The final meal

The final time to enjoy his friends

If you knew that you were about to die and you had one final meal to eat what would it be? Some people would say a steak or shrimp or their favorite meal.

Some of the more interesting final meals is this:

James Edwards Smith, who was executed in Texas in June 1990, takes the prize for one of the strangest last meal requests: a lump of dirt.

His final meal request was just a lump of dirt...

I would much rather have a flavorful meal as my last but then again I hope I never have to chose my last meal.

Jesus on the other hand knew that his time on earth was coming to an end and he chose to have his final meal among his closest friends.

This exert of scripture starts in a very unique way because it starts with one of Jesus’s closest friends agreeing to betray him and ultimately Jesus knows who that is but yet continues to eat with him.

Matthew 26:14–29 NLT

14 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve disciples, went to the leading priests 15 and asked, “How much will you pay me to betray Jesus to you?” And they gave him thirty pieces of silver. 16 From that time on, Judas began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus. 17 On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do you want us to prepare the Passover meal for you?” 18 “As you go into the city,” he told them, “you will see a certain man. Tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My time has come, and I will eat the Passover meal with my disciples at your house.’ ” 19 So the disciples did as Jesus told them and prepared the Passover meal there. 20 When it was evening, Jesus sat down at the table with the Twelve. 21 While they were eating, he said, “I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me.” 22 Greatly distressed, each one asked in turn, “Am I the one, Lord?” 23 He replied, “One of you who has just eaten from this bowl with me will betray me. 24 For the Son of Man must die, as the Scriptures declared long ago. But how terrible it will be for the one who betrays him. It would be far better for that man if he had never been born!” 25 Judas, the one who would betray him, also asked, “Rabbi, am I the one?” And Jesus told him, “You have said it.” 26 As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take this and eat it, for this is my body.” 27 And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them and said, “Each of you drink from it, 28 for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many. 29 Mark my words—I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new with you in my Father’s Kingdom.”

The story of the last supper is a story that is often repeated but there are many times when it is repeated we forget the importance of it. We hear this story everytime we partake in the Lord’s Supper and just about every Easter but the more we listen to it the more we should fall in love with the Savior. The story begins with one of the most notorious passages in scripture, the moment Judas chooses money over Jesus.

1. The Neglect of the Savior

Matthew 26:14–16 NLT

14 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve disciples, went to the leading priests 15 and asked, “How much will you pay me to betray Jesus to you?” And they gave him thirty pieces of silver. 16 From that time on, Judas began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus.

Judas is the man who last week we saw Jesus wash his feet even though Jesus knew that he would betray him. Now we see the moment in which Judas definitely agrees to betray the messiah.

The question then comes into play why would Judas betray Jesus?

Judas was wanting a Messiah to bring about power and control back to the Jews and Jesus was doing everything except that. Jesus was a man who came to fulfill the law and to become the sacrifice for all people not just the Jews.

This was a common misconception of the messiah though because Jews then and now want a messiah who is a warlord, that will bring dominance back to Israel.

Judas betrayed Jesus because Jesus did not line up with his own ideologies and ultimately Judas neglected the Savior for his own personal ideas. Jesus’s purpose for living was not to gain a lot of followers, gain support for a movement, or to be a dictator. Jesus’s purpose for living was to become our sacrifice. That is not at all what a typical person would want as a leader, but Jesus is the best leader for our lives.

So many times we can be like Judas in a sense because so many times we would want to mold scripture to fit our lives rather than allowing for God to mold us into what we need to be.

2. The love of a Savior

Matthew 26:17–25 NLT

17 On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do you want us to prepare the Passover meal for you?” 18 “As you go into the city,” he told them, “you will see a certain man. Tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My time has come, and I will eat the Passover meal with my disciples at your house.’ ” 19 So the disciples did as Jesus told them and prepared the Passover meal there. 20 When it was evening, Jesus sat down at the table with the Twelve. 21 While they were eating, he said, “I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me.” 22 Greatly distressed, each one asked in turn, “Am I the one, Lord?” 23 He replied, “One of you who has just eaten from this bowl with me will betray me. 24 For the Son of Man must die, as the Scriptures declared long ago. But how terrible it will be for the one who betrays him. It would be far better for that man if he had never been born!” 25 Judas, the one who would betray him, also asked, “Rabbi, am I the one?” And Jesus told him, “You have said it.”

Jesus wanted his last meal to be the passover supper partaken with his disciples, and how fitting is it that Jesus is their passover lamb. The passover meal that they were partaking in stems back to when the Israelites were held captive in Egypt and God sent plagues in order to change Pharaohs heart.

The final plague was the passover where they would slaughter a lamb and spread the blood around the door frame of the house. The angel of death would then come through Egypt and whoever did not have the blood on the door frame their 1st born child would die both human and animal. This was the plague that made Pharoah release the Israelites from captivity and they fled.

This was a monumental time in their lives and God commanded them to continue this meal yearly in order to remember their salvation from captivity. Now the disciples are having the traditional passover meal with their personal sacrifice.

The passover meal that Jesus partook with the disciples started with the disciples being completely obedient to Jesus even when it didn’t make sense. Jesus told to go to a certain man and say ‘The teacher says, My time is at hand and I will keep the passover at your house with my disciples.”

The disciples followed his instructions not knowing what Jesus meant my “My time is at hand.” But we know that Jesus was vaguely stating that his death was soon and very soon to his last supper.