitting on the window sill, sinking into a deep sleep; and as Paul kept on talking, he was overcome by sleep and fell down from the third floor and was picked up dead. ¹⁰But Paul went down and fell upon him, and after embracing him, he said, “Do not be troubled, for his life is in him.” ¹¹When he had gone back up and had broken the bread and eaten, he talked with them a long while until daybreak, and then left. ¹²They took away the boy alive, and were greatly comforted.

So much can be gleaned from passages like this. Some enjoy pointing out Paul’s long-windedness and suggest we not complain about long Sunday sermons. Others see in this merely another miracle of raising the dead. However, the young man falling and being revived took place in the middle of the breaking of bread. The phrase “breaking of bread” in Christian history conveys more than just a fellowship meal. When Jesus last ate with His disciples, He transformed the concept of breaking bread to carry the symbolism of his death:

And when [Jesus] had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” (Luke 22:19, see also Acts 2:42)

Luke notes that in Paul’s visit to Troas, this breaking of bread took place on the first day of the week, giving the sense that this was a normal, weekly occurrence. The apostle John later wrote in the Book of the Revelation, referring to “the Lord’s Day” (Rev. 1:10), which most commentators understand to mean Sunday. The early church understood from these passages that the first day of the week, Sunday, was set aside for commemorating the Lord’s death and resurrection (Luke 24:1), where the Lord’s Supper was to be reenacted.

Some see in this a divine mandate that the breaking of bread, or the Lord’s Supper (also called communion), is to be observed every week. But Luke records this not as a command, but a mere observation of the practice in that location. Still, the early believers in Jerusalem included it in what many today believe are the foundational principles of the church: “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). We should follow the apostolic precedent and observe the Lord’s Supper with the same level of devotion given to teaching, fellowship, and prayer—that is, every week.

Lord, I never want to diminish the memory of what You have done on the cross.