"If This Table Could Talk"

That Thursday

In this chapter, we follow Jesus on this Thursday as he prepares to fulfill his earthly mission with eternal implications. The plot kill Jesus by the chief priests and elders underway. He is anointed by a woman, questioned by a disciple, who in turn questions the chief priest concerning Jesus’ worth. He sends Peter and John to make preparations for the Passover, that commemorates Israel’s deliverance from Egypt after the tenth plague. During the Passover, he identifies his betrayer and dismisses him from the group.

The Lord’s Supper

From Matthew’s account emerge two key reasons for celebrating the Lord’s Supper. One looks backward; the other, forward. First, we commemorate Jesus’ redemptive death. Second, we anticipate his return in company with all the redeemed. These two points remain central to all three Synoptic accounts and should form the heart of any theology of this ordinance. Verse 30 rounds off this section by describing the departure of Jesus and the eleven from the upper room, the house, and the city of Jerusalem. But first they sing one or more hymns, probably the closing round of Hallel (praise) Psalms (Pss 115–18) that formed part of the Passover liturgy. Then the little entourage returns to the Mount of Olives where they heard Jesus preach just two days earlier (24:1).

The Lord’s Supper unites believers in his death and suffering, knowing his broken body heals our brokenness (What he did for You)

bless (eulogeo)—to ask God to bestow divine favor on, with the implication that the verbal act itself constitutes a significant benefit

Resuming the Passover celebration, the meal itself begins. Jesus opens with prayer and the breaking of bread (v. 26). A common loaf would be distributed to all. The unleavened bread originally symbolized the haste with which the Israelites departed from Egypt (Exod 12). For additional laws about how to celebrate the feast, see Lev 23:4–8; Num 9:1–14; and Deut 16:1–8. Jesus now invests the bread with new meaning. It foreshadows his body figuratively broken and literally killed in his upcoming death. Jesus’ words here have led to massive debates, intra-Christian persecution, and huge theological edifices, the weight of which they cannot bear. The doctrines of transubstantiation (the bread and wine become Christ’s actual body and blood) or consubstantiation (Christ is really present “in, with, and under” the elements) make no sense of Jesus’ words in their historical context.

At Jesus’ final meal, Jesus shares with his disciples before his death, a 1st century Jewish Passover meal, he institutes the Lord’s Super. This supper would serve as a memorial for the disciples and for future Christians around the world. It commemorates the death of Jesus as it keeps his blood and body at the forefront of our minds.

“This is my body,” no one listening will ever imagine that he is claiming the bread to be the literal extension of his flesh. Moreover, in Aramaic these sentences would have been spoken without a linking verb (“is”), as simply, this, my body and this, my blood. As frequently elsewhere, Jesus is creating a vivid object lesson. The bread symbolizes (represents, stands for, or points to) his crucifixion in some otherwise unspecified sense.

The Lord’s Super reminds us that we redeemed and the guilt of sin is removed (What he Took from You)

forgiveness (aphesis)—to remove the guilt resulting from wrongdoing

Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 502.

It is extremely important to note that the focus in the meanings of ἀφίημιf, ἄφεσιςa, and ἀπολύωe is upon the guilt of the wrongdoer and not upon the wrongdoing itself. The event of wrongdoing is not undone, but the guilt resulting from such an event is pardoned. To forgive, therefore, means essentially to remove the guilt resulting from wrongdoing.

Some languages make a clear distinction between guilt and sin, and terms for forgiveness are therefore related to guilt and not to the wrongdoing. Therefore, ‘to forgive sins’ is literally ‘to forgive guilt.’ Though terms for ‘forgiveness’ are often literally ‘to wipe out,’ ‘to blot out,’ or ‘to do away with,’ it is obviously not possible to blot out or to wipe out an event, but it is possible to remove or obliterate the guilt.

Jesus turns from the bread to the cup. This is the third of four cups of wine drunk at various stages throughout the evening festivities. It was probably a common cup passed around for all to drink. “Offered” is the same verb as “gave” in v. 27 and does not imply that drinking was optional. Each of the four cups was linked to one line of Exod 6:6–7a. This one tied in with God’s promise, “I will redeem you,” in v. 6c and hence specifically to his original liberation of the Israelites from Egypt . But again Jesus adds new meaning. As they all drink (the “all” refers to all the disciples, not to all of the wine!), he proclaims that the cup stands for his blood about to be shed in his death on the cross. The “blood of the covenant” harks back to Exod 24:8. The use of “cup” rather than “wine” links this passage with 20:22–23 and 26:39. “Fruit of the vine” (v. 29) was a stock phrase used in thanksgiving prayers for the wine (m. Ber. 6:1) and therefore does not refer to unfermented beverage, “though it was customary to cut the wine with a double or triple quantity of water.”Here is the inauguration of Jeremiah’s new covenant (Jer 31:31–34). “New” does not appear in many of the best manuscripts of Matthew but does in Luke 22:20, from which it was probably borrowed by later copyists and inserted here. Nevertheless the newness is clear from the Old Testament allusions. Jesus’ death will prove redemptive and provide a vicarious atonement. Verse 28 offers a significant parallel to 20:28. The forgiveness of sins “for many,” that is, for all who accept Jesus, echoes Isa 53:4, 10, 12. The covenant language implies the creation of a community, now to be constituted of those who in their eating and drinking identify with the benefits of Jesus’ sacrificial death. This “true Israel” stands over against the natural Israel of the old covenant.

The Lord’s Super provides hope for Christ’s return (What he is preparing for You)

Verse 29 anticipates both Jesus’ departure and his return. He warns the disciples that he will not again be drinking (or eating or performing any other part of this Passover liturgy) in the immediate future, but he looks forward to rejoining them for the messianic banquet (recall the imagery of 22:1–14, and cf. Rev 19). The kingdom which is now inaugurated will then be consummated in all its fullness. Jesus’ words may suggest that he refused to drink the fourth and final cup of this particular meal.