The Last Supper
Notes
Transcript
Before we get started,
Let’s review what we have learned so far.
Here’s a quick video that goes over things that we went over in Luke,
and some things that we didn’t cover because of time.
It’s from the Bible Project.
Let’s watch it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUCCUHurV0I&t=1s
There were a lot of things that we have covered in our time together.
We saw his anouncement: He is the Son of God, who has come to bring deliverance.
We saw his love for sinners.
We saw the the Sermon on the Plains.
We saw the Lord’s prayer.
We saw the Cost of the Discipleship.
We saw some of his teachings—The Parable of the Sower and of the Prodigal Son.
I really hope that you are seeing and knowing the person of Christ, as Luke presented him.
Hopefully you have grown in your love for him.
And have understood what it means to follow Christ.
We are going to fast forward to the end of the book of Luke to one of the most popular scenes.
The last supper.
This is Leonardo’s famous painting of the Last Supper—Jesus is in the middle.
Maybe, you have seen it your gradma’s house or in a movie.
Maybe you have heard of the holy grail—the holy chalice—the cup that Jesus drank from… and maybe the cup possess special powers like eternal life.
But what does the Bible says about the Last Supper.
If you have your Bible, please open it up to Luke 22:7-20.
Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.”
“Where do you want us to prepare for it?” they asked.
He replied, “As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ He will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished. Make preparations there.”
They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.
When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”
After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
Let’s pray.
It was the day of Unleavened Bread.
A special meal was being prepared.
The namesake of the day, the Unleavened bread is what we see in the top.
The special day of the Passover was coming up.
The celebration of the Unleavened Bread was really close to the celebration of Passover.
The best passage to learn about the unleavened bread is
Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. 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 eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs. Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. 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.
You might remember the movie, the Prince of Egypt.
Or even better, you remember the story of Moses.
God was about to deliver the nation of Israel from the hand of Pharoah, the king of Egypt.
Before the Israelites left, God had commanded what we just read.
The Israelites were to pick a lamb.
Sacrifice it to God and dedicate it to him.
Take the blood and put it on the door posts.
Then,
they would roast the meat.
And ate the passover meal, in haste.
They ate bitter herbs to remember the bitter pain they suffered in Egypt.
They ate unleaved bread because when they left, they did were in haste—they did not have enough time for the bread to rise.
All the elements carried messages of harsh slavery and the flight to freedom.
And for the years that would follow,
the Jews would have a Passover meal.
They would eat unleavened bread, bitter herbs, and a passover lamb to remember how God had delivered the Israelites from Pharoah.
And as a first century Jew, Jesus and his apostles were going to celebrate the Passover.
And in within first century Judaism,
the celebratio was no longer constituted by a simple meal shared in great haste,
but it had become a banquet, with couches or pillow on wich to relcine, wine to drink and so on.
We could imagine that the celbration would consist of
the family pronouncing a blessing over the cup
and then dipping the herbs in a sauce
And then the youngest son of the family might ask why is this night different
why are they eating unleavened bread,
In reply the head of the family tells the story of the exodus
they remember that God had liberated their people from oppression.
they would give thanks for what God had done,
and they would celebrate God’s faithfulness and hope for God’s future deliverance.
they praise God maybe by singing Psalm 113.
The head of the family takes unleavened bread, blesses it, breaks it, and hands it to the others.
There follow two more cups of wine, along with more singing.
And It was also a common practice for Jews to travel to Jerusalem, their capital, to have the Passover.
that’s what Jesus did.
It was the day of unleavened bread, and Jesus and his disciples were in Jerusalem.
It was time to prepare a place so that Jesus and his disciples would eat.
Jesus told two of his main disciples—Peter and John—what would happen.
Jesus told his disciples to go into the city, and they would find a man.
A man would give them a room, in the upper room, fully furnished.
And the man would give them this room all because the disciples said that their teacher was looking
Jesus was known as a teacher.
And he was so well known.
That a man in Jerusalem allowed him and his disciples to meet in his upper room.
And this all happened as Jesus said.
Jesus demonstrates flawless foresight.
Jesus is prophetic.
And now we get the scene of the of the last supper.
And when we think about think about the Last Supper,
we might think about Leonardo’s painting
While this is a beautiful picture that Leonardo Davinci painted—you can see the main focus of the painting
Jesus is the main focus, right in the center.
The walls our pointing back and focusing on Jesus.
This is one of the greatest artistic products of the Italian Renassiance.
It was painted as a mural on the wall of a church in Milan, Italy in the 15th century.
But while this is a beautiful work,
this picture can demonstrate our Western preconceptions.
Jesus did not look like this.
His disciples did not look like this.
These men look like Europeans from the fifteenth century.
Leonardo was depicting these individuals as people who would seem familiar to him—like Italian Europeans of the 15th hundreds.
But Jesus was a Jewish Rabbi from Galilee, not a European.
His disciples were Jews.
The building looked like an Italian Palace with tall walls.
But Jesus was in an upper room in Jerusalem.
It wasn’t day time—It was at sundown to replicate the Exodus story…
It wasn’t a sunny blue day.
And the seating was off.
Here’s another picture.
This is better.
They are reclining on the table.
While Jesus is in the center, in reality, the person of power would not sit in the center in Jewish times.
Here’s an early picture of the Last Supper.
More accurate.
Less detail.
And even an earlier picture here.
Might be hard to see, but we get the gist.
Here’s a biblical rendition of the seating.
And this is a water painting.
As we read, Jesus reclined.
I bring this up just to remind ourselves that sometimes how we perceive things from the Scriptures have been influenced by other things from the Scriptures.
As Christians, we should understand biblical topics through the words of the Bible.
When Jesus sat down and ate with his apostles.
The apostles-his main disciples.
And before he ate,
Jesus began to speak.
And he stated that he was really eager to eat the Passover dinner with his disciples before he sufferred.
Here we have the Master Teacher,
who was eager to eat with his apprentices, his disciples.
By eating the passover with disciples,
the master was saying that his disciples were part of his family.
And ate with them all before he was going to suffer.
What did he want to do before he sufferred?
Jesus wanted to eat with his disciples.
Jesus loves his disciples,
so much so, that before he was going to die...
He was eager to eat with his disciples.
Jesus was about to suffer.
We know what is coming.
As I briefly spoke about when we talked about the Cost of Discipleship,
the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry was that he died on the cross, as an innocent man.
He did no wrong, but he was hated.
Even his own disciple would betray him.
Jesus knew this ending would occur.
He knew that if he went to Jerusalem, he would be crucified.
that he would suffer cross.
He knew.
Yet, he was eager to eat with his disciples.
What Jesus says in this supper, what he does, in this dinner is super significant.
That’s part of the reason that painters have depicted this scene.
And he first states that this is last time he will eat the Passover meal before the kingdom of God is fulfilled.
Why did Jesus come to the earth again?
Remember back to Luke 4:17-21, when Jesus taught at the synagogues
and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Jesus came as the anointed one,
to bring God’s kingdom.
The world had been corrupted by the kingdoms of men.
Yet, Jesus would bring the kingdom.
He is the king.
The Christos.
The anointed one.
Who anounced that the kingdom has come.
That the king has arrived.
That healing has arrived.
Freedom has come.
Deliverance has arrived.
This has been fulfilled because Jesus has set foot on this earth.
Yet, for the kingdom to be fulfilled,
Jesus believed that he had to die on the cross.
He saw that his sufferring was part of fulfiling the kingdom.
And at the same time, he believed that he would eat again
he would be with his disciple in fellowship again,
after he suffered--
after the kingdom was fulfilled.
And then Jesus took the cup.
It was probably a wooden cup,
not a fancy glass, silver, or golden cup.
And with this cup, he gave thanks.
Before Jesus was going to die, Jesus was grateful.
And Jesus drank from this cup and shared the same cup with others,
underscoring the togetherness that they had.
Again, Jesus said that he wouldn’t drink until the kingdom would come.
Instead of talking about the first passover, Jesus spoke about the
The kingdom of God
The kingdom of Shalom
The kingdom of peace that would come through the sufferiing of Jesus.
Then, Jesus did something that churches have observed since its inception.
We will have communion today.
Part of the reason that we do communion is to remember this last supper and whaat Jesus.
Jesus took the bread and gave thanks.
We should always give thanks for food, even if it’s our last supper.
The word for thanks is
εὐχαριστήσας
It sounds similar to our word for the eucharist.
The eucharist is what some churches have called the elements of communion:
the bread and the blood.
And I like that.
They get the word from the Bible.
And it conveys this idea that when we partake from the wine (or the grape juice in our case) and the bread
We are saying thanks.
We are thankful for what Jesus has done.
εὐχαριστήσας
Jesus broke the bread
break bread hand motion even sound effect maybe
Then Jesus gave the bread to his disciples.
And he said,
This is my body given for you.
What did Jesus do to the bread?
He broke it.
Then he said that this broken bread is his body.
Jesus related the breaking of bread to what would occur to his body.
As the bread looked broken,
the body of Jesus would break.
And Jesus said,
that this bread,
this breaking of bread,
is given for you.
One scholar said,
“Giving one’s body” is potent as an image for giving one’s life (in battle) for the sake of one’s people.
Somehow, the suffering that Jesus is about suffer,
the destruction of what he was about to endure,
this is for you.
He is giving up his life in battle for your sake,
just as someone does in a battle.
And if we see other biblical writers,
we know that he was suffering as our sacrifice.
He took what breaks our bodies, our souls, our beings.
If this the first time that you are hearing this,
know that if you believe in Jesus,
then what Jesus is saying comes into effect in your life.
His suffering will take away your suffering.
If you have heard this before, we need to remember this.
Our minds forget things.
But Jesus tells us to remember.
Jesus said, do this in remembrance of me.
“[R]emembrance” is often employed with the sense of “the effect of the recollection of the past for present or future benefit.”
When we partake of the Lord’s Prayer,
we must remember,
that the broken bread is the body of Christ
We need to remember that Jesus’ body was broken.
Remember, Luke is writing to Theophilus.
He is teaching Theophilus about Christian tradition,
the Christian faith that had been passed down.
Theophilus was probably learning about why Christians would have these dinners,
and why the Christians were saying that the bread was the body of Christ.
In fact, early on, one of the accusations against the early Christians was that they were cannabalists.
The Romans heard of Christians having this dinner where they would eat the body of Christ.
But Luke is telling Theophilus what originated the practice.
It’s not they are eating literal body pieces of Jesus.
But rather, with the broken bread, they are intaking the sacrifice that Jesus offered.
By partaking from the Lord’s Supper, Christians are remembering the sufferings of Jesus--
That his body broke.
And that it broke for us.
Jesus is instructing his followers not only to conintue sharing meals together,
but to do so in a way that their fellowship meals recall the signifance of the life of Jesus
and his deaht in obedience to God on behald for others.
Then Jesus took the cup.
And the wine within it.
The juice of the vine.
Jesus said that this was his blood poured out for us.
Blood poured out signals violent death.
Just as the broken bread is broken body,
the juice, the wine, is blood of Jesus, that he shed for us.
In the beginning, I referenced the Passover celebration--
how it originated.
The Israelites would put the blood of the lamb over their doorpost.
Because of the blood of the Lamb, the Israelites would not suffer at the hand of the angel of death.
and now, Chrstians, because of the Lamb,
because of the blood that Jesus shed upon the cross,
Christians no longer suffer death, but they are delivered from their Exodus,
from slavery.
When we take the cup, we are entering a new covenant.
The kingdom is a big theme within the Scriptures,
but covenants are also a big theme with the Bible.
We’ll look at the theme of covenants some other time.
But for now note this,
God had made a covenant with the nation of Israel.
A promise with the nation.
According to Joel Green,
“Covenant” is fundamentally a relational term, pointing in this case to the bond of fidelity and love between God and humanity.
Exodus 24:8 states
Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
Moses would get blood and sprinkle it on the people.
Kinda weird ritual.
But the blood was a reminder of the sacrificial lamb that had died on their behalf.
Unfortunately, the Israelites had broken and corrupted their covenant with God.
The covent that God had made with Israelites was broken because of the Israelites’ sin towards one another
because of their idolatry and their injustice towards the least of these.
But there were people—the prophets—who spoke on God’s behalf about a new covenant.
The prophet Jeremiah said,
“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
The old covenant was broken,
but God would make a new covenant.
And through Jesus,
God has made a new covenant
That includes both Jews and Gentiles
Both Israelites and those who were not Jews.
One scholarly beautifully said
Luke Institution of the Lord’s Supper (22:14–20; Matthew 26:26–29; Mark 14:22–25)
Jesus’ blood seals a new covenant offered to the faith community by a God who sets free. Jesus’ blood seals a new covenant offering a new kind of freedom, a release from captivity to sin and death, a new covenant extended by the liberating God to all who believe, both Jew and Gentile.
As blood was connected to the first covenant,
this new covenant has been made,
not by a literal lamb, but the blood of Jesus,
that has been poured out on our behalf.
We are covered by the blood.
The blood of Jesus cleans are heart.
And through it, we can have a covenantel relationship with God.
Jesus is the savior who grants forgiveness of sins.
Now let’s remember this by partaking from the Lord’s Supper.
We take this bread, an give thanks.
Let us take this bread with the words of Jesus in mind
And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
Then,
In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
Let’s pray.