Mara: The Last Supper and Reversing the Curse

Palm Sunday, March 28, 2021

Mara:

"How Jesus reversed the curse in the Last Supper."

You know it's funny how no matter how many times you reread passages from the Bible you find yourself struck by different details. I think it's because we changed throughout our lifetime. I experience other things. Then, when we come back to God's word, we have a new perspective.

What I want to help you see here today is something significant that happened. There's a connection between the first recorded meal in the Bible that reverberates and echoes to the Last Supper Jesus hosted in another room in Jerusalem with his disciples. As we take a look at these meals and their significance, let's look at the details shared in each of them.

And their first meal, we find ourselves right after God created the world. He created man and woman and gave them a perfect place to live in. The Garden of Eden was described in the first two chapters of the Bible: Genesis one and two. The chapter that follows these two chapters is commonly known as the fall. In it, we see mankind commit a sin that opens the door to the curse that is an all mankind.

Let's take a look at Genesis chapter 3 verses one through seven.

Genesis 3:1–7 ESV

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

Adam and Eve fell for a lie. To keep it simple they wanted to be like God more than they wanted to obey God. God had made it very clear that if they disobeyed him they would experience death.

Genesis 2:15–17 ESV

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

What followed was a curse of death that carried forward into every human who chose to try to be like God. The serpent started his attempt to deceive Adam and Eve with a doubt:

Genesis 3:2 ESV

2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,

Genesis 3:4 ESV

4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.

First of all he deceived Eve and then Adam quickly followed. They figured the fruit look good and it met a need and they might have the power to know good and evil like God did.

But don't miss the first detail in this story they took the food and they ate it.

Immediately after they ate that fruit the world turned upside down. They literally walked with God and talked daily with God knowing him. They experienced life quite possibly life and health that would last for a very long time on that day the garden was broken and a curse entered the world that would lead to death for all mankind. Very quickly Adam and Eve saw themselves with shame and fashioned clothes to cover themselves. And very quickly they were kicked out of the garden and out of close relationship with God because of their sin.

They took the food and ate.

Let's Fast forward all the way to the New Testament. In all four gospels we read the account of the Last Supper. Shoot even Paul writes about it in his letters. What we call the Last Supper was actually the Jewish Passover feast. With the Passover feast the Jew nation celebrated God's Salvation for the people.

I don't think we really grasp how special this time was. Passover was an 8 day celebration. It always occurs on the 14th day of the first month in the Jewish lunar calendar. But truly preparations began months in advance. Jews from around the empire would travel to Jerusalem to celebrate this feast.

We read in another place that Jesus instructed his disciples and they obeyed to select a private room on the 2nd floor of someones house. And they prepared the room for the Passover meal. About 3:00 PM on Passover a ram horn would be blown and worshippers would fill the temple court and the gates would close behind them traditionally each worshipper would then kill his own lamb skin it and drains blood into a basin.

This is really hard for us to hear as people who buy our meat pre packaged from the grocery store. But in the 1st century this really is how any meal involving meat began. Passover this took on special meaning. And the reason the lamb was killed in the temple was because the lamb represented a substitute. The blood will be drained into a basin held by a priest and then splashed against the base of the altar to signify that sins were atoned for. The fat and the kidneys would be burned on the altar as a peace offering which signified friendship with God

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After they had finished making this sacrifice every household representative would take the lamb home and roast the meat to prepare for dinner. Some of the blood from the lamb would be smeared on the doorposts of the house. And then the other elements of the meal would be prepared including bitter herbs unleavened bread wine.

Just before sundown on Thursday evening Jesus and his disciples arrived in their white tunics they would have worn for Passover. As they enter the room a servant would have been available to take off their shoes or rather their sandals and rinse their feet. But they were there alone . Imagine the disciples were joking and laughing as they each laid on a cushion and propped himself up on their elbow to listen to what was being said.

Ironically only two of them knew this was the final meal. Jesus and Judas.

After Jesus settled into his place at the out of the table he would light a lamp to signify the end of work and the beginning of celebration. He would fill a Cup of wine the first of four ceremonial cups for the evening and he would hold it up. He would give thanks to God for his faithfulness to Israel and then dedicate the evening to remembering what God did through the exodus. As each man would drain his Cup they would reach for bowl of water to begin the first ceremonial washing of hands.

At that point Jesus stood up. John describes what happened next.

John 13:1–15 ESV

1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2 During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, 4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” 8 Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10 Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” 11 For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.” 12 When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.

You know Adam and Eve wanted to ascend to be like God. They wanted to do what it took to know what gone new. They had a perfect world and they wanted themselves to be better and so they tried to do what they knew they shouldn't do to get what they wanted. Jesus showed them what God in the flesh actually looked like. Instead of reaching up to take something more Jesus stood up and then kneeled down to serve. He redefined what God really look like. This kind of love that serves others is the kind of love that turns the world upside down. This kind of love where the leader is willing to wash the feet of his followers is God's upside down love.

Adam and Eve tried to take something to become God in the flesh.

Jesus sacrificed himself to show us what “God in the flesh” looked like.

Mark 10:45 ESV

45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

They didn't realize that Jesus was redefining what leadership looks like. He was constantly redefining what values and things of true important were.

A few days earlier Jesus had cleanse the temple and pointed to the fact that he was the Messiah. Tonight the Last Supper would point to the cross.

Jesus was at the very center of everything. When he got back to the head of the table he preceded to apply new meaning to an old Remembrance. I love that Jesus was someone who could phrase things like no one else. It is in the smallest details that we get some of the greatest insights when we see them from a new perspective. I love how Matthew records this moment.

Matthew 26:26-29

At this moment Jesus is starting to reverse the curse that started with the first meal. At this Last Supper Jesus points to himself and says take and eat. He's not asking them to eat himself but he is saying that in himself he is the only one who can make what's turned upside down in the world better again. He is turning things right side up. when Jesus breaks bread he points to the way that the curse gets reversed by his body getting broken on the cross.

The Last Supper was always going to be a meal pointing to the cross. What Jesus was about to do in humility on the cross he pointed to in this Last Supper. He was going to cover our nakedness and our shame because of our actions. This sacrifice is pointed to way back in Genesis.

Genesis 3:21 ESV

21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

Adam and Eve very quickly realized they were naked after the eight from the fruit. They tried to cover themselves to cover their shame but God saw them. And only God can cover someone who is suffering from that kind of a curse. So the sacrifice having an innocent animal took place and that sacrificed that animal covered the guilty nakedness of Adam and Eve. And in the same way today only God can deal with the shame and guilt from our sins.

Jesus was about to do the same thing on the cross. His sacrifice would take the penalty for a world of sin. His sacrifice would reverse the curse all the way back to the actions of Adam and Eve. Jesus taking the bread and breaking it and saying the words take and eat would truly haunt the gates of hell for all eternity. Satan at that moment was in the heart of Judas leading him to what he did. But that was days away for now God's work of reversing the curse was already started. And the meal that Jesus wanted to eat with his disciples was here. Imagine it was a meal he would never forget and we would always remember.

Part of Easter is remembering what Jesus did to reverse the curse of death as we take and eat the bread and drink the Cup poured out for us. This is what we remember when we take communion. This is what we remember when we live each day in this world. As believers we are those who have had our sins forgiven and we can walk rightly before God.

So this week remember that Jesus turned the world upside down and back to right. Adam and Eve invited a curse that has dogged us to this day with their meal. Jesus pointed us to an act that would reverse the curse for Good.

Adam and Eve tried to take something that wasn’t their’s to have God’s knowledge.

Jesus gave of what was His in obedience to God to show us what being like God looked like.