Luke 22:7-23 The Last Supper

Scripture Reading: Beau Wollerton

Intro:

the Passover in Jesus’ day was a festival of immense scale and enthusiastic devotion.

Huge crowds descended on Jerusalem.

the number of pilgrims was about 200,000—a vast multitude given the size of the ancient city.

Accommodations for sleeping and feasting were scarce.

Long in advance of Passover, Jerusalem began to pulse with added commercial activity.

Many of the pilgrims were merchants who arrived early to sell their wares. Beggars clogged the principal gates.

The major purchase of the week was a sacrificial sheep or goat, preferably a lamb.

It was required that the people band together in groups of ten or more to eat the entire lamb at one sitting

At midafternoon, 3:00 p.m., the ritual slaughtering began

This was completed in three huge shifts.

When the first group entered in and the temple court was filled, the gates of the court were closed.

A priest’s shofar played a sustained blast, and the sacrifices began

The pilgrims approached two long rows of priests holding basins of silver and gold.

Each Israelite slaughtered his own offering, and the priest caught the blood, which was then tossed at the base of the altar

As the offerer left the temple, the slain lamb and its skin was draped over his shoulder

In Jesus’ time the celebration had added elements beyond the Old Testament’s prescriptions.

There was a seder, a set order of service

The celebrants reclined while they ate because they were no longer slaves

It was the host’s duty to interpret each of the foods on the table as it related to their deliverance from Egypt.

The bitter herbs recalled their bitter slavery.

The stewed fruit, by its color and consistency, recalled the misery of making bricks for Pharaoh.

The roasted lamb brought to their remembrance the lamb’s blood applied to the doorposts, their eating of the lamb within their house, and the death angel’s passing over them as it destroyed the firstborn of Egypt

Passover remembers the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, which was the central act of redemption in the Old Testament.

Jesus now provided a new center of redemption to be remembered by a new ceremonial meal.

This section of Luke’s gospel marks the major turning point of redemptive history. Jesus brought the Old Covenant to an end and inaugurated the New Covenant

The message of Passover is that God delivers through the judgment of sin by the death of an innocent substitute

Prepare the Lamb vs. 7-13

At the center of the Passover meal was a sacrificial lamb

“The phrase ‘the day of unleavened bread’ is a generic description of the week-long feast

When the Jews were fleeing Egypt they took bread that was unleavened

It was easier to make and carry

Leaven is also a sin of sin

The bread of Life, Jesus was without sin

John 6:35 ESV

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

The passover lamb had to be without spot or blemish

Deuteronomy 16:2–3 ESV

And you shall offer the Passover sacrifice to the Lord your God, from the flock or the herd, at the place that the Lord will choose, to make his name dwell there. You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction—for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste—that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt.

They would take the lamb to the temple to offer the blood and then take it to their residence and BBQ it

An interesting note

The Galileans held to a different time clock than the Jews in Jerusalem

They looked at days starting at 6 am and so the passover and shabbat would start at 6am as opposed to 6pm

So the Galileans would sacrifice their lambs on Thursday

This may seem like semantics but Jesus was literally crucified while the Jerusalem Jews were taking their lambs to the temple

The sacrificial lamb was on the cross at the same time

Jesus arranged for the Passover meal to be held in a secret location.

Peter and John were sent on a clandestine mission to prepare the Passover; the Lord’s instructions to them contained no names or locations, so that Judas could not know in advance where Jesus and the Twelve would eat the Passover meal

If Jesus had let it be known where the rendezvous and meal would occur, Judas would have informed on them, the meal would never have taken place, and the institution of the Lord’s Supper would never have been given to the Church.

A man… carrying a pitcher: This was an unusual sight, because carrying a pitcher was typically a woman’s work, and generally men carried liquids in animal’s skin containers.

Since carrying water was traditionally done by women, he would stand out

They followed him into the house where the upper room was already prepared

Another interesting Fact

The Greek Word used for Upper Room here is the same word used for the word Inn when Joseph and Mary got to Bethlehem

Celebrating Passover vs. 14-18

The last supper was the last passover ever needed

A yearly holy day set apart for the Israelites to observe the exodus from Egypt, particularly the passing over of the Israelite firstborn males when the firstborn of Egypt were struck down in the last of ten plagues.

Paul had already described the Lord’s Supper in detail at least five years before Luke’s gospel when he wrote 1 Corinthians

The hour they commenced, however, was sunset, the time when Passover always officially began.

As was customary, Jesus reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him

The event opened with a prayer thanking God for His preservation, deliverance, protection, goodness, and blessing.

Next came the first of four cups of diluted red wine, known as the cup of blessing.

That was followed by a ceremonial washing of the hands, symbolizing the need for cleansing from sin

In a few hours He would go from eating again a sacrificial lamb to dying as the one true Lamb of God to validate the New Covenant.

His whole life He had anticipated this hour, surely with increasing emotion

I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes: Jesus has not yet celebrated a Passover in heaven.

He is waiting for all His people to be gathered to Him, then there will be a great supper, known as the marriage supper of the Lamb

Revelation 19:9 ESV

And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”

1 Corinthians 11:2 ESV

Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you.

Instituting a New Covenant vs. 19-20

At the last supper Jesus instituted a new covenant

When the bread was lifted up at Passover, the head of the meal said: “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.”

Jesus didn’t give the normal explanation of the meaning of each of the foods.

He reinterpreted them in Himself, and the focus was no longer on the suffering of Israel in Egypt, but on the sin-bearing suffering of Jesus on their behalf.

This is how we remember what Jesus did for us.

As we eat the bread, we should remember how Jesus was broken, pierced, and beaten with stripes for our redemption.

1 Peter 2:24 ESV

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

As we drink the cup, we should remember that His blood, His life was poured out on Calvary for us.

1 Corinthians 10:16 ESV

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?

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.

Martin Luther held the idea of consubstantiation, which teaches the bread remains bread and the wine remains wine, but by faith they are the same as Jesus’ actual body.

Luther did not believe in the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, but he did not go far from it.

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

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

This cup is the new covenant in my blood:

Remarkably, Jesus announced the institution of a new covenant.

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

The new covenant concerns an inner transformation that cleanses us from all sin

This transformation puts God’s Word and will in us

This covenant is all about a new, close relationship with God

Jeremiah 31:33–34 ESV

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.