This evening we are going to go through the last night that Christ had on this earth before His death which, which we call Good Friday.
(Prayer)
The setting:
In the final week of Jesus’ life before His crucifixion, all of Jerusalem was celebrating the Passover. In terms of the Jewish calendar, PASSOVER WAS THE FIRST FEAST held every year (Nisan 14)
Leviticus 23:5 [5]In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight, is the LORD’s Passover. (ESV)
• It was then that every family in Israel commemorated the nation’s deliverance from Egypt with the sacrifice of a spotless lamb. The feast was also the oldest of all the Jewish holy days, the first Passover having been celebrated on the eve of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt.
Passover was immediately followed by the feast of Unleavened Bread (Nisan 12-21)
Leviticus 23:6 [6]And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. (ESV)
• This was a week-long affair, making the entire period of feasting eight days long. The two feasts were so closely associated that the eight-day period was sometimes called “the Passover” and sometimes called “the Feast of Unleavened Bread.” (The New Testament itself sometimes uses the terms interchangeably, echoing the common parlance.)
Please turn to Exodus 12
Four days prior to Passover, (Nisan 10), each family in Israel was to select a spotless sacrificial lamb and separate that lamb from the rest of the herds until Passover, when the lamb was to be slain (Exodus 12:3–6).
Exodus 12:3-6 [3]Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. [4]And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. [5]Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, [6]and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. (ESV)
• During that final week before His crucifixion, Jesus Himself would undoubtedly have done this with His disciples, selecting a lamb on Monday of that week.
• Remember, historical records of Jesus’ time indicate that as many as a quarter-million lambs were slain in a typical Passover season, requiring hundreds of priests to carry out the task.
• Since all the lambs were killed during a two-hour period just before twilight on 14 Nisan (Exodus 12:6), it would have required about six hundred priests, killing an average of four lambs per minute, to accomplish the task in a single evening. Tradition permitted no more than two men to bring a lamb to the temple for sacrifice, and after each lamb was slain, it was to be immediately taken home and roasted. Even so, the temple mount would have been densely crowded while the lambs were being slain, with as many as half a million people moving through the area in a two-hour span.
The Jews of Jesus’ day had two different methods of reckoning the calendar, however, and this helped alleviate the problem. The Pharisees, as well as the Jews from Galilee and the northern districts of Israel, counted their days from sunrise to sunrise. But the Sadducees, and people from Jerusalem and the surrounding districts, calculated days from sundown to sundown. That meant 14 Nisan for a Galilean fell on Thursday, while 14 Nisan for the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell on Friday. And thus the slaughter of the lambs could take place in two two-hour time periods on successive days, thereby easing the work of the priests somewhat. About half the lambs could be killed on Thursday, and the other half were killed on Friday. (That twist in the chronology explains why Jesus and His disciples—all Galileans, except for Judas—ate the Passover meal on Thursday evening in the Upper Room, yet John 18:28 records that the Jewish leaders—all residents of Jerusalem—had not yet celebrated Passover on the following day when Jesus was taken to His trial in the Praetorium. It also explains why John 19:14 indicates that Jesus’ trial and crucifixion took place on the day of Preparation for the Passover.)
Explanation for Tonight: Here to reflect on Christ’s last meal together where we will look at the scriptures that lead up to Christ’s death and explain the significance before our meal with the community tomorrow.
(Prayer)
(Hymn on Blood)
The amount of blood resulting from all the Passover sacrifices in Jerusalem was enormous. The blood was permitted to flow off the steep eastern slope of the temple mount and into the Kidron Valley, where it turned the brook bright crimson for a period of several days. It was a graphic reminder of the awful price of sin.
(Hymn on Sin)
Of course, all that blood and all those animals could not actually atone for sin. Hebrews 10:4 [4]For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. (ESV)
• The lambs only symbolized a more perfect sacrifice that God Himself would provide to take away sins. That is why John the Baptist looked beyond those animal sacrifices and pointed to Christ:
John 1:29 [29]The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (ESV)
THE LAST PASSOVER PREPARED
Early on that Thursday the disciples began their preparation for the Passover Seder. Matthew 26:17 [17]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?" (ESV)
With so many visiting Israelites coming annually to Jerusalem for the feast, it was common for the city’s inhabitants to keep rooms that they let out so that visitors could have a private place to eat the Passover meal with friends and family. Jesus had evidently arranged for the use of one such venue for Himself and the disciples—an upper room, probably made available by someone whom Jesus knew and who in turn was a believer in Jesus, but perhaps unknown to the disciples. He is never identified by name in any of the gospel accounts. In any case, it is reasonable that Jesus had evidently made these arrangements secretly, to avoid having it known in advance where He would be that evening with the disciples. (If Judas had previously known the location of the Last Supper, it would have been a simple matter for him to reveal to the Sanhedrin where they could find Jesus. But it was necessary in the plan of God for Him to celebrate the Passover with His disciples before His betrayal.)
Many preparations needed to be made. Not only would the lamb need to be slaughtered at the temple and then brought back for roasting, but other elements of the meal also needed to be prepared. Chief among the elements of a Passover Seder were unleavened bread, wine, and a dish made of bitter herbs. The responsibility for preparing these elements was probably divided among a few of the disciples. And the task of arranging the room and the table was already being seen to by a servant of the man who owned the upper room.
So Jesus told them:
Matthew 26:18 [18]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.’" (ESV)
• According to Mark 14:13 and Luke 22:10, Jesus told them the man they were seeking would be “carrying a pitcher of water.” Normally, carrying water was a woman’s task, so the man would be easy to identify. Jesus, who knew all things (John 16:30), knew precisely where the man would be when they found Him. This is yet another proof that He was sovereignly in control of all these events.
• We learn from Luke 22:8 that it was Peter and John who were specifically assigned to find the man and help prepare the Upper Room.
• Mark says they were to locate the man, follow him home, and then repeat to the owner of the house what Jesus had told them. There they would find “a large upper room, furnished, and prepared” (Mark 14:15). They “did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover” (Matthew 26:19).
There is profound significance in Jesus’ statement, “My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover” (v. 18). On several prior occasions, Peter and John had heard Him say, John 7:6 [6]Jesus said to them, "My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. (ESV)
• His time was now at hand, the moment He had come into the world for, and He stated that fact plainly for Peter and John. He knew He had one remaining evening to spend with His disciples, and He would spend it keeping the Passover. The Greek expression translated “I will keep the Passover” employs a present-tense expression to express a future event (literally, “I keep the Passover”). Thus He underscored the absolute inviolability of the divinely orchestrated plan.
It was vital for Christ to keep this last Passover. Later that evening He would tell the disciples:
Luke 22:15-16 [15]And he said to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. [16]For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God." (ESV)
• The events of that evening would usher in the culmination of everything all previous Passovers had prefigured. The true Lamb of God was about to be sacrificed.
THE FEAST EATEN
About the remaining events of that day—right up to the Passover meal itself—the gospel accounts are utterly silent. Jesus may have spent the day alone in prayer with the Father while the disciples prepared for the Passover.
Matthew jumps directly to the Upper Room and the scene at the Passover meal.
Matthew 26:20 [20]When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve. (ESV)
It would have been after 6:00 on Thursday evening when they sat down to the meal. The Greek verb anakeimai, means “to recline.” It was common to serve a meal like this on a low table, at which guests reclined in order to partake. From John’s account, we learn that Christ and the disciples were eating from a reclining position, because John’s head was positioned next to Jesus’ chest (John 21:20).
This was in stark contrast to the first Passover:
Exodus 12:11 [11]In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD’s Passover. (ESV)
• On that occasion, the Israelites were preparing for their escape from Egypt.
• On this occasion no escape was planned. Christ would go from here to the garden, where He would be betrayed into the hands of His killers. His time was at hand.
There was a well-established sequence for the eating of a Passover Seder. A cup of wine was distributed first, the first of four cups shared during the meal. Each person would take a sip from a common cup. Before the cup was passed, Jesus gave thanks
Luke 22:17 [17]And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, "Take this, and divide it among yourselves. (ESV)
After the initial cup was passed, there was a ceremonial washing to symbolize the need for moral and spiritual cleansing. It seems to have been during the ceremonial washing that:
Luke 22:24 [24]A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. (ESV)
John records that Jesus:
John 13:4-5 [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. (ESV)
• Taking the role of the lowest servant, Christ thus transformed the washing ceremony into a graphic lesson about humility and true holiness. External washing avails nothing if the heart is defiled. And pride is a sure proof of the need for heart-cleansing. Christ had made a similar point with the Pharisees in Matthew 23:25–28. Now He washed the disciples’ feet, illustrating that even believers with regenerate hearts need periodic washing from the external defilement of the world.
• His act was a model of true humility. Foot washing was a task typically delegated to the lowest slave. Normally in a hired banquet room like this, an attendant would be provided to wash guests’ feet when they entered. To omit this detail was considered a gross discourtesy (cf. Luke 7:44). Foot washing was necessary because of the dust and mud and other filth one encountered as a pedestrian on the unpaved roads in and around Jerusalem. But evidently there was no servant to perform the task when Jesus and the disciples arrived at the Upper Room, so instead of humbling themselves to perform such a demeaning task for one another, the disciples had simply left their feet unwashed. Christ’s gesture was both a touching act of self-abasement and a subtle rebuke to the disciples (cf. John 13:6–9). It was also a pattern for the kind of humility He expects of all Christians (v. 15; cf. Luke 22:25–26).
(Time of Repentance and Reconciliation)
• Let us take a moment, if you have an issue against someone here, I encourage you now to reconcile. If this individual is not present, that you would resolve now to be an agent of reconciliation, and at the earliest moment, do so.
• If there are unresolved issues with me, I would welcome any private discussion now.
After the ceremonial washing, the Passover meal continued with the eating of the bitter herbs
Exodus 12:8 [8]They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. (ESV)
• These were parsley, endive, and similar leafy greens. The bitterness of the herbs evoked the harshness of Israel’s bondage in Egypt. The herbs were eaten with pieces of unleavened bread, dipped in a substance called charoseth, a chutney made of pomegranates, apples, dates, figs, raisins, and vinegar. The charoseth was likened to the mortar used by a bricklayer—and again it was reminiscent of the Israelites’ slavery in Egypt, where they made bricks.
Next, the second cup was passed. It was at this point that the head of the household (in this case, it was no doubt Jesus) explained the meaning of Passover
Exodus 12:26-27 [26]And when your children say to you, ’What do you mean by this service?’ [27]you shall say, ’It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’" And the people bowed their heads and worshiped. (ESV)
• In a traditional Jewish Passover Seder, the youngest child asks four prearranged questions, and the answers are recited from a poetic narrative of the Exodus.
(Asking of Four Questions by Four Children)
• The passing of the second cup would be accompanied by the singing of psalms. Traditionally, the psalms sung at Passover were from the Hallel (Hebrew for “praise”; this is the same word from which Hallelujah is derived). The Hallel consisted of six psalms beginning with Psalm 113. The Hallel psalms were probably sung in order, the first two being sung at this point in the ceremony.
(Singing of Praise Choruses)
Please turn to Matthew 26
The roasted lamb would be served next. The head of the household would also ceremonially wash his hands again, and he would break and distribute pieces of the unleavened bread to each person around the table, to be eaten with the lamb.
THE EVIL DEED FORETOLD
It probably was at some point in these early stages of the meal—possibly while the lamb was being eaten—that Jesus sounded an ominous note:
Matthew 26:21 [21]And as they were eating, he said, "Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me." (ESV)
Several times prior to this He had foretold His own death. This was the first time, however, that He had spoken of being betrayed by one of His own disciples.
• The word for “betray” is the Greek verb paradidômai, which spoke of handing a prisoner over for punishment. It is the same word used in Matthew 4:12, when John the Baptist was cast into prison.
• This was an unimaginable thought for most of the disciples—that Jesus would be surrendered to His enemies by one of them. And yet, each evidently knew that the potential for such treachery lay within their own hearts:
Matthew 26:22 [22]And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, "Is it I, Lord?" (ESV)
Saying nothing to allay their fears, but underscoring the hideous nature of the treason that was about to take place, Jesus replied,
Matthew 26:23 [23]He answered, "He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me. (ESV)
The gross evil inherent in such hypocrisy and betrayal was perfectly described in one of David’s psalms:
Psalm 55:12-14 [12]For it is not an enemy who taunts me-- then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me-- then I could hide from him. [13]But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend. [14]We used to take sweet counsel together; within God’s house we walked in the throng. (ESV).
Psalm 41:9 [9]Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.
According to John 13:18, Jesus quoted Psalm 41:9 that night in the Upper Room, indicating that the psalm had a Messianic significance that was about to be fulfilled.
The betrayal of Christ, like every other detail of the crucifixion drama, was part of God’s eternal plan of redemption. Jesus acknowledged that fact when He said:
Matthew 26:24 [24]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." (ESV)
• God would use Judas’s act of treachery to bring about the redemption of untold multitudes. And yet the act of betrayal itself was not thereby rendered a good thing. Just because God uses an evil act for His own holy purposes, the evil itself cannot therefore be called good. The fact that God’s sovereign purposes are always good did not somehow sanctify Judas’s evil intentions.
• Contrary to what some have suggested, Judas was a willing devil (John 6:70), not an unwitting saint. His destiny was eternal damnation.
The eleven disciples besides Judas were appalled by the thought that one of their own number would be guilty of such a sinister act. And yet it is notable that their first response was not finger-pointing but self-examination.
Please keep your place in Matthew 26, but turn to John 13
• Having been so recently rebuked by Christ for their lack of humility because of their failure to wash one another’s feet, they were no doubt still pondering their own sinful frailty. Now they were made to face an even more troubling prospect: Among this close-knit band of men who trusted one another implicitly, there was a betrayer. Each one examined his own heart, and knowing their own susceptibility to sinful blundering, they anxiously asked Jesus, “Is it I?” Each probably wondered if somehow he might unwittingly do something to jeopardize the Lord or tip off His enemies about where He could be found.
John records:
John 13:22 [22]The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke. (ESV)
Again, there was nothing in either Judas’s behavior or Jesus’ treatment of him up to this point that would have given the other disciples a clue that Judas was the betrayer. Although
John 6:64 [64]But there are some of you who do not believe." (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) (ESV)
• He had never been diffident or withdrawn from Judas; He had always treated him with the same tenderness and goodwill He had shown the others. And again, Judas was the treasurer and therefore seemed to enjoy an extra measure of trust from the others. He was probably one of the last disciples anyone would have suspected. And yet his entire association with Jesus had been nothing but a charade.
THE TRAITOR UNMASKED
In order to keep up the charade a little while longer, Judas joined the group in asking:
Matthew 26:25 [25]Judas, who would betray him, answered, "Is it I, Rabbi?" He said to him, "You have said so." (ESV)
• The Greek expression conveys a mock incredulity. One version aptly translates it this way: “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” (NASB).
• Jesus replied simply, “You have said it” (v. 25). That remark was evidently made quietly, to Judas alone, or else the other disciples missed its significance, because the apostle John, who was reclining next to Jesus, did not pick up on it.
Keep your place in Matthew 26, but turn over to John 13
John records that Peter signaled him to ask Jesus whom He was talking about:
John 13:23-26 [23]One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table close to Jesus, [24]so Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. [25]So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, "Lord, who is it?" [26]Jesus answered, "It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it." So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. (ESV)
• Even that exchange apparently took place in whispered tones, because none of the other disciples seemed to realize that Christ was identifying Judas as the traitor.
When He then told Judas,
John 13:27-29 [27]Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, "What you are going to do, do quickly." [28]Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. [29]Some thought that, because Judas had the moneybag, Jesus was telling him, "Buy what we need for the feast," or that he should give something to the poor. (ESV)
• As before, when Judas arranged the betrayal with the Sanhedrin, he was possessed by the devil. Having hardened his heart to Jesus, he became totally a tool of the evil one. Judas’s eternal doom was now set. All that was left to be done was the deed itself. And there was no point in dragging out the matter. In fact, Jesus now wanted the Satan-possessed traitor out of the room so that He could finish the Passover meal with His true disciples. So He instructed Judas to do the deed quickly.
A NEW FEAST INSTITUTED
From that point on, that last Passover Seder became the institution of the New Covenant ordinance known as the Lord’s Supper.
The Passover had been observed in Israel since the eve of their departure from Egypt under Moses—almost fifteen hundred years before Christ. It was the oldest of the Old Covenant rituals. It preceded the giving of the law. It was instituted before any of the other Jewish feasts. It was older than the priesthood, the tabernacle, and the rest of the Mosaic sacrificial system.
This night marked the end of all those ceremonies and the coming of the reality they foreshadowed. It was the last Passover sanctioned by God. The Old Covenant, along with all the ceremonial elements that pertained to it, was about to be brought to a close with the ushering in of a glorious New Covenant that would never pass away.
The feasts and rituals and priesthood of the Mosaic economy all pointed forward to the Great High Priest who would offer one sacrifice for sins forever. That was about to become a reality. From now on, the people of God would celebrate with a new feast that looked back on Jesus’ High Priestly work in remembrance.
And so Jesus took some of the elements of the Passover meal and transformed them into the elements of the New-Covenant ordinance. It was the end of Passover for all time and the beginning of something new and greater.
Matthew states that the Passover feast was still underway. In all likelihood, they had just finished eating the lamb and were ready to move to the next phase of the Passover ritual.
Matthew 26:26 [26]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." (ESV)
(Distribute Unleavened Bread)
Jesus took some of the unleavened bread and “blessed it”—or gave thanks to God for it. Then He broke it and distributed it to the disciples saying, “Take, eat; this is My body.” The saying undoubtedly jarred the disciples. It was reminiscent of Jesus’ words in John 6, where He described Himself as the bread of life, the true manna that had come from heaven. In that earlier context, He was speaking to crowds of followers—many of them pseudo-disciples like Judas—and He told them:
John 6:53 [53]So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. (ESV)
John 6:66 [66]After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. (ESV)
• There is no support here whatsoever for the superstition that gave birth to the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation—the notion that bread and wine are supernaturally transformed into the actual flesh and blood of Christ. Some insist that because Christ said, “This is My body,” rather than “This symbolizes My body,” He was teaching the doctrine of transubstantiation. Common sense suggests otherwise.
• The disciples themselves could not have understood this as anything other than symbolism. After all, His actual body had not yet been given in sacrifice. He was physically present in that body, and they had watched Him break the unleavened bread. The notion of bread actually being transubstantiated into literal flesh would have made no sense whatsoever at that moment. The plain sense of His words was quite obviously symbolic—even though the disciples undoubtedly did not yet grasp the full meaning of the symbolism.
• He was instituting what would become a remembrance of His death (Luke 22:19), not a ritual that involves a perpetual resacrificing of His body.
After the bread was eaten, He took the cup of wine, again gave thanks, and said, Matthew 26:27-28 [27]And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, "Drink of it, all of you, [28]for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. (ESV)
• (The Greek verb for the giving of thanks is eucharistô, from which we get Eucharist, the name often given to the observance of the Lord’s Supper.)
• This would have most likely been the third of four cups of wine passed during a traditional Passover Seder. The third cup was called “the cup of blessing,” which is the same expression the apostle Paul uses to speak of the communion cup in 1 Corinthians 10:16.
Christ’s words as He passed the cup would have stunned the disciples even more than His reference to the bread as His body. There was to the Jewish mind no more repulsive and loathsome practice than the ingestion of blood of any kind. The Old Testament ceremonial law strictly forbade the eating or drinking of any blood (Leviticus 17:14). That is why to this day kosher meats are prepared with a process designed to rid them of every trace of blood. In the early Jewish church the idea of eating blood was deemed so offensive that the Jerusalem council asked Gentile believers to abstain from the practice in deference to their Jewish brethren (Acts 15:20). Paul later made it clear that no foods were to be considered unclean if received with thanksgiving (1 Timothy 4:4). But an abhorrence of eating blood was so deeply ingrained in the Jewish consciousness that even after it was no longer deemed ceremonially unclean, many considered the practice revolting.
Please turn to Genesis 15
• Christ called this “My blood of the new covenant” which is significant. Important covenants were always ratified by the shedding of sacrificial blood.
Genesis 15:9-18
Genesis 15:1-15 [15:1]After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great." [2]But Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" [3]And Abram said, "Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir." [4]And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: "This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir." [5]And he brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." [6]And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.[7]And he said to him, "I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess." [8]But he said, "O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?" [9]He said to him, "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon." [10]And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. [11]And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. [12]As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. [13]Then the LORD said to Abram, "Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. [14]But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. [15]As for yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. [16]And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete." [17]When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. [18]On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, (ESV)
• When someone entered into a covenant with his neighbor, for example, sometimes in order to solemnize the covenant a sacrificial calf would be cut in two pieces and the pieces arranged on the ground. Then the parties in the covenant would walk together between the pieces of the slaughtered animal, signifying their willingness to be cut in pieces if they violated the covenant. This kind of covenant ceremony is referred to in Jeremiah 34:18. We see it also in Genesis 15:9–18, where Jehovah put Abraham to sleep and passed between the animal parts alone, demonstrating the unconditional nature of His covenant with Abraham.
Exodus 24:5-8 [5]And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the LORD. [6]And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. [7]Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient." [8]And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, "Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words." (ESV)
• When the Mosaic covenant was instituted, Moses solemnized it by sacrificing several large oxen. He collected their blood in large basins. Then he took a branch of hyssop (a broomlike herb), dipped it into the blood, and shook it at the people, slinging sprinkles of blood over the entire congregation. On that occasion, Moses spoke words very similar to what Jesus said to the disciples in the Upper Room—“This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you” (Exodus 24:5–8).
The shedding of blood was a vital aspect of the ratification of any covenant, but in the New Covenant, the blood of Christ served a double purpose, because the theme of the New Covenant was redemption, and the shedding of blood was an essential aspect of atonement for sin.:
Hebrews 9:22 [22]Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. (ESV) (Sim. Lev. 17:11).
(Distribute Juice)
Here at the last Passover, for example, when He passed the cup and said it symbolized the blood of the New Covenant, shed for the remission of sins, the disciples would obviously have understood this as a reference to the kind of violent death suffered by a sacrificial animal. They knew that He spoke not of bleeding per se, but a violent bloodshedding that ends in death—a sacrificial death as an atoning substitute for sinners.
Christ was already establishing in their minds the theological meaning of His death. He wanted them to understand when they saw Him bleeding and dying at the hands of Roman executioners that He was not a hapless victim of wicked men, but
He was sovereignly fulfilling His role as the Lamb of God—the great Passover Lamb—who takes away sin.
And in instituting the ordinance as a remembrance of His death, He made the communion cup a perpetual reminder of this truth for all believers of all time. The point was not to impute some magical transubstantiated property to the red fluid (as Roman Catholic theology suggests), but to signify and symbolize His atoning death.
(Drink Juice)
Thus as the last Passover drew to a close, a new ordinance was instituted for the church. Again, Jesus told the disciples:
Matthew 26:29 [29]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." (ESV)
• By saying that, He not only underscored how imminent His departure was, but He also assured them of His return. By implication He also reassured them that they would all be together with Him in that glorious kingdom.
• They could not have understood the full import of His words that evening. Only after His death and resurrection did most of these truths become clear to them. They undoubtedly sensed that something momentous was occurring, but they would have been at a loss to explain it that evening.
• The meal had ended. The last Passover was complete. Matthew records that they sang a hymn—probably Psalm 118, the last hymn of the Hallel, which was the traditional way to end a Passover Seder.
• Either while still in the Upper Room, or shortly after leaving, Jesus prayed the lengthy prayer recorded in John 17—His high priestly prayer. And then they left for the Mount of Olives. Only Jesus fully understood the awful events that lay ahead.
• Before we celebrate Christ’s resurrection on Sunday, pray and meditate on the events of Christ’s death. Realize that because of our sin, He had to die, but every time we celebrate the Lord’s supper we announce His death, burial and resurrection, until He comes again.
An now, like Jesus did before He died let us leave with just a closing Hymn:
(Closing Hymn)
(Format note: Adapted from: MacArthur, J. (2000). The Murder of Jesus: A study of how Jesus died. Includes index. (33). Nashville, TN: Word Pub.)
