This Is Happening

Matthew 26:17–29 ESV

Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?” He said, “Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.’ ” And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover. When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve. And as they were eating, he said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, “Is it I, Lord?” He answered, “He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me. The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” Judas, who would betray him, answered, “Is it I, Rabbi?” He said to him, “You have said so.” Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

As we look forward to Good Friday and Easter, we’re beginning to follow the series of events that happened around and that involved Jesus primarily on Thursday evening and Friday of Holy Week or Passion Week. These are likely familiar events and passages for many of us, but they’re good to go back to. In terms of a sequence of events, this Passover supper with his disciples is a significant starting point. If the disciples later thought about what transpired leading up to the cross, they couldn’t overlook what Jesus said and did when they were gathered in this house.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, last Sunday morning we celebrated the communion meal. After the sermon and a song, I gave an introduction, we prayed together, we confessed our faith, and many of us ate a piece of bread and drank from a cup of grape juice. Throughout the history of the church, this has been a common practice, and yet different churches celebrate it differently. The frequency can be different—we celebrate it every other month, some churches do it monthly, others weekly. Expectations or requirements for participation can differ. Some churches invite everyone; some require baptism or an official profession of faith or confirmation. Churches differ as to how the elements are presented—whether they’re brought to the congregation or people come forward to receive them. Our common practice is to have the bread and grape juice prepared ahead of time, but elsewhere you might tear a piece of bread from a loaf and dip it in the grape juice or wine or you might sip from a common cup. Sometimes these differences seem to just be about style, but more often they’re about beliefs. 

What we do in the celebration of this sacrament is rooted in the practice that we find in places like Matthew 26. But on that day, the day in our passage, we’re not to the cross quite yet. So, we begin this morning, what were Jesus and his disciples celebrating? Verse 17 told us it was “the Feast of Unleavened Bread” and they were going “to eat the Passover.”

Over 1400 years before Jesus and his disciples gathered in this house, a series of events unfolded and an annual festival followed, according to the command of God. In Exodus 11, God had already sent 9 plagues against the Egyptians. His people, the Israelites, were enslaved in Egypt, but God had been showing his power so that they would be freed. Pharaoh’s heart had been hard, though, he hadn’t been willing to let them go. So, the chapter begins. “Now the Lord had said to Moses, ‘I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely…’” “‘This is what the Lord says: “About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die…and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any man or animal.” Then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.’”

This was God’s plan—he was going to strike the Egyptians with death. But first he invited the Israelites to do something. In chapter 12, God instructed each household to take a lamb or share a lamb with a neighbor, and on a given night they were all to kill their lambs at twilight. He commanded, “‘Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast…Do not leave any of it till the morning…This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.’”

We can understand why they were eating the meal and doing so quickly. They were going to be hurried out of Egypt; they had better be ready. But why were they putting blood on their doorframes? The next verses, Exodus 12:12-13, take us to the plague, “‘…On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn…and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.’”

The Passover was an event—God mercifully passing over not just the homes, the physical structures, but passing over his people. While he showed himself and his power one more time to the Egyptians, by taking their firstborns, he spared the lives of his own people. Part of his command, though, was that they would sacrifice lambs. It’s not a formal sacrifice involving priests and altars, but it was done in obedience to God. It was an action in which blood was shed, life was symbolically given that night, in place of the Israelites. 

The Passover meal became an annual celebration. It took place during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Lord gave instructions for that as well in Exodus 12. “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance. For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your homes…On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do not work at all on these days, except to prepare the food for everyone to eat…Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt…”

This was what Jesus and his disciples had gathered to celebrate in the city of Jerusalem in this certain man’s house. It was what the Israelites were to have always remembered. How God had shown his matchless power over nature and life. How he had shown mercy in sparing their lives. How he had brought them out. It wasn’t their own power or by chance or that Pharaoh decided to be nice. No, the Israelites’ only hope to receive God’s promises was for God himself to redeem and rescue them from slavery. This all was cause for joy, happiness, and worship!

This was what they had gathered for, and yet, on that night, Jesus changed the practice. He brought new meaning to this meal that leads us to call it, not Passover, but the Lord’s Supper. Having distributed the bread, which previously reminded them of their ancestors’ obedience to God and hastiness in leaving Egypt, Jesus now said, “‘…This is my body.’” Then with the cup, calling to mind that imagery of the lamb’s blood on doorframes, the sign which God gave, and if he saw, would show merciful, Jesus now said, “‘…This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins…”

We’re going to leave the emphasis of this passage on Judas’s betrayal until we get to Jesus’ arrest in a couple weeks. But Jesus’ death was in the minds of his disciples around this time. The Passover should have been a wonderful celebration for them, but already back in verse 2 of this chapter, Jesus had told his disciples, “‘As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.’” Here in verse 21, Jesus told them, “‘I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me.’” The same Greek word is translated “handed over” in verse 2 and “betrayed” in verse 21—the outcome of this handing over, this betrayal was his death. That was where Jesus saw himself heading, verse 24, “‘The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him,’” and now he’s talking about his body and his blood.

Perhaps we look at the whole picture of what’s happening here, and we think, “Way to kill the mood, Jesus.” We’re told the emotional state of the room in verse 22, “They were sad and began to say to him one after the other, ‘Surely not I, Lord?’” Not only was there distress, but there was uncertainty, maybe even some distrust going around the disciples. They would have known there were plots to kill Jesus throughout his ministry; he was not necessarily a safe person to be around. But now it was truly settling in: this is happening, Jesus was going to be killed.

This is all part of our story as believers in God. We hold onto the celebration of God setting his people free and that being something his people should always remember, but we also hold the lowest of lows—that God in the flesh, the perfect man was killed. He didn’t die due to what we have named natural causes. It wasn’t an accident. He was crucified, because we rejected him.

The prophet Isaiah captures this imagery: “His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness…He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed…He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth….It was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer…”

There is reason for us to feel sadness as we think about our Savior’s death. We know Easter is coming! But Easter doesn’t come without Good Friday happening first. Jesus doesn’t bring the children he loves to heaven for eternity without first taking on himself the punishment of their sin. Jesus doesn’t have to save us, except that we rejected him first. As we think about where things go in the passages between here and the resurrection, that Jesus died isn’t the primary reason we might be sad. No, what must cause sorrow and conviction is that it was on our account he died. We’re part of a tradition that takes our sin seriously—we feel bad about it. If there’s a reason why for many of us our approach to the Lord’s Supper is a rather solemn affair, this is it.

And yet there is also reason to truly celebrate the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, to feel joy and happiness when we come to the table. Heidelberg Catechism Questions and Answers 75 and 76 give us some direction. I’ll read the questions, if you would please join on the answers. How does the holy supper remind and assure you that you share in Christ’s one sacrifice on the cross and in all his benefits? In this way: Christ has commanded me and all believers to eat this broken bread and to drink this cup in remembrance of him. With this command come these promises: First, as surely as I see with my eyes the bread of the Lord broken for me and the cup shared with me, so surely his body was offered and broken for me and his blood poured out for me on the cross. Second, as surely as I receive from the hand of the one who serves, and taste with my mouth the bread and the cup of the Lord, given me as sure signs of Christ’s body and blood, so surely he nourishes and refreshes my soul for eternal life with his crucified body and poured-out blood.

What does it mean to eat the crucified body of Christ and to drink his poured-out blood? It means to accept with a believing heart the entire suffering and death of Christ and thereby to receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life. But it means more. Through the Holy Spirit, who lives both in Christ and in us, we are united more and more to Christ’s blessed body…

What are we celebrating? Our sin and the effects of sin in the world are so terrible. Death is so tragic. Why even eat this tiny cube of bread or a wafer? Why do we drink from these little cups? The portion sizes won’t satisfy your hunger or quench your thirst. What about this sacrament leads us to celebration?

The Catechism reminds us this small meal is a remembrance of Jesus’ sacrifice—he gave himself in the place of others! Our celebrations come as an act of obedience to Christ’s command to eat and drink. We are assured in our participation, by faith, that Jesus’ actions were for us. Even though the nutritional value is rather insignificant, our faith and souls are nourished and refreshed for eternal life. Simply put, we can celebrate because we and all who turn to God are forgiven, saved, and united with Christ because of his death and resurrection.

Those are incredible benefits. They don’t come through the bread and the grape juice or wine. Those things point to the far deeper reality: the impact of Jesus’ sacrifice providing us with God’s amazing grace and love. Faith isn’t primarily about our emotions or feelings, but the benefits communicated with this meal should make us feel happy. We should be filled with joy that these things have been offered to us and, by God, his sacrifice is guaranteed to have its full effect. The covenant is in the person and the work, the atonement and the mercy of Jesus Christ!

As we begin this journey looking at the difficult suffering of Jesus, we take hold of the whole story of what it means to be God’s people. We take hold of God’s redemption of a people, we take hold of our sin, but we also take hold of celebration because of the benefits of Christ’s grace. We rest in the truth of the third verse of “When Peace like a River,” “My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!—my sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed tor the cross, and I bear it no more; praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!” The author penned that verse in such a way that in thinking of their sin, of their flaws, of their disobedience and rebellion before God—yes, our sin is terrible—but that God has fully dealt with it means bliss—perfect joy and happiness for us. Amen.