Mark 14:12-25 The Last Supper

Intro:

vs. 12-16 Passover Prep

A man… carrying a pitcher: This was an unusual sight.

Women usually carried liquids in pitchers, and men normally carried liquids in animal skin containers.

Therefore, a man… carrying a pitcher was a distinctive sign to the disciples.

The Teacher says, “Where is the guest room”: The scene here implies secrecy, and Jesus had good reason to quietly make arrangements for Passover.

Jesus didn’t want Judas to betray Him before He could give a final important talk to the disciples.

vs. 17-21 One Will Betray

He sat down with the twelve: At the first Passover, God commanded them to eat the meal standing and ready to leave Egypt

Exodus 12:11 ESV

In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover.

Since Israel came into the Promised Land, they believed that they could eat the Passover sitting or reclining, because now they were at rest in the land God gave them.

One of you who eats with Me will betray Me: The disciples heard many surprising things from Jesus, but certainly this was one of the most surprising things they ever heard.

Not one of them suspected Judas, and the idea that one of them would seek to betray and kill Jesus must have seemed absurd

It is one of the twelve, who dips with Me: In saying who dips with Me, Jesus did not single out Judas.

All the disciples dipped with Him, so this phrase identified the betrayer as a friend.

In Middle Eastern culture, betraying a friend after eating a meal with him was and is regarded as the worst kind of treachery.

Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! Judas is rightly regarded as one of the most notorious sinners of all time. Even though his actions fulfilled prophecy (the Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him), his own wicked motive condemned him.

Judas will never be able to justify himself before God on the Day of Judgment by claiming, “I was fulfilling prophecy.”

vs. 22-25 The Elements

Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it: When the bread was lifted up at Passover, the head of the meal would say: “This is the bread of affliction which our fathers ate in the land of Egypt.

Let everyone who hungers come and eat; let everyone who is needy come and eat the Passover meal.”

Everything eaten at the Passover meal had a symbolic meaning.

The bitter herbs recalled the bitterness of slavery; the salt water remembered the tears shed under Egypt’s oppression.

The main course of the meal – a lamb freshly sacrificed for that particular household – did not symbolize anything connected to the agonies of Egypt.

It was the sin-bearing sacrifice that allowed the judgment of God to pass over the household that believed.

This is My body: Christians have debated for centuries about the true nature of the bread and the cup at this supper.

The Roman Catholic Church holds the idea of transubstantiation, which teaches that the bread and the wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus

John Calvin taught that Jesus’ presence in the bread and wine was real, but only spiritual, not physical.

Zwingli taught that the bread and wine are symbols that represent the body and blood of Jesus.

According to Scripture, we can understand that the bread and the cup are not mere symbols, but they are powerful pictures to partake of – to enter into – as we see the Lord’s Table as the new Passover.

This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many: Beyond all the controversy about what the elements of this supper really are and what they really mean, the announcement that Jesus brings a new covenant stands out.

No mere man could ever institute a new covenant between God and man, but Jesus is the God-man.

He has the authority to establish a new covenant, sealed with blood, even as the old covenant was sealed with blood (Exodus 24:8).

This covenant is focused on an inner transformation that cleanses us from all sin